How To Sound More French When Speaking

When you start speaking in French you will probably very quickly realise you sound dreadful.

You can just tell that you do not sound elegant and beautiful like a native speaker and this can really be disheartening.

However, don’t give up; the good news is that you can with some practice, start sounding more French, which is what I will go through below.   

Improve Your Pronunciation

Probably the easiest way to sound more French when you are speaking is to make sure you are pronouncing the words correctly. 

What makes you stand out as a foreigner is that you still sound like you are speaking in your own accent. Pronouncing French words as if they where English just sounds very weird.

You can try and cheat this by literally trying to speak in a French accent, this is a little ridiculous and maybe something you want to do in private, but it can help you initially.

If you put on an accent you are going to sound a little more French as you initially learn how to sound out the words and pronounce them correctly.

Hopefully as you then start speaking in French in your normal voice, you will still be able to still pronounce the words properly, which should in turn help you sound more French.

Focus On The Vowels And Consonants

A good way to sound more French is to spend time actually learning how French people make the sounds required to speak French.

If you listen to French vowels and consonants they are slightly different to English. This makes sense as a number of French letters have accents. This means you can basically say the same letter a few different ways and you need to be able to make all of these sounds.

The same is true for consonants like R, there are two ways to use this in French and both are slightly different than English.

This side of language learning is really boring to me, but, it’s important. If you can get these sounds right you will end up pronouncing the words in a more French sounding way. It is worth the battle trying to conquer this.

Silent Letters

Another huge area in speaking French is the silent letters. If you do a lot of reading (which you should) it’s a very good idea to learn what should be silent.

Personally I still struggle with the silent H at the start of French words. It so natural for my brain to try and say them, which of course makes me sounds anything but French.

If you can master the silent letters you will be one step closer to sounding more French when you speak.

Learn The Filler Noises

If you listen to an English speaker and French speaker you will notice that when they are not saying words, they still sound very different.  We tend to say a lot of Umm and Ahhs in English when we are filling gaps in our speech.

These noises just give us a little second to think and the French do this too, but their noises sound different, they sound very French actually.

Sounds like Ehhh, Hein, Bof and many more are all good examples. If you can get into the habit of making these sounds when you are searching for words you will immediately sound more French.

Who would have thought that random noises would make you sound more French, but it really works!  

(You can read more about – How To Improve You French Speaking Skills)

Listen More

Listening to more French is a very powerful way to make yourself sound more French, if you are listening to natives you are going to hear exactly how things are meant to be pronounced and you are basically giving yourself the blueprint for what you want to achieve.

Of course it’s not as easy as just listening, but you do need to do this so you have something to reference against.

(You can read more about – How To Improve You French Listening Skills)

Copy What You Hear

You should copy what you hear, which means listen to something and then say it yourself. This is often called shadowing as you are just repeating exactly what you are hearing.

This is always going to more productive if you understand the meaning of what you are copying, but either way it will allow you to focus on the pronunciation more of the words than anything, which is going to help you sound more French.

You should be matching the tone and pattern of the native speaker, so what you’re copying should sound pretty natural.  

(You can read more about – Is Shadowing Useful For Language Learning?)

Record Yourself Speaking

If you really want to see yourself improve you need to get really out of your comfort zone and the best way to do is to record yourself speaking.

I know this sucks, but it works.

You need to hear what you sound like and if you do this in combination with shadowing you are going to be able to compare yourself with the native speakers audio.

I know its cringe to listen to your own voice but you have to ignore that and just be honest with yourself about how your French sounds. You will very quickly get a gauge of where you are at in the language and what you need to improve. 

If you think it’s really that bad you can delete it right after, but if you are brave, save it and listen back in a few months time and see how much you have improved.

Speak More

It makes a lot of sense that if you want to sound better in French, then you should speak more French.

A lot of your issue will be that your mouth is just not use to saying the words in a French sounding way. While French has a lot of similarities to English, it also is quite different and you need to literally train your tongue and mouth to make more French sounding speech.

(You can read more – How To Speak Faster When Talking In French)

Speak To Natives

Speaking alone can be helpful, but only to a point. Really you need to speak with someone else so they can check your pronunciation and correct any mistakes.

This is of course going to be much more stressful, but the end result will be much better. You really have to push yourself out of your comfort zone. This is where you will make progress.

The native speaker will want you to get better and will try and help you, so there is no need to feel embarrassed about talking to them and not being perfect.  The more you do this, the quicker you will start sounding more French.

Talk About French Things

You can also sound more French through the words you say. This of course has no effect on your accent, but being slightly more involved in French culture can just help you feel and sound more French.

If you are learning the language you are probably doing this anyway. Just keep learning about the culture and improve your knowledge about life in France.

Even simple things like telling people you are having a goûter à 16h will instantly make you sound like you are more French.

You are making the language and the culture apart of your life, which is always going to end up with you looking like someone who is French, not just someone who can speak French.

(You can read more about – Making Your Language Apart Of Your Daily Life)

It Takes Times

Just like learning the language, sounding more French will take time.

Just think back to your first day and the first time you tried to say Bonjour, it probably sounded awful compared to how you sound compared to now.

Just keep practicing and working on your overall French. As you improve and naturally get better at the language you will start to naturally sound more French.

Just keep going. It takes time by you will get there.    

(You can read more about – Should You Try and Develop A French Accent)