How to Learn French - Consonant craving

Bonjour tout le monde*!

I did mention in a previous post that I was working on tidying up the pronunciation table that I’ve created for this series and I am happy to report I’ve made some headway.

I don’t want to overwhelm you, so I’ve just added the consonants at the moment. Most of them are similar to English so there’s no need to explain them in detail - they’re fairly self-explanatory. There are a couple of things to note, though.

You’ll see I’ve added the symbols for the International Phonetic Alphabet in the column of the far left. I know many of you have an aversion to this system so if that’s you, please feel free to ignore them. If you’re interested in why they can be helpful, though, there’s a great video here that explains how they work.

Please don’t feel you need to learn them or make a study of them. I believe it’s enough to know of their existence and that they’re available to you when you want to be très précis(e)* about the pronunciation of a word.

I hope you’ll find the consonant table reassuring. I know I did as I was making it. I really like that there are several ways of writing the same sound (take a look at the sound /k/ for example). To me it makes the language a little more manageable to know that all of the words I’ve given as examples contain the very same sound.

Also worth noting is that the pronunciation of the word “second”, which has the same meaning as English. You may be surprised to learn it contains a /ɡ/ sound as in ‘gare’ instead of a /k/ sound as in ‘café’. Apart from the derivations of the words second (seconde, secondaire, secondairement, seconder, secondement*) there is only one other work that contains this in the French language and it’s the word “zinc”. Intéressant, non*?

*Hello everybody | *very precise | *second (adj.) | *second (noun) | *secondary | *secondarily | *to second | *secondment | *Interesting, isn’t it?

Halloween

While Halloween isn’t as popular in France as it is in America, or even Australia, younger generations are increasingly donning *les déguisements and demanding "*des bonbons ou un sort!" (lollies or a spell!)

If you plan to celebrate the spooky season, here is some handy French ‘alloween vocab to keep under your *chapeau de sorcière

* costumes | *trick or treat | *witch’s hat

Avoir le melon

You may have heard the expression *avoir la pêche (to have the peach) used to describe feeling great and full of energy – in English, we might say ‘full of beans.’ But how about avoir le melon?

Not quite as complimentary, ‘having the melon’ is an informal French expression meaning to have a big head (*comme une pastèque!), an inflated ego or be full of yourself.

* like a watermelon

A very French marathon

If you’ve always toyed with the idea of a marathon, but the heavy training and abstemiousness required put you off, we’ve found the solution. The Marathon des Châteaux du Médoc is a themed race through vineyards in the Médoc region of Bordeaux featuring pit stops for wine tastings and oysters, plus a thoroughly festive atmosphere.  

Where do we *s'inscrire?

* sign up

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Un accent intéressant…

At Lingua Franca, we encourage our students to have the best French accent possible. But getting the words out is far more important, and rest assured, the French find it just as sexy when we speak in our slightly odd accents as we do when “zhey speak like zeez”!

However, we’re not too sure how they’d find *ce mec.

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*this guy

Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre

October isn’t all about ghosts and ghouls, with Paris hosting a grown-up party in honour of the humble grape. Taking place over five days, the annual *Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre celebrates the grape harvest, with the streets around Sacré-Cœur awash with wine, food, music, dancing and a colourful parade.

At the heart of the action is Clos Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement’s tiny working vineyard that was replanted in 1934 – the first year of the festival – to preserve the last patch of vines on the hill.

This year, the festival runs from 7–11 October
Read more about it here.

* Montmartre Wine Harvest Festival

Recette: Moules marinières

If the arrival of warmer weather has you dreaming of the seaside, why not recreate the mood at home with the classic French coastal dish of moules marinières. Light, briny, and buttery, ‘sailor-style mussels’ are best paired with a crusty baguette. Or opt for *des frites if moules-frites is more your style.

*Bon appétit! Merci à Ma spatula pour la recette.

* some fries | *Enjoy! Thank you to Ma spatule for the recipe

10 choses essentielles pour la rentrée

In France, this month marks la rentrée – the return to school, work and regular trade after a long, languid summer. The French school year starts in early September, rather than January, so it’s a time many parents will be rushing around to get their kids ready.  

Top of their to-dos? Gathering all *les choses essentielles pour la rentrée scholaire.

* back-to-school essentials

Grape picking in France

If you’re looking for a unique Euro travel experience from late summer through spring, taking part in vendange (the harvest) is a time-honoured tradition for Aussies. You can dip your toe in as a vendangeur d’un jour (harvester for a day) or go all in as a *vendangeur (ou vendanguese) – sleeping on-site at a French winery and picking *les raisins alongside local crews in exchange for meals and pay.

