How To Speak Faster When Talking In French

When you start getting into the French language you will want to have conversations, but you will quickly realise that this is quite difficult as you can’t really express yourself as fluidly as you can in your native language.

Of course some of this will be down to knowledge gaps; you might not know certain words. However, you will find that the words and phrases you do know seem to just take their time coming out.

It’s not so much about how quickly you can actually say them, it’s more about how quickly it takes you to think of what to say. It’s this slight delay in processing that can make speaking frustrating and speeding this is up what I am going to look at today.

You can fix this problem and get your words to flow a little more naturally. All those long awkward pauses you are having now are not going to be permanent.    

You Need To Practice Speaking More Often, To Become Faster

Really if you want to get faster at speaking, you need to speak more. Just practising is going to be one of the most effective ways to improve your ability.

The reason you feel slow is because you are not comfortable with the process. When you speak there are two main things happening. The first is that your brain needs to find the words. The second part is that your mouth has to say the words.

Both these processes are not very natural to you in French, so it feels a little uncomfortable. Your brain has to take a few seconds to decide what the right words are. The more you practice, the quicker you will get at doing this. In your native language the process is so fast you don’t even realise its happening. You almost think and speak at the same time. With practice you can get there in French.

The same is true for actually speaking the words. Your mouth is not really used to making the sounds so you end up speaking little more slowly than you like.

Using both these processes together are stressful, but it’s what you have to do and practicing will speed it up.

Speak Out Loud

The best way to practice getting faster at speaking is to speak out loud. It’s important to do this as it gets your mouth moving and gets it comfortable with making the French sounds.

I really find some French words are just very difficult to say. If you take “Citrouille – Pumpkin”, I find this word very hard to produce. I know what it means, and when I see it or hear I know straight away what it is. I can also recall it with no problem in my mind …the problem is when I have to say it out loud. 

I have to almost say the word in my brain a few times to prepare my tongue and mouth to say it properly, then half the time it comes out strange, I just can’t quite get it right.

The only way I am going to fix this, is to say it out loud more often. The weak link is my ability to make the sounds, my understanding is fine.

You may have experienced this in English. Think about when you see a long word that you don’t know. You probably kind of say it slowly .You stumble over it, breaking it down into smaller bits to get a feel for how it should be. Once you do this a few times you can usually say it a normal speed and then you probably won’t have any issues with the word again.

This doesn’t take much effort for you in English, but the process is still the same. This means you can do the same in French, you just may need to practice a little more.

Speaking out loud is extremely beneficial and will help you speak faster in French.

Try and Translate Less

One of the things that is probably slowing you down is translating, which is very common for beginners.

You will hear something in French and work out what it means in English. You will then think of a reply in English and then work out how to say that in French. Then after all this you will speak.

Clearly this quite a long process and really explains the slowness of your speech. If you are speaking in English this process happens all at once. You hear something and it can seem like your mouth is spitting out the reply before you’ve even thought about it.

If you want to faster at French you need to allow your brain to work in a similar way, which means you need to get rid of the long winded translating process. You need to hear French and your brain needs to just reply in French.

This is of course easier said than done, but it can be done and with practice and also by just studying more you will be able to reduce the translation process and just think in French

(You can read more information on how to do this in – How To Stop Translating In your Head)

Listening More Will Help You Speak Faster

While listening may be the total opposite of speaking, it can still be very beneficial. Basically it is going to get you extremely familiar with the pattern of the speech and really help you have an understanding of what it should sound like.

Listening gives you a reference point so you can have something to aim for when you actually speak yourself.

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

Repeat What You Are Listening To

If you want to make your listening practice more useful and also have something to say when you are speaking out loud, just repeat whatever you are listening to.

You will hear this called shadowing, as you are just copying what you hear, like a shadow.

This process doesn’t really improve your French ability, as you may end up saying some things you don’t really understand, so you may hear people say this technique is a waste of time.

However, it does have its uses. It is extremely helpful for getting you to move your mouth in the correct way.

For a long time the simple question phrase “Qu’est-ce que ” was a tongue twister for me. I couldn’t quite hear the difference between “Qu’est-ce que and Est-ce que” and as for saying either …impossible.

But just listening and repeating I managed to both be able to hear the difference and say the difference. 

After saying both 100 times it became a little more comfortable. My brain could accept that it was two different things and it just slowly became easier.

Practice really is the key and practicing out loud and repeating things is a good way to make progress if you are stuck on something. It can make you become faster in areas where you are weak.

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

Try and Speak Faster

This sounds kind of stupid, but it works. Just try and say the words at a faster pace than you currently do.

By doing this you are forcing your brain and mouth to work outside of their comfort zones. If you keep doing this you are going to get your mouth used to speaking quickly, then when you go back to speaking normally it should feel more comfortable.

This is easily done when you are just saying words out loud, but it can be a little trickier to make your brain think faster. However a good way to do this is to get someone to ask you quick fire questions and you have to force yourself to answer with as little hesitation as possible. This is tough, but it will help you speed things up in general.

(You can read more about – Should You Try and Develop A French Accent If You Are Learning French?)

Give It Time

When learning French, you need to give it time. It’s okay if you have to take a second to think of your words or if they come out a bit slow and broken.

You are learning, you are new to all this and it takes time to get comfortable with everything.

As you progress and as you practice more you will see that naturally you get faster at speaking. Your responses will start to become easier and eventually automatic.

Just trust the process and you will get better. It just takes time.