Posts Tagged ‘french alphabet’
French Language Resources – Making Learning French Easier
February 11th, 2010 | 
Author: I hate to be the one to tell you this, but learning to speak French isn’t easy – although there are certainly things you can do that can make it easier. If you’re an English speaker (rather than Italian or Spanish for example) you’re starting from a particularly difficult position. Everything about French grammar and phrase construction is different. So let’s look at some French language resources that can make your life a good bit easier.
For a start you’ve got the internet and any number of websites where you can start to learn French for free. A quick browse through a search engine will turn up lots of places offering bits and pieces of free French lessons. OK, it’s probably not going to make you fluent, but you’ll certainly find a few sound clips and French MP3s so you can listen to things like the French alphabet and extracts from the language. Just listening and repeating is a convenient way to start to get the hang of how it feels to speak French yourself.
Some of the better online French language resources also offer short animated films of situations that you might come across on a trip to France. They’re a great introduction to learning about what happens and how to use the language in real French life and they’re entertaining too which always makes learning French easier.
Unfortunately to get any level of fluency you’re almost certainly going to have to pay eventually. Once you put your hand in your pocket a whole new world of resources opens up.
There are French language lessons (although attending regular classes can be a bit awkward if you have time pressures) or one-to-one tutoring (which might be a bit expensive). Either one is still an excellent approach though if you have a native French speaker as a tutor.
Then there are plenty of books of course, and I’m a great fan of a good read, but these days with various DVD and software packages that’s a less popular option.
It’s the software packages I’ve just mentioned which are probably the best French language resource available at the moment and their capabilities are in some cases close to a complete wish list.
You can get modern French learning systems that have interactive lessons with French MP3 sound clips (which you can copy so you’ve got lessons away from your PC), interactive flash cards for learning French verbs, short entertaining video sequences, thousands of pages of transcripts you can read and all with real French people speaking. On top of that you can get some with short try-before-you-buy courses so you can satisfy yourself before parting with your cash and even money-back guarantees.
And all this can be found for about the same as you would pay for one series of classroom lessons. For me, that’s the sort of French language resource I would be looking to take advantage of. It may not be easy to learn a foreign languages but programs like these make it as easy as is possible and fun too. I wish they had been available when I started to learn French!
Author: Dennis Cordy
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cellphone news
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Learn to Speak French Lessons – Pronunciation of the French Alphabet
If you want to learn to speak French, the best place to start is the pronunciation of the French alphabet. While the letters appear much as they do in English, the pronunciations can vary greatly in some cases. These are also a number of symbols and accent marks that are utilized in the French language. The following is the English alphabet with the French spelling and pronunciation of each letter:
Letter Spelling Pronunciation A a "ah" B be "bay" C ce "say" D de "day" E e "uk" F effe "ef" G ge "ghay" H ache "ash" I i "ee" J ji "jhay" K ka "ka" L elle "el" M emme "em" N enne "en" O o "op" P pe "pay" Q cu "koo" R erre "ehr" S esse "es" T te "tay" U u "oo" V ve "vay" W double ve "doo-blaw-vay" X ixe "ex" Y i grec "ee-grek" Z zede "zed"
French vowels are pronounced according to any accent marks or the lack of them. The following is a guide to pronouncing vowels when you are trying to learn to speak French:
Letter, General Spelling, Phonetic Spelling, French Examples: i i, y ee vie, midi, lit y u ee rounded rue, tissu e , et, final er and ez ay ble, pied,cahier o eu ay rounded bleu, queue oe u, eu eh rounded fleur, sur a a, a, a ah chat, salade, papa u ou ah longer chateau, grace o o, o oh escargot, eau oe~ un uhn parfum, lundi o~ on, om ohm front, brun
There are also a number of consonant combinations that you will need to know when you learn to speak French. Below are a few examples of these:
Letters Pronunciations French Examples c and a, o, u k car, caillou c and e, i, y; or s macon, ceinture ch sh architecte, archives ex and a consonant eks expression, exceptional ex and a vowel egz examen g and a, o, u g ganglion, gomme g and e, i, y zh gingembre, genou h silent herbe, hazard j zh jeune, jambe qu, final q k que, quoi th t theme, thym ti and vowel (except e) see nation, democratie a vowel and a s and a vowel z falaise, rose x and a vowel z beaux arts, six ans final x s (only these words) six, dix
There are also a few exceptions to the rules of pronunciation that you will need to know when you learn to speak French. For example, in words that begin with in-, the nasal sound is only used if these letters are followed by a consonant. If they are not, then the correct pronunciation would be “een.” Also, in a word ending with a consonant, it is usually not pronounced, unless that consonant is “a,” “c,” “r,” “f,” or “l.” If a word ends in an “r” and is a verb, it also remains silent. There are a number of other pronunciation rules that you will become more familiar with as you learn to speak French.
Learning French can be a challenging and rewarding experience. Knowing the French alphabet as well as the pronunciation of it can go a long way in helping you to accomplish this goal.
Author: Francis Belcher
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times