This Guardian article gives an honest overview of the realities of the work (repetitive and demanding, but also rewarding and convivial), while the Wine Travel Guides website has all the details on how, when and where to volunteer.

* picker | *grapes

Cocorico!

Any guesses which animal makes the sound “*cocorico”, or the French word for bark? This little video is your cheat sheet for animal noises, *à la française.

* Cock-a-doodle-doo! | French style

Le vieillissement: Juliette Binoche

Back in June, we met Jacline – a feisty French centenarian with plenty of pep in her step and some strong opinions on ageing. This month, we revisit the subject of *le vieillissement with award-winning actress and icon, Juliette Binoche.

* ageing

Pétanque espadrilles go viral

If you love boules but hate bending, French espadrille brand Payote has gone viral with a genius pair of espadrilles US sports fans are snapping up in droves. Starting out as a joke dreamed up when founder Olivier Gelly was playing with friends, the pétanque espadrilles have an inbuilt magnet for collecting *tes boules.

With a social media video of the prototype garnering over 40 million views, tens of thousands of orders flowed in before Gelly and his team had figured out how to make them.

The brand is also known for its fun collabs – like this one with La Vache qui rit – as well as classic styles in leopard print or chic stripes. There’s even a pair with a bottle opener for those hot summer days.

* your balls

Le changement climatique

With the devastating European heatwave hitting France, *le changement climatique might be on your mind. Here is some climate and weather-related vocab to have up your sleeve. 

* climate change

How to Learn French - It's all Greek to me...

You may have noticed the pronunciation table was becoming a little bit hors de contrôle* recently. I had, too, so I spent most of my writing time designing a new, coherent layout with all 37 of the French sounds included. I hope to be able to show it to you in the coming months.

I was in two minds as to whether to include all of the consonnes*, as many of them are so similar to English, but in the interests of completeness (or the disease of le perfectionnisme*), I decided to put them all in.

It was in doing this that I learned something brand new (for me) and thought I’d share it with you, too. This is not a major component of French pronunciation (au contraire*) but it is really interesting.

In French, the combination of ch is almost always pronounced as a ‘sh’ sound. One very famous example springs immediately to mind, but there are others.

champagne
chambre
chercher
marché
chocolat

However, there’s un petit groupe* of words where a ‘k’ sound is pronounced instead. Most often, they are words of Greek origin, so if your word belongs to the realm of medicine, science, music, religion or ancient history, fais attention* !

Here are a few of the more common ones to get you started.

chœur (choir)
chorale (chorale group)
chronologie
chrome
chaos
orchestre
écho
psychologie
Christ
choléra
technique
charisme


C’est intéressant, non* ?

*out of control | *consonants | *perfectionism | *on the contrary | *a little group | *be careful | *It’s interesting, isn’t it?

Sneak Peek into le Nid: Nos bons petits plats

When it’s cold outside, you’ve had a bad day, or the world is feeling bleak, you probably reach for your favourite comfort food (or ‘bon petit plat’). So do *vos profs – but ours are French of course (and probably contain *beaucoup de beurre).

Quel est ton bon petit plat préféré?

Katrina - Baguette grillée avec du bon beurre
Toasted baguette with good butter

Emeline - Gratin dauphinois
Potato gratin with cream (no cheese!)

Marion – Croziflette
Cheesy pasta bake with bacon

Sarah - La raclette
Melted raclette cheese

Angéline - La poule à la crème
Chicken in cream sauce

* your teachers | *lots of butter

Paris’s snail mail café

If you miss the good old days of snail mail, bookmark Café Pli in Paris. Located in the 11th (with a second brand in the 10th) the concept café allows you to pick your favourite stationery and write your future self *une lettre that you can choose to receive in 1, 5 or 20 years.

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Une publication partagée par Caitlin Bea (@caitlinbea)

Café Pli Instagram

* a letter

4 French podcasts to try

Do you listen to podcasts *en conduisant, en marchant ou en préparent le dîner? We do – and we’ve recently introduced a few more *chouchous to their joys 

Whether you love a good yarn, are a newshound, or are simply looking for a new way to level up your French learning, here are four LF-approved podcasts to try. *Bonne écoute!

Duolingo French Podcast

Fans of the popular Duolingo language app will love this podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The easy-to-follow episodes feature a wide range of compelling real-life stories told in clear French, interspersed with English where explanation is needed. The podcast has since wrapped, but it’s well worth working your way through the back catalogue.  

