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Getting the French "r" right | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Heather McNamar Senior Member United States Joined 4783 days ago 77 posts - 109 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 1 of 13 16 March 2012 at 9:50pm | IP Logged |
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So I've been studying French actively for a couple of weeks now, and while I enjoy it, there is one little
issue that's bothering me. I can't get my "r" to sound just right. My pathetic attempts make me sound like a baby when she's just learning her r's in English, and it's pretty laughable. Can anyone offer any advice on how to correctly produce the French "r"? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6660 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 2 of 13 16 March 2012 at 10:31pm | IP Logged |
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To be honest, my best tries usually comes when I have a cold and have yet not cleared my throat. And I absolutely
fail to sing along with Piaf when my throat is too dry! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4752 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 3 of 13 16 March 2012 at 10:47pm | IP Logged |
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Make a sound like you are snoring (the kind where the sound comes from your throat, not your nose). Now make a similar sound while blowing air out. I don't know how good your "R" sound is now, but that can help you make a comparable sound in the right place. From there you just have to tweak it a bit to the roll or approximant.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4679 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 4 of 13 16 March 2012 at 10:49pm | IP Logged |
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Haha, I liked that comment. Indeed, Piaf had a special emphasis on the Parisian "r".
My main advice would be to forget that it's the letter "r". And then practice a lot, vary the position of your tongue slightly to feel where the "r" sound occurs. Ok, not very useful advice, but as with every new sound, I think looking at an IPA chart to get a sense of the position and manner, plus practice, will be what will help you. edit: French r is not the same as German r (or at least, the /R/ allophone is not the most common to my hear), which I think was what you described. Edited by vermillon on 16 March 2012 at 10:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jdmoncada Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5035 days ago 470 posts - 741 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Finnish Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 5 of 13 17 March 2012 at 2:47am | IP Logged |
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I would like to suggest this video from YouTube that was of great help to me.
Pronunciation of the French /r/ 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5017 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 13 17 March 2012 at 2:57am | IP Logged |
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Why don't you download the FSI French Phonology Course. No need to do the complete course if you don't want to. Just cover those parts that are giving you trouble.
Just my 2 cents. Napoleon 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 7 of 13 17 March 2012 at 3:31am | IP Logged |
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It would easiest if we could hear what you're doing wrong...
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vientito Senior Member Canada Joined 6339 days ago 212 posts - 281 votes | Message 8 of 13 17 March 2012 at 5:01pm | IP Logged |
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the "r" sound in the front and last postion of a word is not too hard to master whereas those "r" right in the middle of a word are tough.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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