French Pronunciation Rules

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French Pronunciation Rules
Kpalime, Togo West Africa
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I am up to rule number 61, and my guesstimate is I will have trouble going beyond 100-120 rules of French Pronunciation. Everyday, I listen to words on my computer, when I am listening, and I am to able to phonetically sound out the world, and I am not able to see the rules of pronunciation to the word, I stop, copy the word, dissect it and research. This slowly teaches me how to sound out the French words.

I have copied a few pages from the internet onto my computer, when I am trying to learn new rules, I go through these pages and try to find the letter, or combination of letters I need to learn. Time consuming, confusing and sometimes laughable.

http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl-begpronunciation.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2184482
http://home.unilang.org/main/wiki2/index.php/French_pronunciation

The last one is sometimes hilarious to me, for example:

Pronunciation guide for the diphthong

EU
- like the German Ö in "Hölle" (short) or the ÖH in "Höhle" (long)

Like the German WHAT? I thought I was on an English page, and they was trying their best to explain in English, now I need to study German to learn French, I would think the Germans should be able to speak French though, the French are great at being occupied by Germany… hehehe

I doubt all them letter will show up correctly on the pages, or make them way through to an email box correctly.

One Sound One Rule

I do not like to confuse rules, they will enmesh, bunch, convolute the issue, trying to explain rules to apply to many situations at one time. I just keep collecting many alphabet letters or combinations of letters than explain in English, also trying to find a word that is on my BFYNI program, that I can listen too.

One sound, one rule, when I am finished, I will just ram the rules into my head, rote memory them, and apply as needed. I do, and did the same when I learn Spanish.

French Pronunciation Rules

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Reader Submitted Comments | Deleted Comments (0)

goingeverywhereslow said on Thursday March 22nd, 2007 07:58:00 AM

Andy,So how many languages are you familiar with? I see you know a bit of Spanish and I guess Thai. I'm curious as to what has stuck after 10 years on the road and skipping around alot.Eric

Andy HoboTraveler.com said on Friday March 23rd, 2007 01:09:00 AM

I speak SpanishI am now good at French.I say words in Thai.I can move around in Brazil easy, in the Portguese language.I know about 10 words in many languages. I normally have to learn these words for me to be happy living in my own body of culture.HelloPleaseThank youExcuse me as in get the H.. out of the way - Sorry is about the universal way of saying, or however you say sorry in the language.I think to know how to say toilet is a good idea, this can be a need to know fast word.English is the language of travel in all the world, except for parts of Africa, then I need French.This means, they are learning English, here they learn French first. The Chinese learn English first.It is about, what is the first, second language you learn. Actually here, they speak Mina, then learn French, then some learn English. TV will change this.

opgie said on Monday July 28th, 2008 03:24:00 AM

i practice french by learning it by heart.i hightly suggest to practice french dictation i know a french site http://www.ladictee.fr with french dictation, it s free and very usefull to practice and improve