Why Is French Pronunciation So Difficult For Language Learners?

French pronunciation is actually no harder than any other language, however, if you have been studying French, especially as an English speaker, you have probably noticed that it can seem very hard to get certain points right.

It’s pretty normally for a beginner in the French language to have terrible pronunciation, but this isn’t entirely all your fault.

There are some genuine reasons as to why you are finding it so difficult, which I will go through below, which will also hopefully help you correct your issues.

The Position Of Your Tongue

You probably do not even realise this is a thing, but the position of your tongue in your month can really affect how you speak. French peoples tongues are exactly the same, they just use the muscle in a slightly different way which allows them pronounce their words differently.

They have been doing this since they were babies so it’s very natural for them and exactly why it’s very difficult for us. A lot of the positions of the mouth, lips and tongue result in French being more nasally which we are really not used to.

This is also why French people sound a little off when they speak English. They are not used to moving their tongues in the way that we do.

The good thing is that the tongue is just a muscle, so you can train it move slightly differently. It will take effort but you can focus on this and start pronouncing words in a more French sounding way. 

French Vowels Are Different

A large part of language is made from vowels, and the French vowels are pronounced a little differently than English.

This of course has a lot to do with the tongue position that I just talked about, but the vowels are really something that trips learners up.

Take the time to listen to the vowels and slowly sound them out. They are going to be unnatural at the start, but if you can work on this, you will see an improvement.

The French R

The French consonants can also cause us difficulty when trying to pronounce French words, and the R sound is probably the hardest.

The French have two variations and they pretty difficult to get right. Luckily it is not as tricky as a Spanish rolling R, but it is still a little tricky.

Again this all comes down to being able to move your tongue and mouth in a certain way. Just keep practicing it and you will get it eventually.

There Are Silent Letters Everywhere

It will not take you long to notice that French reading and speaking don’t match up. There are a whole lot of silent letters in French and if you are not aware of this, it can really mess up your pronunciation.

Personally I find the Silent H at the start of words is very unnatural. My brain just blurts it out and then my French pronunciation of that word is ruined. The same can be said about the endless –S at the end of words or the curious verb endings that look nothing like how they sound.

This is also why it’s really important that read and listen at the same time in the beginning. If you just do one or the other you can end up very confused later on down the line as there can be such a big disconnect between these two areas and this can totally destroy you pronunciation ability.

The Letters Have Accents

One of the biggest differences between French and English is that some French letters have accents. These may look like little fun European quirks, but they are actually very important and tell the reader how to pronounce the word.

If you look at the letter E in French there are quite a few versions… è é ê ë and e …Each one of these can change the way you say a word and this can make it very difficult for us to get things right.

The French learn about all the different accents when they are young so they are just second nature to them, where as it’s a complete midfield for us and it can really mess our pronunciation up.

I guess it would be like when we see TH in English, we know it’s more an -F sound. We naturally just know how to pronounce it correctly; this will be the same for the French and the different accents on letters.  

This is again something we can practice and get better at, but it will take a lot of effort, which I feel is very worth it.

French and English Words Can Be Too Similar

The beauty of learning French is that it has a lot of similarities to English. There are vast parts of the language that overlap and this can really make our progress so much faster.

Words can literally be identical or extremely similar, meaning we already understand them.

However, this gift is also very much a curse. While the words have the same meaning and often the same spelling …but they are rarely pronounced the same way and this can really trip us up.

It’s just too easy for our brain to see a word and assume it’s the English version. I am forever pronouncing random words in the middle of a sentence in an English style, especially when reading something.

Just take the word Surprise. It is the same in both languages, but it certainly does not sound the same and you will have to really fight with yourself to make sure you pronounce these words correctly and not revert to English.  

You Have Not Had Enough Exposure To French

The biggest reason that you are struggling with your French pronunciation is that you just haven’t had enough exposure.

We are always going to be more comfortable in English, it’s automatic to us and requires no effort. French is still very new in our brains and it takes us more effort to listen to it and speak it.

This is always going to mean we are going to struggle with it compared to English. The only way around this is expose ourselves to more French. We need to be listening and talking a lot in French. This is going to make our brains used to the sounds.

The more we practice the more comfortable we will become and the more we will pronounce things properly.

Just look at babies learning English. They have terrible pronunciation as it’s all new to them. They just speak and listen and by the time they are a few years old they have usually mastered the language, including the pronunciation.

We can do the exact same, it just requires practice. French can be difficult, but we can master it.

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