Awareness | Tuning | Rounded Vowels | Nasal Vowels | English Tendencies | Consonants | Phonetic Notation Key
English Speaker Vowel Tendencies
As an English speaker you developed hearing and speaking patterns that clash with the French sound system. Fortunately, these tendencies are predictable and fixable once you become aware of them. With vowels, these four tendencies will account for 80% of your pronunciation errors so that's why it gets its own page.
By understanding the things you're inclined to do wrong, you can begin to make sense of these differences. Below, I categorize and explain all the major English vowel mispronunciation tendencies.
Tendency #1: "Diphthongizing" Vowels
In English, diphthongizing is a fancy word meaning we add an additional vowel at the end of words as we close our mouths. For /o/ we diphthongize it to a /u/ as in the word "hello!" (He-lo->u). For /e/ we diphthongize it to an /i/ as in the word "Hey!" (He->i).
This does NOT happen in French. These sounds are short and sweet, with no additional vowels added on the end. The audio below demonstrates.
This does NOT happen in French. These sounds are short and sweet, with no additional vowels added on the end. The audio below demonstrates.
/o/*Final word comparison is between English "bow" and French word for "beautiful".
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/e/Final word comparison is between English "say" and French word for "know"
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Tendency #2: "Rounding" Vowels
When English speakers say the vowel /u/, they tend to curl their lips in at the end which alters the sound. To avoid doing this, you will want to keep these vowels short and crisp. Imitate the audio and try to build an awareness of this lip motion.
Vowel Rounding
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Tendency #3: "R-Coloring" Vowels
As you will review next section, there is a French consonant sound known as The Uvular Consonant. In French writing, this sound is represented by the letter "r". Very often in French, this sound occurs at the end of a syllable, after the vowel (e.g. AR, IR, UR, ER, and OR).
This is called "R-coloring Vowels," and it does NOT exist in French. R-coloring vastly alters the sound of a vowel. The main reason an English speaker would pronounce it this way in the first place is because she starts with a visual concept of the spelling. To prevent you from developing this same habit, The Flow of French uses the IPA symbol /ʁ/ to represent this sound.
As a French learner, you may have a STRONG tendency as an English speaker to replace the French Uvular Consonant with the English /ɹ/ sound. Even more important, it is also one of the MOST common consonant speech sounds in the language.
You will learn more about the uvular consonant later in this course. For now, just listen to the difference between a vowel that is followed by an uvular fricative and a vowel that is "r-colored".
This is called "R-coloring Vowels," and it does NOT exist in French. R-coloring vastly alters the sound of a vowel. The main reason an English speaker would pronounce it this way in the first place is because she starts with a visual concept of the spelling. To prevent you from developing this same habit, The Flow of French uses the IPA symbol /ʁ/ to represent this sound.
As a French learner, you may have a STRONG tendency as an English speaker to replace the French Uvular Consonant with the English /ɹ/ sound. Even more important, it is also one of the MOST common consonant speech sounds in the language.
You will learn more about the uvular consonant later in this course. For now, just listen to the difference between a vowel that is followed by an uvular fricative and a vowel that is "r-colored".
Tendency #4: Replacing Nasal Vowels With Nasal Consonants
To review, you create nasal vowels when you raise your velum only slightly so that air passes through BOTH the mouth and nose. The resonation of air in the nasal cavity is what makes that unique acoustic quality that we perceive as nasal sound.
We also have nasal consonants, which you create by COMPLETELY blocking the oral passageway with either your tongue or lips, so that air passes ONLY through the nose.
For example, you make the /m/ consonant sound when you close your lips completely and let air escape through the nose. Similarly, you make the /n/ consonant when you place your tongue against the back of your gums and only let air escape through the nose.
In English, we don't often produce nasal vowels but we do produce nasal consonants like /m/ and /n/ quite often. As a result, when we hear nasalization in general, we have a tendency to perceive it as either an "n" or an "m" sound. So we have a tendency to create an /n/ or /m/ sound when trying to mimic nasal vowels.
Always remember - your tongue and lips should be completely relaxed when making a French Nasal Vowel, and your mouth should always be open.
You will have a tendency to replace a nasal vowel with a combination of an oral vowel + nasal consonant (e.g. you would turn"ɔ̃" into "ɔn." The track below demonstrates the difference.
We also have nasal consonants, which you create by COMPLETELY blocking the oral passageway with either your tongue or lips, so that air passes ONLY through the nose.
For example, you make the /m/ consonant sound when you close your lips completely and let air escape through the nose. Similarly, you make the /n/ consonant when you place your tongue against the back of your gums and only let air escape through the nose.
In English, we don't often produce nasal vowels but we do produce nasal consonants like /m/ and /n/ quite often. As a result, when we hear nasalization in general, we have a tendency to perceive it as either an "n" or an "m" sound. So we have a tendency to create an /n/ or /m/ sound when trying to mimic nasal vowels.
Always remember - your tongue and lips should be completely relaxed when making a French Nasal Vowel, and your mouth should always be open.
You will have a tendency to replace a nasal vowel with a combination of an oral vowel + nasal consonant (e.g. you would turn"ɔ̃" into "ɔn." The track below demonstrates the difference.
As I've said, these five tendencies will account for 80% of your pronunciation errors. Develop an awareness of them now and you can drop them from your speech patterns quickly. Be sure to return this page regularly as you improve your pronunciation.
Once you are comfortable with everything in this section, you may move on to the next section - Consonants
Awareness | Tuning | Rounded Vowels | Nasal Vowels | English Tendencies | Consonants | Phonetic Notation Key
