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Which French words are the most difficult to pronounce?


mint
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I have been trying to think of a way to demonstrate the sound of a French U so I could explain the difference between the sounds ROU and RU...

The best I have found is this (headphones or speakers on):

Start here (click on the red letters): http://phonetique.free.fr/alpha/voy.htm (to hear the difference, click on poule on the left, then on lune on the right)

then try these (click on the ear and tick as appropriate):

http://phonetique.free.fr/phonvoy/uou/uou1.htm

http://phonetique.free.fr/phonvoy/uou/uou2.htm

http://phonetique.free.fr/phonvoy/uou/uou3a.htm

http://phonetique.free.fr/phonvoy/uou/uou3b.htm

http://phonetique.free.fr/phonvoy/uou/uou4.htm (this one should really help)

http://phonetique.free.fr/phonvoy/uou/secretair3.htm

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OH still looking for the earphones, Clair, but I can imagine the words you would have chosen.

I keep telling them it's the "rue" that's causing me the difficulty but I can't properly explain it.

Ame, fancy living in that spot..............better keep practising saying it, in case you need to spit the phrase out in an emergency!  LOL.

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[quote user="sweet 17"]Ame do they wave back, smiling?[:D][/quote]

hahah, I had to call out the pompiers once and they stopped to put out the fire (fab people! great helmets) but generally I wave without hopping at the same time and yes, people just wave back, smiling! 

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I console myself with the fact that a) I'm not in France enough for my accent / understanding to be a problem and b) that the french guys in the village find my English accent / mistakes cute and sexy (well so they say!!)..which has to be a deterrent to improvement [;-)]

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[quote user="cooperlola"]I struggle with "bouilloire" for some reason.[:-))][/quote]

That's what came to mind first for me. 

"Association" gets my tongue in a twist so I just say "Asso" now (which I have to say frequently as I am a few bureaux d'assos & the conseil municipal).

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[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

No sympathy at all.

Try asking for you ski jacket to be re-waterproofed

reimperméabilisée if you please!   That's 9 syllables.  I can't even think of an English word with 9 syllables in common uasage [:-))]

 

[/quote]

Pierre, I can only count eight syllables. Am I one syllable short or are you one syllable too many?

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I still struggle with "accueil" and "écureuil."

I have always had trouble with "pool" (the English word) - maybe I should try pronouncing it like a French chicken.

I think I have "dessous" and "dessus" under control but I don't really know what my interlocuteurs make of it.
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Elephant in the room time ...

From my observation, the greatest pronunciation problem possessed by British people in France of my aquaintance is that of the office of the local chief executive of the municipality.

This should be pronounced like the English girl's name Mary. What I hear so frequently is a French girl's name, Marie.

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prAps

p0t7tR [:)]

For English IPA, you'll need the font "alphoneticgb."

Pour français tu auras besoin de la police "aPI Tele3".

http://pointecole.free.fr/phonetik.html

http://www.tele3.univ-paris3.fr/webct/aPI_police_mode_emploi.pdf

A ce moment je n'utilise pas le logiciel Phonetik. Je n'utilise que les polices avec OpenOffice.org Writer (que je préfère à Word).

But it isn't easy because it seems (see text above) to interact poorly (especially capital letters) with the forum message software. So far I have not resolved this issue. nb link to tele3 needs a capital a in aPI for the link to work but if I now type "Shift-a" I get: A  [:@]

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Peut-être la solution est l'utilisation du logiciel Phonetik* mais, quand même, il y a un problème d'importation dans un message du forum:

pEtètR la sOlusJI è l'utilizasJI du lOjisJèl fOnétik

 (I get the same gibberish with copy/paste to my email program but copy/paste works fine with OpenOffice.org Writer and if I paste it into OOo then copy/paste to the forum - hey presto!).

pEtètR

la sOlusJI

è

l'
utilizasJI

du

lOjisJèl

fOnétik

* Pour trouver la police Alphonetic.ttf (parce que le lien du site n'est pas bon) suivez:

http://pointecole.free.fr/polices/ALPHONET.zip

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What a pity, Chess.  I myself used the international phonetic alphabet extensively when I was teaching English to Italian teenagers and they all seemed to know it and were happy with it.

5-e, I've been working on making that "r" sound from the back of the throat and sometimes it comes out better than others! Just about getting my tongue (if not my teeth) around "croissants"! LOL. 

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