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French R

  Tags: Pronunciation | French
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
ManicGenius
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5484 days ago

288 posts - 420 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese

 
 Message 1 of 8
28 March 2010 at 4:53am | IP Logged 
I found this and to my ears it actually helped me finally get the French R sound.

But personally, instead of taking it wholly, I'd love a French speakers opinion on how he
says the R. Honestly, this has been the hardest part of French for me.

French R Trick
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Walshy
Triglot
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Australia
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 Message 2 of 8
28 March 2010 at 4:58am | IP Logged 
Gargle softly.
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The Blaz
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Canada
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Studies: Spanish, Swahili, French, Sign Language, Esperanto

 
 Message 3 of 8
28 March 2010 at 7:58am | IP Logged 
I've also been struggling with the R. I'm going along with the audio but still having a
hard time making an R sound with my tongue touching the teeth. I sound like an idiot. I'm
glad I live alone right now.

Maybe it literally works like an exercise, and it takes time to stretch the tongue
muscle, or something?

[Edit: 10 minutes later]
AHHH I'm getting frustrated. But this guy's R sounds great. I'll try to practice this
recording/trick regularly.

Edited by The Blaz on 28 March 2010 at 8:06am

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Arekkusu
Hexaglot
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Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
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Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto
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 Message 4 of 8
29 March 2010 at 1:55pm | IP Logged 
The Blaz wrote:
I've also been struggling with the R. I'm going along with the audio
but still having a
hard time making an R sound with my tongue touching the teeth. I sound like an idiot.
I'm
glad I live alone right now.

Tongue touching the teeth? It shouldn't... The tongue doesn't touch the teeth when you
say R, that tough even for a native like me! Unless you are refering to touching the
back teeth with the side of your tongue...

There are some regional variations among native speakers. This guy here got to the
gargle part, but most people use an approximant R, which means that air should simply
pass between the tongue and the uvula, while sometimes getting some trill, but not much
and not usually. There is also some variation with voicing and I think the R is
generally more voiced in Canada than in Europe, although I'm guessing there is a lot of
variety there too. This guy always uses the trill and his R's are often devoiced.
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ManicGenius
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5484 days ago

288 posts - 420 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese

 
 Message 5 of 8
29 March 2010 at 11:06pm | IP Logged 
Arekkusu wrote:

Tongue touching the teeth? It shouldn't... The tongue doesn't touch the teeth when you say R, that tough even for a native like me! Unless you are refering to touching the back teeth with the side of your tongue...


This is most likely because the trick the speaker in the audio is intending relates to the fact that native English speakers form R's in a differnt place in the mouth and tend to find it really hard to have the back of the tongue reach the back palate to form the Francophone R.

So the "Trick" he says, is to stick the tongue towards the bottom front teeth during the R sound to sort of train your tongue on how to hit the R correctly. It worked for me at least and I spent like half an hour just repeatedly saying "ronronner" and other words.

Edited by ManicGenius on 29 March 2010 at 11:06pm

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The Blaz
Senior Member
Canada
theblazblog.blogspotRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Swahili, French, Sign Language, Esperanto

 
 Message 6 of 8
29 March 2010 at 11:54pm | IP Logged 
Arekkusu, while reading several Wikipedia articles necessary for understanding your post,
I learnt that some people get their uvula pierced. Cringe!!!

Anyway it's interesting to learn about these physiological descriptions of pronunciation.
I know many people on the forum understands what a trill is and all that but I've never
learnt about it. It's also good to know there are some variations in the R sound...
perhaps mine will not sound so egregiously bad after all.
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Spiderkat
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
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175 posts - 248 votes 
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 7 of 8
30 March 2010 at 6:11am | IP Logged 
Arekkusu wrote:
The Blaz wrote:
I've also been struggling with the R. I'm going along with the audio
but still having a
hard time making an R sound with my tongue touching the teeth. I sound like an idiot.
I'm
glad I live alone right now.

Tongue touching the teeth? It shouldn't... The tongue doesn't touch the teeth when you
say R, that tough even for a native like me! Unless you are refering to touching the
back teeth with the side of your tongue..
...

Probably because you're Canadian but as a French guy the tip of the tongue does touch the back of the bottom teeth whether pronouncing the R alone or as part of a word.
1 person has voted this message useful



Arekkusu
Hexaglot
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Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
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Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian

 
 Message 8 of 8
30 March 2010 at 3:21pm | IP Logged 
Ah, the BOTTOM teeth!!! No wonder I didn't get it!

Whether it touches the bottom teeth or not is irrelevant in the sound. It might serve as an incentive to prevent English speakers from curling their tongue though.


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