Problèmes de la prononciation anglaise à la française

5 conseils de prononciation pour tout francophone souhaitant améliorer son accent anglais

Accent Reduction for French Speakers

5 English pronunciation tips for French speakers who want to improve their English accent:

 

1) How and When to Make R

  •  In French, the R is made with the back of the tongue moving upwards. In English, the tip of the tongue curls back in the mouth without touching the top of the mouth.
  • We only pronounce a R sound when there is a vowel sound after it: Really, Tree, Carry
  • We don’t pronounce a R sound when there is no vowel sound after it: Car, Learn, Here – keep the back of the tongue down!

 

2) H

  • Make sure you pronounce H: Home, How, Head
  • Don’t add an H when one isn’t there! (H)Are you going? I (H)always want to go.
  • Sometimes H is not pronounced in a word: honour, hour, honest

3) TH

  • This is made by putting the tip of the tongue by the back of the upper front teeth.
  • Keep the tip of the tongue relaxed.
  • Compare:
  • T – tin – thin
  • D – den – then
  • F – fin – thin
  • V – van – than

4) Word Stress

  • French tends to place equal stress on syllables. This means that longer words can be unclear.
  • Make the stressed syllables bigger!
  • unfortunately, conversation, apparently, understandably

5) The /i:/ sound in sheep and the /ɪ/ sound like in ship.

  • The /i:/ is long and the /ɪ/ is short.
  • The tongue is more tense for /i:/ and more relaxed for /ɪ/.
  • Compare: seat-sit, feet-fit, beat-bit

Are you a French speaker? Do people keep asking you to repeat what you’re saying?

Sign up for a free lesson on my online course and start improving your accent today.