How to pronounce "ou" vs "u"
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- The “U” sound in French is difficult for most foreigners. Do you know the difference between “u” and “ou”?
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“U” is a typical French sound, but it’s hard to pronounce for foreigners. My mom is Mexican, and she never spoke any French until moving to Paris 40 years ago. To this day, she still struggles with the “u” sound!
And you? Can you hear the two different sounds in the video lesson?
Today’s lesson will help you boost your French oral comprehension and French speaking skills by helping you differentiate between these two common sounds.
Gabriel Weiner's video (Fluent Forever) about French sounds: • French Pronunciation: ...
Take care and stay safe.
😘 from Grenoble, France.
Géraldine
When I was first in France, I told a perplexed child that I was knitting a chicken (poule) instead of a sweater (pull)! :-D
I learnt pronouncing it through an old french phrasebook. Its direction was, "u"'s sound is made by pronouncing "ee" and "oo" at the same time... And I could do it after a short while. (And of course, I observed the native pronunciation through videos n films too 😬)
One of my favorite French teachers on RUclips ❤. Thanks a lot for this lesson, it'll be very helpful to a lot of people.
you're welcome Lun.
For a Dutchie these are about the easiest sounds to make, as we have them too! 'ou' sounds like our 'oe' (soupe is soep in Dutch) and 'u' sounds like our, well... 'u' (as in the polite form 'u'). euil/ueil sounds like our 'ui': Liesbeth List once taught Jacques Brel how to pronounce the 'ui' in Dutch as he struggled with it, by comparing it with the word oeuil
And even in French I think "Cookie!" when I hear the word 'lu' X-D
excellent lesson thank you Géraldine. I could never be a French pilot. I would confuse fly over the bridge with fly under it.. par dessus? par dessous??! whaaaaaa...
This was one of the best language lessons in the history of language teaching. You've correctly identified what's important and what's not and helped me a lot. Thanks a bunch!!
Merci.
This is so helpful. I've never had anyone explain the difference.
Mon mari est moi avons discuté deux voyelles le semaine derrière. Ce matin j'ai regardé une video sur quelques voyelles. J'imagine j'ai besoin de apprendre des voyelles :) Bonne vidéo ! Merci.
Je suis francophone, mais j’adore tes explications! Cette chaîne est adorable. ;)
"They're the same picture." - P. Beasley
Le "u" ressemble un peu ça de "Tuesday" ou "fuse" en anglais, mais sans le petit son "y" au début, n'est ce pas? Merci pour la leçon!
non
In american engligh I woulf disagree. Idk if it’s different in other dialects. Your tongue should be in the same place as when you say the letter “e” in english or letter “i” in french
I'm Mexican as well and I have the same problems as your mom 😭😭😭 same with the R
Puedo imaginar lo difícil que es para ti, especialmente el "r" 😄... es muy diferente del "r" francés
I'm nigther Spanish nor French but I love the two languages so much. I've learned Spanish to an extent and trying to learn French now.
Best video about "ou" vs "u". Thank you so much, you teach very well!!
Congrats you material is very good. Thanks
Wow, wow, wow....I cannot for the life of me hear the difference at all! And it scares me lol. French scares me! 😂
I won’t give up, but I’ll also never take french as a class for a grade cuz I’d surely fail. I really needed this video, THANK YOU!! It’s opened my eyes (and ears) to some major points to practice on specifically.
C'est super! This lesson is so helpful, as I have a hard time hearing the spoken words sometimes (especially with different tones/accents).
Looking forward to finding the playlist on misheard words, as I don't want to offend anyone when I attempt to speak!
Merci beaucoup!
I have no problem pronouncing french R's when I am singing along to cariocan brazilians that pronounce beginning Rs the same, but when I try to actually talk with that pronunciation it's hard haha
Thanks, Géraldine. It was really helpful. We have both sounds in Russian and using them in a similar manner.
Yes, I had a brilliant French teacher at school and he said "Make the 'oo' shape with your mouth, but say 'ee'".
thats so helpful!
This is so helpful really! This is quite common for english speakers we tend to mix up the words and end making mistakes while speaking haha. Loved those examples, its something that we don't get to learn separately like that, really appreciate your work! I'm sure it's helping other learners out there! 👍😊❤️ merci beaucoup et passez une bonne journée ! 🙏
Thank you for the video, Guatemala here
Merci beaucoup! Very similar (almost identical to my ears) to Norwegian O and U. Now I’ll be more confident in my prononciations of words with ou and u❤️ only difference seams to be more pressure 🤔
J'adore ton pull!
Pas problème pour moi parce'que en allemand c'est ü
merci beaucoup!
Merci encore
Great video as usual!
The tip you provided is similar to a tip I was taught at a phonetics class which has served me quite well: to make the u sound, make an ee sound but with your lips in the oo shape. It works like a charm!
Wow, I honestly never noticed this! Thank you for this video!!