Listen here

Little Talk in Slow French

Hosted by French actress Nagisa Morimoto, this intermediate-friendly podcast is a pleasure to listen to. Covering everything from the French revolution to topics such as how to stay optimistic in *ce monde fou and Nagisa’s *meilleurs conseils pour apprendre des langues, the slow(ish) pace and transcripts help with comprehension.  

Listen here

News in Slow French

Like it says on the tin, this weekly podcast delivers news and current affairs in (truly) slow French. Practice your listening skills while keeping abreast of *l'actualité in under 10 minutes. There are episodes for intermediate and advanced learners.

Listen here (intermediate) and here (advanced)

French Through Stories

If the last thing you need in your life is more news, this podcast provides a welcome respite. Listen to well-paced short stories (or passages) in French, then see how much you understood as the host translates them into English. For beginner (A2) to intermediate (B1) learners.

Listen here 

* while driving, walking or making dinner | *teacher’s pets | *Happy listening! | *this crazy world | *best advice for learning languages |*the news

Swoon: Orne – the ‘Cotswolds of France’

All copyright details and full article.

For an authentic rural French experience away from the madding crowd, place Orne at the top of your travel to-dos. Just two and a half hours from Paris, the charming Normanby department is considered the ‘Cotswolds of France’.

Expect a feast for the eyes and belly with charming villages, picturesque countryside and the local cider, Calvados and apple products to savour as you enjoy the slower pace. It’s also the birthplace of Camembert – so don’t visit without stocking up on a few wheels to sustain you on your travels.

How to Learn French - Name your poison.

In the last post, we looked at the ‘z’ sound in French, created by (bien sûr*) a ‘z’ as in zéro but also when an ‘s’ is flanked by two vowels, as in maison*.

As it turns out, that is the exception for the letter ‘s’ in French. The default pronunciation is a hissing sound, as in the word sept (and interestingly, the word seven in English). So you can rest safe in the knowledge that (almost) every time you see an ‘s’ in French, you’ll be ssssounding like a ssssssnake.

Here are a few examples of where you may find them:

At the start of a word. Any ‘s’ beginning a word (before a vowel) hisses.

For example:

salut
soleil
septembre
sac
savoir

When doubled between vowels. The doubling of the letter is there specifically to keep the sound as a hissing ‘s’ but more on that later.

For example:

poisson
dessert
assez
classe
poussin
tasse

When it sits next to a consonant. If an ‘s’ butts up against another consonant (on either side) it hisses.

For example:

stade (before)
espoir (before)
veste (before)
reste (before)
danse (after)
casque (before)
penser (after)
absolu (after)

As you know, a general rule in French is that if a word ends in a consonant, it is mute, and that includes the letter ‘s’. But where would be the fun if there weren’t the odd exception ou deux*?

When a final ‘s’ is actually pronounced.

Watch out for these ones:

fils
bus
ours
mars
tennis
sens

Where things can become tricky (or funny…okay, embarrassing) is if you accidentally make a buzzing sounds (like a ‘z’) instead of a hissing ‘s’ sound. In some instances it can actually completely change the meaning of the word. If you do make the mistake, fear not, it’ll likely just elicit a small smile from a native French speaker. However, there is one instance where it may convey something more illicit, so if you’re keen to avoid that one, read on…

poisson (fish) vs poison (poison)
coussin (cushion) vs cousin (cousin)
dessert (dessert) vs désert (desert)

Imagine the following:

”Ce poison est délicieux !”
(This poison is delicious!)

”Tu peux me passer un cousin ?”
(Can you pass me a cousin?)

”Pas de désert pour moi !”
(No desert for me!)

There are many more like this, but unless you want to find yourself in a fairly awkward position, I’d recommend you pay special attention to the following pair:

baisser (to lower) vs baiser (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge)

(By the way, apparently the etymology of this very expressive word does not include the acronym above, but it’s fun, isn’t it? I believe these made-up-after-the-fact acronyms are called ‘backronyms’ in grammatical terms).

I won’t disturb you with an example phrase for this one, but there is some mitigating information. Baiser as a verb does indeed mean to engage in sexual relations, but as a noun, un baiser simply means a kiss, so you never know, you may one day find yourself accidentally-on-purpose making this petite erreur* !

Bon courage, les Chouchous* !

*of course | *house | *or two | *little mistake | *Good luck, Teacher’s Pets

French gym vocab

The French are not exactly known as gym junkies – favouring a more incidental, low-intensity approach to fitness. However, recent research shows attitudes – and actions – are starting to catch up with the rest of the Western world.

So, if you do find yourself in a *salle de sport, here are some handy terms to keep up your moisture-wicking sleeve.

*Bon entraînement!

* Gym | *Have a good workout!