Do you want to improve your French fluency? Do you want your French to sound like native French speakers? You want to express yourself more naturally in French?
Then you've come to the right place! Today we're going to do an exercise to improve your pronunciation and fluency! It's a great exercise and if you do it regularly, your French will become more natural!
And for your French to be even more natural, you need to practice a lot! For that, I have the perfect program for you: Ohlala French Coffee, my French conversation group. You will have the opportunity to practice your French 7 times a week. You will be more confident, comfortable and natural when you speak French. You will be able to talk about any topic in French: current events, ecology, gastronomy, history, science, culture, etc.
For our exercise today, I'll explain the instructions. I am going to answer questions that my students will answer in my conversation group. I'm going to answer very naturally, I'm not going to change my way of speaking. It will be authentic.
After that, we'll go over what I said. We'll go through the sentences one by one and more slowly to observe the pronunciation. Then, afterwards, you will see how I said this sentence: I made connections, I did not pronounce certain letters, I cut words. And you will repeat these sentences after me to practice speaking like a native speaker.
We'll end with a shadowing exercise. I'll explain what it is, don't worry!
And stay tuned until the end, because I have a surprise for you, to help you master the French spoken by native speakers!
First step :
I answer questions about food and eating. You just have to listen and understand what I say.
Translation :
The dish I miss most often is... I think all the dishes that are a little complicated with a ton of ingredients. I have to admit that I'm not very good in the kitchen. It's not my thing. I like to cook very simple things with few ingredients. So if the dish is too complicated to make, chances are I'll miss it.
The most common ingredient I use in my house is ... rice, I think. I eat a lot of brown rice. I also eat a lot of avocados, lentils and chickpeas and eggs too.
The dish I hate is... andouillette. It's a gut-based dish, it disgusts me. In fact, I've never tried it and I don't feel like it at all. I really don't like dishes with too much meat.
My guilty pleasure is ...salted butter caramel. I love it, it's a killer! If there's a dessert like a pancake or a waffle with salted butter caramel, I'll definitely have it. Fortunately, I don't go to the creperie very often.
Second step :
You understand everything? Okay, let's move on to the practical part. We're going to go over the sentences I said and we're going to break them down and analyze them so that you reproduce them in the same way.
Le plat que j’rate le plus souvent, c’est …
Le plat que j’rate (we delete "e") le plus (we don't pronounce "s") souvent, c’est …
j’pense tous les plats un peu compliqués où y a une tonne d’ingrédients
j’pense (we delete "e") tous (we don't prnounce "s") les plats un peu compliqués où y a ("il y a" becomes "y a") une tonne d’ingrédients.
J’avoue q’chui pas très douée en cuisine. C’est pas mon truc.
J’avoue q’chui (so, we delete "e" of "que" and "je ne suis" became "ch’ui") pas très douée en cuisine. C’est (we delete “ce n’est”) pas mon truc.
J’aime cuisiner des choses très simples avec peu d’ingrédients.
No change here J’aime cuisiner des choses très simples avec peu d’ingrédients.
Du coup, si le plat est trop compliqué à faire, y a des chances que jle rate.
Du coup, si le plat est trop compliqué à faire, y a (we delete “il”) des chances que j'le (owe delete "e") rate.
L’ingrédient le plus souvent utilisé chez moi, c’est … le riz, j’pense.
L’ingrédient le plus souvent utilisé chez moi, c’est … le riz, j’pense (we delete "e").
J’mange beaucoup de riz complet. J’mange aussi beaucoup d’avocats, de lentilles et des pois chiches et des œufs aussi.
J’mange (we delete "e") beaucoup d’riz (we delete "e") complet. J’mange (we delete "e") aussi beaucoup d’avocats, de lentilles et de pois chiches et des œufs aussi.
Le plat que j’déteste, c’est … l’andouillette.
Le plat que j’déteste (we delete "e"), c’est … l’andouillette.
C’est un plat à base de boyau, ça m’dégoute.
C’est un plat à base de boyau, ça m’dégoute (we delete "e" of "me")
En fait, j’ai jamais goûté et j’ai pas du tout envie. J’aime vraiment pas les plats où y a trop d’viande.
En fait (we pronounce le "t" of “en fait”), j’ai jamais (we delete "ne") goûté et j’ai pas (we delete "ne") du tout envie. J’aime vraiment pas (we delete "ne") les plats où y a (we delete “il”) trop d’viande (we delete "e").
Mon plaisir coupable, c’est … le caramel beurre-salé. J’adore ça, c’est une tuerie !
No change here: Mon plaisir coupable, c’est … le caramel beurre-salé. J’adore ça, c’est une tuerie !
Si y a un dessert comme une crêpe ou une gaufre au caramel beurre-salé, c’est sur que j’vais en prendre.
S'y a (we delete “il”) un dessert comme une crêpe ou une gaufre au caramel beurre-salé, c’est sur que j’vais (we delete "e") en prendre.
Heureus’ment, j’vais pas souvent à la crêp’rie.
Heureus’ment (we delete the "e"), j’vais (we delete the"e") pas souvent à la crêp’rie (we delete the "e").
Conclusion, when you speak in French, you don't like "e".
Troisième étape :
There is one more 3ᵉ step to our exercise to speak like a native, and that is shadowing. The shadowing technique consists of imitating a native speaker when they speak French. You have to imitate their pronunciation, intonations and way of speaking. It's a great technique to improve your fluency.
For this, I will answer the questions from the beginning again. But this time, you're not going to listen to me, you're going to speak at the same time as me. You will have to imitate me by following the text. It's a bit like listening to a song and singing along, except that here you're going to speak along with me.
I hope you enjoyed this exercise! If you do it regularly, you will see your pronunciation and fluency improve.
And I promised you a surprise! I offer you my ebook "How to master spoken French?" which will allow you to better understand native French people, but also to speak like them.
