Learning a new language can be difficult, but learning French specifically can be especially challenging. It’s easy to assume that if you know English or German, French will come naturally to you. However, this isn’t the case at all! In fact, there are many aspects of the language that one would not expect unless taught beforehand.
About language
You may have learned that French is related to German and English, and this is true. While it’s easy to see the similarities between English and French when they are written down, there are some big differences between the spoken versions of these languages.
French is a Romance language (related to Spanish), but it has more in common with German than with Spanish because of its vocabulary, grammar rules, etc. For example: “Je suis amoureux de vous tous les jours!” = “I love you all every day!” The word for love here is amour (pronounced: ah-more).
However, if you listen closely enough you’ll find that there are actually quite a few words that sound like those in English (this makes sense considering how close we were for so many centuries). For instance: être = be; ils / elles mangent = they eat; je sais = I know; le français est une langue magnifique = French is a beautiful language… and so on!
So while it may seem challenging at first glance – it’s really not as complicated as it seems! Stay tuned for more tips and tricks on how best to learn French.
The spelling
You would think that if you learned the spelling of a language, you could spell it correctly just by recalling it. In French, this is not the case. The reason for this is that French spelling has changed dramatically since the 18th century. It started as an intuitive system of sounds and slowly became more phonetic over time as more words were added to the language and their pronunciation was recorded in dictionaries.
At first glance, this seems like a good thing: we want our spelling to match our pronunciation! But when your native tongue doesn’t have consistent rules like French does (and English doesn’t), it may take some getting used to before you feel confident enough to spell things correctly on your own without referencing an online dictionary or asking someone else for help
Pronunciation rules
While it’s important to learn some pronunciation rules, many others are based on more of an “ear” than a set of rules. One of the simplest things you can do is listen to recordings in French and try to imitate them. This might be hard at first, but with time and practice (and maybe a little help from other tools) it will become easier. Listening to native speakers is another great way to improve your pronunciation:
- Listen carefully when people around you speak French; take note of how their mouths move as they form syllables and words
- When watching TV or listening to music in French, pay attention not only to the words but also their accents and intonation
To thrive, you need to practice with native speakers
French is a difficult language to learn, but it’s not impossible. If you want to learn French, make sure that you have fun while doing it. Just like any other language, if you want to thrive, you need to practice with someone who speaks it natively.
In this post we’ll talk about some of the best ways for beginners to find native speakers and practice their French skills in real-life situations:
- Find a classroom or online course where classes are taught by a native speaker of the language;
- Join an exchange program with other learners from around the world;
- Attend courses at a school that focuses on teaching non-native English speakers.
Find course or tutor
So you want to learn French. You’re in the right place and with the right course, this can be done very quickly and effectively.
But before we get started, I have an important message for you: don’t worry about grammar, spelling or pronunciation (or accent for that matter). Your goal should be to communicate with people in French as much as possible – not impress them by being able to conjugate every single verb correctly or distinguish between homonyms.
Don’t worry about vocabulary either; just focus on getting your point across so that people understand what it is – even if it means using more basic words than usual!
And don’t worry about fluency; communication is key here again! If you’re looking at two pages of text written by native speakers of French and can only read one line at a time… well… then keep trying until you can read it all at once without breaking a sweat!
Conclusion
The CcsTi-Larotonde team hopes this post has helped shed some light on common questions about the French language. Not every question was addressed, but the ones we brought up are some of the most common to people interested in learning this beautiful and romantic language. If you’re still curious about any particular aspect of what we discussed here, or if there were other burning questions you had that weren’t covered, let us know!