Pimsleur French, Accents and next step? (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

Pimsleur French, Accents and next step?
Tags: Pimsleur \| Accent \| French
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Uniceros Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4595 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: German, Latin, French	Message 1 of 3 27 February 2014 at 3:28am \| IP Logged
	I was wondering if anybody could enlighten me as to the different accents present in the Pimsleur French series. The biggest difference I notice between the usual man and the woman are their nasal "- in" as in "vin." Lacking the proper knowledge to describe with IPA, I will just say that it sounds to me like the woman's "-in" is much closer to her "-ent", so her "vin" sounds very close to, say, "vent," whereas than the man's corresponding vowels are quite a bit further apart. Also, I already downloaded the Pimsleur French Phase 4, so I have that to go onto next (and eventually 5?), but what would be a good recommendation for other courses to get into? I actually have only been doing Pimsleur simply because I wanted to work on my pronunciation and because I was tired of intense grammar study (mostly drilling verb forms) that I had been doing for a while. A quality course so that I don't have to put much effort into making my own materials for a while would be welcome. Perhaps even some authors to get into, as I'm generally relying on my Spanish to absorb as much French as possible for the time being. Young adult authors with available audio books would be amazing! 1 person has voted this message useful
Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4911 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German	Message 2 of 3 27 February 2014 at 8:15am \| IP Logged
	I have noticed the same thing about the difference between the man and the woman, which is most obvious when they say "vin". You did a good job describing it, but like you I have no idea about the difference. From the little I do know, the man pronounces it the way textbooks say we should. If you are looking for something else, it would be helpful to know what else you were using when you did intense grammar study. In any case, loads of us will be recommending Assimil French. It is a good course, with lots of written and audio material to dig into. For reading material, Le Petit Nicolas by René Goscinny is a lot of fun and not too difficult Le Petit Nicolas The audiobook is excellent. A bit fast in parts, but the reader really brings out the humour in the book. Makes me laugh out loud. Le Petit Nicolas audio 1 person has voted this message useful
Uniceros Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4595 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: German, Latin, French	Message 3 of 3 27 February 2014 at 9:20pm \| IP Logged
	I actually have a couple of Le Petit Nicolas books on my shelf already! I totally forgot about them. I have also seen computer animations on YouTube. As far as grammar, I had simply gotten an overview of the grammar looking through a couple of grammar reference books, and had gotten into the process of memorizing the Bescherelle by deriving verb forms from an extended set of "principal parts" for each of the model verbs. I figure that as far as morphology goes, verbs are the biggest hurdle to overcome, so getting a solid set of models would be key to absorbing verbs forms as I read. 1 person has voted this message useful

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Uniceros Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4595 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: German, Latin, French	Message 1 of 3 27 February 2014 at 3:28am \| IP Logged
	I was wondering if anybody could enlighten me as to the different accents present in the Pimsleur French series. The biggest difference I notice between the usual man and the woman are their nasal "- in" as in "vin." Lacking the proper knowledge to describe with IPA, I will just say that it sounds to me like the woman's "-in" is much closer to her "-ent", so her "vin" sounds very close to, say, "vent," whereas than the man's corresponding vowels are quite a bit further apart. Also, I already downloaded the Pimsleur French Phase 4, so I have that to go onto next (and eventually 5?), but what would be a good recommendation for other courses to get into? I actually have only been doing Pimsleur simply because I wanted to work on my pronunciation and because I was tired of intense grammar study (mostly drilling verb forms) that I had been doing for a while. A quality course so that I don't have to put much effort into making my own materials for a while would be welcome. Perhaps even some authors to get into, as I'm generally relying on my Spanish to absorb as much French as possible for the time being. Young adult authors with available audio books would be amazing! 1 person has voted this message useful
Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4911 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German	Message 2 of 3 27 February 2014 at 8:15am \| IP Logged
	I have noticed the same thing about the difference between the man and the woman, which is most obvious when they say "vin". You did a good job describing it, but like you I have no idea about the difference. From the little I do know, the man pronounces it the way textbooks say we should. If you are looking for something else, it would be helpful to know what else you were using when you did intense grammar study. In any case, loads of us will be recommending Assimil French. It is a good course, with lots of written and audio material to dig into. For reading material, Le Petit Nicolas by René Goscinny is a lot of fun and not too difficult Le Petit Nicolas The audiobook is excellent. A bit fast in parts, but the reader really brings out the humour in the book. Makes me laugh out loud. Le Petit Nicolas audio 1 person has voted this message useful
Uniceros Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4595 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: German, Latin, French	Message 3 of 3 27 February 2014 at 9:20pm \| IP Logged
	I actually have a couple of Le Petit Nicolas books on my shelf already! I totally forgot about them. I have also seen computer animations on YouTube. As far as grammar, I had simply gotten an overview of the grammar looking through a couple of grammar reference books, and had gotten into the process of memorizing the Bescherelle by deriving verb forms from an extended set of "principal parts" for each of the model verbs. I figure that as far as morphology goes, verbs are the biggest hurdle to overcome, so getting a solid set of models would be key to absorbing verbs forms as I read. 1 person has voted this message useful