do you speak french?

[boredofironing]

if so, can I ask a question please?
I am learning (or rather trying to) french via duo lingo.

I keep getting confused between de la, de le, des, and du.
What would happen if I was in France and said de la, rather than des? Would people still understand? Or would they laugh at me?!!!
Thank you.

"English people are very poor at getting French vowels right, particularly in combination with 'r'. And don't get me started on the horrors of grenouilIe ( frog)."

I think that can be avoided if they are taught to pronounce basic words before they see them written.

Tell them to say "le" as in "learn" or "fern". Once the vowel e is learnt, it's not hard to pronounce grenouille = Gre - noo - y.

IME the u sound in French (lune, nu etc) is harder for Anglophones because the sound just doesn't exist in English. Again, just not seing those words written down in the beginning helps enormously - just learn them like a baby would, or as if you would hear a song and sing it back

I think one of most difficult things for English speaking people learning French is being faced with what seems like a torrent of incomprehensible sounds ie it seems impossible to sort out where one word ends and another begins. It takes a long time and lots of listening to native speakers to get over this

Actually that’s been shown to be true of ALL languages, even your first (ie native) one.

The most difficult task, in terms of sheer processing power, for the brain is to untangle where words start and end. It would seem that it is the rhythm of the language that helps the brain do this. So you need to work on really feeling the Rhythm of your Target Language.

If you think of some languages where the rhythm is very different to English, and how hard it is to follow someone, even if the vocabulary and pronunciation are correct. if you are looking for examples you might hear in the uk — I find native Hindi speakers can struggle with this quite a lot, compared to say, speakers of languages like Danish or German.

Fortunately poems and music are super helpful — this is why we teach babies nursery rhymes. So I’d also recommend listening to a lot of music, poems rhymes, kids tv in the target language.

English people are very poor at getting French vowels right, particularly in combination with 'r'. And don't get me started on the horrors of grenouilIe ( frog)

I speak good French, but I've never been able to get my mouth properly around "autour du cou".

"get my mouth properly around "autour du cou"."

The problem is probably the French 'u' sound in du, which Anglophones try to pronounce the same way as the 'oo' sound in -tour and cou.

Instead, it's to be pronounced as the German 'ü', as in für.

I know how it's pronounced. When I speak French it's not immediately obvious I'm not French - I lived there for a long time. But "autour du cou" is challenging.

For a good French "u" my French teacher in school told us to put our mouths in the shape for saying oo, but to say ee. Still works 40 years later.

The best trick for learning the u sound in ´du’ - say ´i’ like ´si’ but make your lips rounded (duckface selfie style)

Ah actualky it’s just another way of saying the same thing as @MrsFin.

"to put our mouths in the shape for saying oo, but to say ee."

Is that how 'ü' is taught in the UK? I guess it's a fair estimation, although not quite how it's pronounced or supposed to sound. I've been trying that method along with my French-born DC and they don't think it's right, either, "because the tongue is too far back when saying ee".

It does explain the strange facial contortions my English friends perform while speaking French, though

The best way I can explain it is that try saying "lute" but with the your lips slightly more forward.

Hi again.
I'm wondering if anyone can recommend an easy story book for me? I looked on Amazon, but most have at least some very poor reviews.
I'd ideally like one with an audio book version as well.
Thanks!

Try memrise. I find it better as an app than duo lingo.

French teacher here. And also language learner - I am teaching myself Spanish.

My top tips:

1. Little and often. Don't think it's not worth doing even as little the odd 10 mins here and there - it is!

2. Listening is the best way to learn, because it improves every single aspect of your French (except spelling) all at the same time - comprehension skills, vocab, accent, pronunciation, grammar - everything!

3. Having French radio on in the background to help your 'ear' for the language is fine, but unless you're already pretty good you won't understand much at all. It's too fast and often either too colloquial or too complex.

4. Rather than radio, try beginners' podcasts,YouTube videos or audiobooks. If you get Audible for example, you can slow down the playback to make it easier. I've just listened to all 7 of the Harry Potter audiobooks in Spanish!

5. For reading it doesn't have to be stories. Try looking at websites about stuff you're already interested in, but in French.

The thing that's astonished me about my Spanish learning is how much and how quickly I've learned almost entirely from listening. I was always a keen studier and grammar-fiend, but actually this way is better!

Oh and Duolingo is good as a starter, but not much more than that, I'd say.

Something I found when living in France is that French people are not at all shy to correct you if you do get it wrong. I learnt a lot through getting it wrong and being corrected!