Tips for French accents:

• Rhythm and prosodie

• Division of syllables                     CV CV CV CV

  • I ate an egg at eight.

•             I yé ta ne ga tét

• Ellision of sounds between words

  • I was looking at him.

• Each syllable has equal weight, unlike English words that tend to keep certain stresses. The last syllable of a phrase or sentence will have more weight and be more drawn out.

  • Fire ze missiiiiiiles!

• Consonants

• In French, final consonants are usually not pronounced.

• RRRRRRRR!

• "H" at the beginning of a word is usually silent

  • I'm very appy to see you.

• There's no TH sound in French. CH (tch) sounds are rare, and come from foreign words.

  • often interpreted as "Z" sounds when speaking English

• You know what zey say. 

• Vowel sounds

• Overall, much more clear and concise that American vowels. English has lots of dipthongs

• hey                       to                   see                tray

• hé                         tu                   si                   vrai

• "i" sounds

• this  thees                 fish  feesh

• A sounds

• cat  quatre               "caht"

• nasal vowels: If you're doing in right, you should feel buzzing in your nose!

• Mon amour                   Bonsoir                         poisson
  Non                               nom                                arrondissement
  avons                            bon                                 embrassons
  

• Comment                     arrondissement             enfants autant
  parents                         maintenant                    grand-parent
  

• matin                            Gobelins                         Viens
  Vincent                         bain