Not understanding the mechanics of the French syllable undermines your ability to pronounce French words correctly and to communicate. Why? Syllables do make up words! Without knowing how to separate French syllables your pronunciation could be unrecognisable by both, French and English speakers.
Take the word spaghetti, as a Francophone having lived so many years in Anglophones cities, I really never mastered its English pronunciation; most of the time I pronounce it spa-ghet-ti (the French way). If I say this word in English inevitably the Anglophone person’s face to whom I’m speaking to will go blank and he/she will say after a while: “You mean spaghetti?” (without any syllable separation; or so it seems to me!)
To help you learn how to separate French words into syllables I have prepared this document:
Hi and Bonjour! Merci de ce document!
ReplyDeleteI was hoping you might know of a French-English or French-French dictionary that shows the syllable breakdown for the French words. I have found many dictionaries where the English word is broken up but none that show the syllable breakout in English.
Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated. I will check back again in September!
Merci!
Bob
Bonjour Bob,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your comment I though to myself what a good idea, dictionaries should have the syllables broken down. I tried many online dictionaries, checked out all my hard copies of French-French and English-French dictionaries and none of them separated the syllables.
Then I remembered why I created the PDF on how to separate French syllables. I could not find a dictionary that did separate the syllables!
If I ever find one I’ll let you know and if you ever find one, do please let me know.
Merci de lire mon blog!
Yolaine
Merci Yoaine et merci beaucoup du document au suject des syllables. I use it all the time now and it is extremely helpful.
ReplyDeleteBob
Syllables document doesn't open.
ReplyDeletethis is not what It said when I searched it up un exaptable
ReplyDeletethis should be about helping people find syllables in French words
ReplyDeleteI'm finding the link does not work!
ReplyDelete