In my last post, I gave you information about the technique for speaking French:
Keep your tongue flat and emphasize vowels rather than consonants.
Now let’s look at the Fabulous French Five – the main vowels used when speaking French.
1) The French “e”
Say the English word “her”, using the French technique (tongue flat, emphasize vowel sound).
Now, drop the “h” and the “r” and say “e”.
Your jaw must be dropped as far as possible, just as you would in the dentist’s chair.
You should feel a certain tension in the jaw. Where’s your tongue??
If you do this correctly, you should have no problem saying the French “e”.
2) The French “é”
This is the happy French vowel. It is also the equivalent sound to the Canadian expression “eh” that has become so famous. “How’s it going, eh??”
This is the same sound as in the words “day”, “lay” “pay”… in English.
You should feel a slight tension at the edges of the lips and top of your cheek bones. Where’s your tongue?
Not too complicated, right?
3) The French “è”
This vowel is the exact opposite of the happy face (think of a frown with lips drooping).
This is the moping vowel.
This vowel requires a LOT OF TENSION to produce it.
This tension is located at the edges of the mouth.
The neck muscles are extremely tight.
English words that will give you this French sound are “egg” “beg” “leg” and “etch”.
My favourite is “etch”.
Say “etch”, in 2 syllables: e/tch
Now drop the “tch” and you have the French sound for “è”.
4) The French “i”
This sound is the same as the English double letter “ee”.
Example: cheek, peek, leek, etc.
The last of the Fabulous Five deserves its own post because this sound does not exist in English.
I’ll tell you all about it next time.
If you have any questions, you can email me at robert@rebelfrench.com.
Aurevoir et à la prochaine…..
Robert