Thank you for explaining in detail how to pronounce this kind of intriguing sounds in the language.can you teach how to roule la longue pour r pronunciation
This is very helpful!! Thanks!!
You've got a lot of positive energy 🤗💝
God bless ⚡⚡
One way for English speakers to practice the /y/ sound is to slide into it. First pronounce the /i/ sound (the vowel sound in the English words "see", "me" and "tea"), then gradually round your lips while sustaining the /i/ sound. With the lips rounded the /i/ will automatically change to the /y/ sound. The lip position for /y/ is like that of /o/; the tongue position is like that of /i/. This combination is hard for us because we don't really have any words that combine rounded lips with a tongue lifted towards the alveolar ridge.
This was so helpful, I´m going to go practice for an hour now lol thank you!!
Hi Geraldine, Thank you for this lesson, honestly for me, the most difficult letters of french are "U" and "E" to be pronounced. Please if you can do a lesson on difference of these two letters sound.
Chère Géraldine, le ou dans le verbe "pronounce" rime avec le mot anglais "cow." Cependant, le "U" dans la prononciation est un schwa, le son "uh." Le verbe PrUHnOWnce…et le nom PruhnUHnciatuhn. (Le « UH » représente une SCHWA.) . . . Merci beaucoup. My French "R" is still a work in progress.
J'ai bien aimé cette vidéo, Merci Géraldine!
To be honest, that sound difference is the easiest part of French for me as a native Turkish speaker. Because we have two distinctive seperate letters for each "sounds" which are "U" and "Ü" :)
wonderful video, thank you!
Merci beaucoup. This helps a lot. Vous parlez espagnol aussi?
si
I still am not sure i can hear the difference, but when saying the 2, I can feel u in my chest, but not ou.
Merci
Awesome thank you, vois etes une monitrice super!!!
Geraldine; parles tu espagnol ?
To pronounce the French word "Tu" (you: singular/informal) properly, pucker your lips leaving your mouth open just a little, then say, "tee." It will actually sound more like the English word(s) two/too, but closer to the French pronunciation.
I am correct that french "u" pronounced the way as english e but the lips are rounded?
French R is a total nightmare for me and eu, oe is very confusing.
😊
J'ai une questionne. Pour quoi il n'y a pas une liaison en "Tu l'as eue où?" Merci pour l'aide. :-)
Actually, there are several, but not the ones you expect... ^^ I guess you expect the liaison between "as" and "eu(e)" with the "s" ; there's none because these are two syllables without consonants you pronounce (the "s" is silent), just vowel sounds. However, if you want to sound fluent, you need to make another king of liaison that is the continuation. In other words, you have to say all the vowel sounds one after the other without any breaks. So, don't say ""la | u | ou"" but ""lauou"". In order to help you with that, check out this channel and this video in particular : ruclips.net/video/DxyLYzaYfKA/видео.html
@@nathanangelus merci beaucoup pour l'aide :-) C'est très informatif
when you say U on top and ou underneath... for me it just feels completely opposite ... so obviously I'm wrong and you're the expert, so could someone please explain... for me when I visualise the sound it feels like the arc moves the other way
My old French professor described Ou as a hot potato sound! Imagine you have a whole hot potato in your mouth!
Amazing video! I suggest that you did the same with et !!!!
Bravo pour vos vidéos. J’ai remarqué cependant que vous Zêtes fâchée avec les liaisons. Ex: Tu l’as Zu où?
There should be some word in English that has /y/ sound, isn't there? It was really surprising to hear that there is no word with that sound. In Finnish (I'm a native speaker) there are many words with that sound and I have never thought about other languages not having /y/.
That's a fancy name.
Easy! Pronounce "ee" with the lips rounded like "oo".
Geraldine - j’ai une probleme pour quand utiliser ‘savoir’ et ‘connaitre’ - avez-vous fait une video a ce sujet svp?
C’est interesant que votre mere est de Mexique. J’ai remarque les petits accents de Mexique sur votre mur. :)
Luckily, in Hungarian we have the sound to French u, so it isn't a complicated thing to me.
Hungarian "u" = French "ou"
Hungarian "ü" = French "u"
Is the u sound close to ü in German? They sound similar to me as an English speaker, but I want to make sure I’m hearing it properly.
Yes it is! It's close to German ü!
I can hear the difference fine, but quite often French people mumble dessus/dessous and it's not clear which they said. If they're enunciating, it's fine, but if they're speaking quickly... no chance. :/
Please pick up the pronounciation of "deuxieme" and "douzieme." Very difficult for me.
Relax people, they just say où es té, anyway :)
is to hard, i am mexican and to me it sounds the same ;(
Mi abuelita lo explica así:: estira el hocico y pronuncia:: turca, cuca, cucu, por ejemplo: que lindo es tu cucu...
It could be embarrassing indeed to miss pronounce "j'ai mal au cou"...
I'm santa
what a horrible monster that guy that thought u and ou should make different sounds.
Habla menos en inglés...
/y/ = your lips like you're saying /u/ and your tongue like you're saying /i/. :)