How to sound French when speaking English

Funny, entertaining and informative look at how to adopt an authentic French accent when speaking English. I'm a phonetician, polyglot and accomplished mimic and here I take you through the key aspects of French pronunciation. Many find the French accent in English very attractive, so let's see what it can do for you.
00:00 Introduction
00:11 Resting position of the mouth
00:40 Inner lip rounding
01:19 TH sounds
01:49 Vowels
02:02 /i/
02:22 Friction with /i/
02:37 /u/
02:48 vowel chart
02:59 diphthongs
03:10 /o/
03:24 /ei/
03:38 œ
04:01 R sounds
05:10 Voiceless R
05:24 Dental Consonants
06:00 Outtro
thrush By Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

[@trianglethief]

"The 'th' sound, this is totally unnecessary for a language." I laughed like a tea kettle.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Great that you picked up on that!

[@trianglethief]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages I suspect I will be binge-watching your videos for the rest of this afternoon and spamming my friends with links. You have amazing comedic timing - I've been subscribed for a little while now because you're very informative and interesting but you absolutely caught me with your latest video and now I'm having an absolute blast laughing like a drain that contains a cackling witch. Please keep it up - edutainment at its best, I am utterly delighted.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

@@trianglethief Wow. Praise indeed. Thank you so much!

[@rosbiffy]

As a native English speaker living in France for 30 years I have often tried to speak Engleesh wiz uh Frensh aksent. These tips are brilliant!

[@FransceneJK98]

Why would you do that if you’re not French? Just speak normal.

[@user-kb5tr9sf9v]

​@@FransceneJK98just cuz he does a gay accent doesn't mean it's not normal bro

[@tenthz]

You should teach all the american actors who try to do a french/english accent and end up sounding british! Your videos are so informative!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you like them.

Comme le capitaine Jean-Luc Picard. Un français qui sonne comme un étudiant de Shakespeare.

[@joelthefilmmaker]

I love when you gave a comparison in an English accent followed by a slightly passive aggressive "non" 😂

[@holdtight3558]

Dave, your videos are brilliant. You are so genuine and likeable, with an incredibly interesting skill. And the production value of your videos is brilliant - I look forward to seeing you gain the success and recognition you deserve.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That’s such a nice comment. Thank you!

[@Kaede-Sasaki]

​@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Please do japanese next 😊

[@Sybil_Detard]

The resting French mouth . . . this answers a lot of questions about how I have been looking at English speaking people on KZbin and before they speak, thinking "That person is English," or, "that person is Australian," or "that person is Canadian." This "prescience" has been confounding me, but I suppose it makes sense, as I have significant hearing loss and watch people's mouths a lot when they speak. Oh, and thanks for the closed captioning.

[@igotes]

Merci! C'est interessant et amusant. I work with a French woman with a very strong accent, it took me a while to understand her but I quite enjoy it now. She often throws in an "alors" or "par example".

[@kramnam4716]

As a teacher here in UK, if you speak like zis in France they will understand you if they learnt English at school because zis is how zey would have ‘erd engleesh from zeir teachers! 😊Merci Inspecteur!

[@timmartindale75]

Your tip for people learning French to try this is a good one. When I was learning French I always got more approval from my teacher when I was (secretly) pretending to be Pepe Le Pew.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

There you go.

[@GoranQu]

You are genius for phonetics and linguistics, and you also manage to be hilariously funny while explaining it. I love your videos! 😂

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow, thank you!

[@nicholascooper843]

Great video. Not that you claimed otherwise, but it's worth noting that this is specific to the "français de france". For instance, french Canadians realize th as t or d, have diphthongs in their french, and often pronouce their vowels in a more lax manner. Another interesting feature is that when speaking English they'll often not pronouce the h at the beginning of a word and will add an h to words that start with a vowel. E.g. "The owl is happy" becomes "The howl is appy".

Heveryone is looking for appiness.

[@that_flnger]

​@do you ave apiness?

[@louisrobertbrown]

Great video- informative, accurate and entertaining! My mother is French but speaks English very well & has done for most of her life. However, she still pronounces 'develop' in the french way when speaking English- i think it's distinctive to me because of the stress rather than the vowel sounds. Also, when she is listening and acknowledging another speaker, she will say 'oui, oui, hhwoui' with the last 'oui' being inhaled- she has also imported that into her English with 'yep, yep, hyep'.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks for sharing that. I was going to include something about pronouncing French words in English with their original pronunciation, but ended up editing it out.

[@bruceperkins4601]

Yes. Listening to able French speakers of English I've noticed that error in 'develop', but also in 'idea', which reduces to 2 syllables. Very understandable!.@@DaveHuxtableLanguages

[@oblinky]

This is great stuff, as a French I completely relate. I tried to say 'tea' with the tongue further back, I've been impressed how more "English" it sounds ahah

[@alankwood]

Dave , This is ,for me one of the funniest videos on u tube.!!!. Your French accent is perfect and The examples you used..... I canta waita fora your Italiano one !! Keep up the good work ..

