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French Enchainment Pronunciation Apr 22, 2024

When you learn French and then get speaking, all is well until you join a conversation and the words all seem to run into each other. 

They really do, so it’s tough to work out where one word starts and another one finishes. By the time you think you’ve got it, the conversation...

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The ultimate guide to use elision in French Apr 08, 2024

Are you reading French with your mouth closed?

Are you therefore inadvertently reinforcing old ways, English pronunciation ways, of speaking French?

It’s what we do - we don’t want to look like the crazy person walking around reading out loud! 

But actually, we need to break the...

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What quitte à means Apr 01, 2024

Even if it means you might not use what I am showing you today, I am still going to share it: It’s one that we use quite frequently - 

“Even if it means” . . . 

There comes a time with our French learning that we want to add some nice phrases to our repertoire, or...

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How to use liaisons in French Mar 25, 2024

Do you know what a liaison in French is?  Nope, not a relationship with someone, but the joining of the end of one word to the beginning of the next.  

Liaisons are guilty of making it really hard to understand spoken French, and why we think they speak so fast - you just...

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9 words to practise the French nasal sound UN Mar 11, 2024

It took me years to master the nasal sounds in French - not because it’s hard, but just because I didn’t know how! 

No textbook can do it, no written instructions suffice . . . and then one day, it came.  

It came easily and I never get it wrong now! So what made...

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How to pronounce the French nasal sound AN Feb 26, 2024

I recently mentioned that it took me years to master the nasal sounds in French - not because it’s hard, but just because I just didn’t know how! So here’s your next nasal sound made easy!

No textbook can do it, no written instructions suffice . . . and then one day, it...

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sembler, ressember à, se ressembler Feb 19, 2024

Once you’ve got past the basic beginner phase, you start needing a bit more in-depth vocabulary. We know this. And trying to say “LOOKS LIKE” seems to pop up a lot at the moment, in conversations and as a question in my lessons.  

If you’ve been caught up in the...

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How do you pronounce the French nasal sound ON? Feb 12, 2024

It took me years to master the nasal sounds in French - not because it’s hard, but just because I didn’t know how! 

No textbook can do it, no written instructions suffice . . . and then one day, it came. It came easily and I never get it wrong now! 

So what made the...

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How to use par ailleurs Jan 29, 2024

Fed up of using ‘and’ and ‘but’ all the time? 

Fancy sounding a little more sophisticated and widening your vocabulary just a little bit, and in a few moments? 

It’s easily done with a mini-lesson on how to use “moreover” and synonyms so you...

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How to pronounce ation properly in French Jan 22, 2024

 

Are you inadvertently reinforcing your English way of pronouncing French? 

Are you reading to yourself in your head with your English accent? It’s ok - it’s what we do! 

So, I am making a series on really short mini-lessons to help you quickly overcome simple...

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How to pronounce é and è in French Jan 08, 2024

How often do you mix up the accented é and è either in writing or when trying to read French? 

If you’re wanting to read more fluently, make the correct sounds in your head when you’re reading, or even say then correctly when reading to other people, but it somehow...

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Haven’t seen someone for AGES in French Jan 02, 2024

So you might get by well enough in French, but there comes a time that you want to start getting a touch more accurate. 

Basically, we want to sound as intelligent as we actually are, rather than people judge us as if we were the age of our French-speaking abilities. 

Of course,...

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