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French Pronunciation Help

 
 
Reply Sun 14 Dec, 2003 09:08 pm
Hi.

I am a student in high school who has been learning French for the past 3 1/2 years. However, I am still having a problem with pronunciation. Right now, I am preparing for a presentation that was assigned to the class. Our assignment was to choose a French-speaking country and plan a trip there. I choose Haiti.

While preparing and practicing for this presentation, I have come across a handful of words that I have not a clue how to pronounce. Can anyone please help me? If you do them phonetically, that would be very helpful(i.e. le boutique = boo teek). The list below gives the words, in French, along with how I wanted to use them.

Thanks for any help.
Happy Holidays. Very Happy
Robert

les légumes = vegistables
les fruits = fruits
l'Hausse = hiking
L'équitation = horse-back riding
l'observation d'oiseau = bird watching
les plages = beaches
Sans Souci Palais = name of a fort
la Citadelle = name of a fort
des restaurants = restaurants
Cathédrale = cathedral
les jouets = toys
les articles religieux = religious artifacts
le vue = the view
Haïtien
offe = the verb "offre" meaning to offer conjugated in third person singular\
D'Autres Activités = other activities
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 5,664 • Replies: 18
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cavfancier
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Dec, 2003 09:34 pm
Lay laygoom
Lay frooee
can't help you on hiking..., but it's probably 'los' or 'louse'
Laykeetasyon, with a soft 'n' at the end. Tough one to write out phoenetically.
Lay plaj
Sans is hard too. However, souci is soosee, then pahlay.

Hope more folks can help out.
0 Replies
 
littlek
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Dec, 2003 11:11 pm
I'll take a stab at some of the others..... it's been some time since I took french.

la Citadelle = la seetadel
des restaurants = dey reystohront
Cathédrale = kataydrahl
les jouets = lay joo-ey
les articles religieux = lays arteekluh the end of religieux is hard to explain
le vue = luh voo
Haïtien = Ha-ee-tch-ee-en
offe = OH-f
D'Autres Activités = doh-truhsacteeveetay
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Ceili
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2003 12:27 am
l'observation d'oiseau
LOB-ser-vey-syon(nasel sound) dwa-zo
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Robert2513
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2003 06:44 pm
Thanks everyone for the help. I really appreciate it. It has really helped me.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.

Robert
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2003 07:31 pm
By the way, most Frenchmen would passer le weekend on faisant du hiking . . . although, of course, your instructors very life depends on denying the existance of franglais . . .
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Robert2513
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2003 07:41 pm
Ok. Got two more for ya.

Haïti = Haiti
Pétion-ville = City in Haiti

Thanks.
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2003 07:47 pm
I'd feel terrible if my silly phonetic translations gave you a bad mark on your oral presentation. I found you this website that has many words sounded out. In French, as in most languages, things spelled the same also sound the same. So, even though this website doesn't have the word "religieux" it might have another word with the same ending.

http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-audiodico-a.htm
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2003 07:54 pm
For example courageux has a similar ending to it....
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2003 10:24 pm
(H)ah-ee-tee

and

Pay shee-on (nasal "on") veel
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Robert2513
 
  1  
Reply Wed 17 Dec, 2003 11:11 pm
Again, thanks for all the help. I found out today that I will not be able to present my report until after my christmas vaction, which starts Dec.20 though Jan. 4 (16 days, oh boy) !!! Oh well, all I can say is the more time to practice, the better I will be. LOL.

I'll post back later then, on how I did, in case anyone is curious.

Thanks again, and may you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Robert
0 Replies
 
Robert2513
 
  1  
Reply Thu 18 Dec, 2003 07:15 am
I feel silly for this but while practicing, I found one more word I need some help with.

Caribéen = Caribbean

Thanks.
0 Replies
 
Wy
 
  1  
Reply Thu 18 Dec, 2003 08:39 pm
Ka-(French R)ee-bay-yahn (nasal hn, no real N sound)...
Good luck and Happy Holiday. It will be interesting to see how it goes for you!
0 Replies
 
Robert2513
 
  1  
Reply Sun 25 Jan, 2004 08:50 pm
Hey, thought I might update this forum with how my presentation went. As far as speaking, I think I did pretty well, but I did rush it a bit. On the overall project, I believe I recieved an A or A-.

Thanks again for all the help!!!
0 Replies
 
Wy
 
  1  
Reply Mon 26 Jan, 2004 05:23 pm
Congratulations!

It's hard not to speak to fast when you give presentations... it's good you recognize it, next time you c a n t r y t o s p e a k m o r e s l o w l y . . .
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Rayvatrap
 
  1  
Reply Fri 11 Jun, 2004 01:40 pm
Robert - here is a nice web where you might get what you are looking for:

http://www.jump-gate.com/languages/french/french2.html
0 Replies
 
Robert2513
 
  1  
Reply Sat 12 Jun, 2004 08:28 am
Thanks for the website. I will be taking French next year in colege and I'm sure I'll be using that site. Laughing
0 Replies
 
Rayvatrap
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jun, 2004 10:07 am
You're welcome anytime!
I hope is really helpful for you. :wink:
0 Replies
 
mezzie
 
  1  
Reply Wed 16 Jun, 2004 08:15 pm
One small strategy that might help:

If the vowel in French is spelled "ou", as in "les j<b>ou</b>ets", then it is pronounced roughly like English "oo" as in "toot", but with your lips very rounded.

If it's spelled "u" as in "les lég<b>u</b>mes", then it's actually pronounced like the English vowel "ee" as in "feet", but with your lips very rounded. In other words, it's like trying to say "ee" with the mouth shaped for "oo".
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