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow, thanks!

[@selladore4911]

both funny and informative, thanks for the IPA

[@mirandelf]

This is fantastic. I’ve been struggling with French accented English and this is so helpful!

[@clemolette]

I can't even tell if you're french or not (from a Fench) ! Your french accent is perfect ahah

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That’s good to hear - I am actually English.

[@lobstervortex]

Your videos are amazing! You are really talented, both in the linguistics and videomaking. I love it!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you! 😃

[@rursus8354]

This is exactly what I've always wanted to learn! Sank iou, sank iou, sank iou!

[@ThemanlymanStan]

Resting positions of languages made me consider why I intuitively know that someone is deaf within seconds of meeting them before they even had a chance to sign to me. Deaf people probably tend not to have these resting positions, especially if they were born deaf. I always felt there was a 'deaf face', but it honestly makes more sense in light of there being resting positions of languages. Ive grown up around deaf people since my mom was born deaf.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That’s a really interesting point. I wonder if knowing about mouth positions would help those deaf people who want to speak more clearly.

[@ThemanlymanStan]

@DaveHuxtableLanguages That's an interesting point. In the past of the USA, it was used in a way but in an extreme way that honestly hurt deaf people. Oralism was taught to deaf children, but it forbade using any forms of sign language. This made it messed up. It suppressed the natural tendency of deaf children to develop sign language. They were forced to use a spoken language. It hurt their mental development and, most likely, their self-esteem, too. Teaching a sign language and then a spoken language afterward, I think, would help deaf people a lot. Learning sign language first helps significantly in mental development and communication as well as mental health and community. Learning a spoken language, even though they can not hear it and only see it through lip reading, would help in communicating with hearing people of the same overall language. It just needs to be addressed in a respectful way considering the past. For example, in the US, in the past deaf children were taught to speak English and were punished for using any sign language. We should teach sign language as early as possible and afterward a spoken language as a 2nd language. To do anything else could hurt deaf people, which would be messed up.

[@jonswinfield9336]

It’s really interesting isn’t it I spent the preschool years living in French speaking countries yet I can’t speak French Interestingly I find this way of speaking English easy to do I’ve also been on holiday a couple of times to France and within a week I have remembered what many words are and what they mean Is this unusual? I also notice that dialects can alter when people visit the place of their birth It becomes stronger My wife is from the north west of England and I was born in Hackney ( london)

[@appoNo1]

Can’t believe this channel isn’t huge yet! Keep it up man 👏

[@TiagoMorbusSa]

The knowledge, the skill, the wit! What a terrific video!!! 👏

[@munkiesyeah]

Bloody love it! Love the humour too! Thanks 😊 😊

[@nevie8158]

You're very underrated! I love your channel

[@IceCenders]

French native here, pretty outstanding French accent! Maybe your 'o' and 'u' sounds could improve (when you speak, not when you recite the vowels from the chart), like when you say 'totally' or 'you' or 'position'. Your /o/'s are either too open (as in ɔ, when it should be /o/) or more often they sound like /ø/ or rather sth in the neighborhood of a schwa (something central and barely rounded), and your /u/'s are too open as well, and not rounded enough, they sound too much like /ʊ/ and not enough like the very closed, very 'stark' French /u/. And I'm wondering if your /ø/ aren't too open as well, too schwa-like, although it might depend on the French accent considered, I don't know. Still, one of the best French impressions I've ever heard! :) Just found your channel, as a language lover and aficionado of phonetics and accents, it's a real find!

[@madrigal1956]

Excellent! (As a Frenchman I chose a "bilingual" word...)

[@LJL0619]

Vraiment, à la prochaine. Excellent, bravo!

[@kanini43]

Dear Dave, your videos are great, fascinating, brilliant. You are so likeable with your incredibly interesting skill and skull. 😍 Skål❣️🥂

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow, thank you

[@nigelogilvie9450]

Fun and informative, thanks

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

Do you have a reum? A reum? What? You said do I have a reum. I know what I said. Peter Sellers was a master of the silly French accent.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

He was indeed!

[@laurabasola4081]

Brilliant accent and teaching skills as well. Thanks so much 😂xx

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

You’re welcome 😊

[@annikinstarkiller600]

Very informative and entertaining

[@roidragecow]

Hello! I am a newcomer to your channel, recommended a several year old video on the English accents. I always loved accents but watching videos about them I get confused about the phonetic symbols. Are there any tricks to understand them or it is just pure memorization? Can't wait for the next one!

[@myouatt5987]

A corker, Dave, nice one! Can't say much more really - an interesting perspective ... 'run, rabbit, run' was brilliant btw! Cheers!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@jakubSwaps]

Brilliant work as always. Something quite noticeable you missed, though, is that unlike in English, the French stress the last syllable of a word. They very often do this when speaking English as well. I feel like that was the one missing puzzle piece here. Love these videos!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Actually, French has very weak stress and it usually only falls on the last full syllable of the last word in a phrase or sentence.

[@petermcalpine9380]

Wonderful! I wish this video was available in 1972 when I learned French.

[@larsfrandsen2501]

Wow. Amazing command.

[@renes9966]

This is brilliant, would love to see your “how to do an XYZ accent” becoming a series!

[@k.umquat8604]

I love how you say "Frhens, R-rhomahnz, Cutrheemenn!"

[@davidamadore]

One thing I would add to these tips is that the French /l/ is unvelarized, whereas the English /l/ often is velarized (details depending on the accent: velarized /l/ is typically described as “dark” while unvelarized is known as “clear”). If you want to imitate a French person saying the English word “well”, the most crucial thing is to make sure your /l/ is clear.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Good point.

[@dialecticcoma]

great channel mate

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Much appreciated

[@frankzj]

I've heard that another important part of the French accent is to always place the stress on the last syllable of words.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

We’ll not really. In French, the stress goes on the last full syllable of a phrase rather than on each word.

[@oceantree5000]

⁠@@DaveHuxtableLanguagesWell, not really… depends on what in the phrase/ sentence which the speaker wishes to stress. Within words, all syllables receive equal stress… adjusted for accent, swallowed syllables, etc. 😂 Super entertaining video, but as I’ve often found, the accuracy diminishes a bit once we’ve left the home island… Understandable, of course. 😊

[@planeurs]

😂😂😂 Dave, I'm at the stage where I'm wondering where you re getting the ideas from!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

They mostly occur to me in the shower.

[@massmanute]

Great!

[@alexrafe2590]

This was a very enjoyable video. But as I watched it I realised that among French people, their schooling in English seems to be taking a more pragmatic approach. By this I mean French schools appear to be intent upon teaching them to be able to replicate English sounds well. When I go to France now and listen to many young people speak English they don’t try to fall back on ze for the. They’ve mastered the th sound both hard and soft and use it fairly comfortably. This is true of their mastery of many English diphthongs and other sounds. And some French people when they speak English, do it so well that while I hear a light accent, I can’t place where its from, and find it difficult to determine whether they’re French or not.

[@Squirrelmind66]

This reminds me of something a character says in Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, when he meets a French person: “you sound as if language is a block of wood, and your tongue is a saw”

[@jeromejean-charles6163]

Gorgeous self reference about dentals: "The tip of the tongue on the teeth" . Pour votre gouverne un "virenez" ( puisque l'on dit un virelangue) : A nice "nasal twister" for English speakers learning French : "Un bon gingembre" contains all the French nasal sounds ( note that UN and IN are NOT the same sound even if today most French speakers make no distinction).

[@paulozhang1340]

Marvelous! Can you do more French accent videos?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

So glad you like it. What else would you like to see?

[@depp8714]

Awesome, and pretty accurate. I suppose same principles but closing the mouse (mouth) a bit you can get a Québécois' English accent like what I hear everyday in Montreal, eh?

[@oiausdlkasuldhflaksjdhoiausydo]

Lovely!!! Do Spain’s Spanish next!

[@TrelvisGresley]

The piece on vowels is particularly interesting. From my experience of working with a lot of excellent English speaking light French accent French colleagues in the UK, the word that always seems to give the most trouble for them to pronounce is “Month”. The o becomes very nasal with an e added.

[@resourceress7]

Good point. French has several nasal vowels that English doawn't have.

[@IceCenders]

BTW in your French vowels chart (2:48), you forgot the pair of vowels /ø/ (e.g. "peut") and /œ/ (e.g. "cœur"). Also I'm not quite convinced by your 'no diphthong' rule. French people have no issues with stuff like /ɛj/ (as in e.g. abeille), so really I think most French people would say /bɛjk mi ø kɛjk/. No idea TBH of the difference between /ɛj/ and a "real" diphthong, but either way we'd definitely add a short 'i' or a approximant /j/ after the /ɛ/. At 4:48, your IPA transcription uses /χ/, which is the voiceless equivalent to /ʁ/ (as you explain subsequently), and would be the normal way to pronounce that sentence, but you use an Edith Piaf-like exaggerated 'r' which is very voiced. TBH I don't really know whether anyone distinguishes IPA-wise the normal and sedate modern French 'r' from the exaggerated trilled 'r' that most English speaker tend to think is still widely in use. I'm very very impressed however that you're the first person who seems to have noticed like me that the long English /i:/ and /u:/ aren't actually quite identical to elongated French /i/ and /u/ sounds, the French vowels being noticeably, for lack of a better word, a lot 'starker', and as you said, a lot more extremely situated in the mouth (I think they're just more closed, so much so that as you said trailing /i/ sounds turn into fricatives, which is also the case for trailing /u/ sounds that can sometimes become /uɸ/, or even /e/ that can become /eç/, where /ç/ is the German soft ch further back in the mouth than the /ç/ sound of 'oui' /wiç/ which is closer to I'd say Spanish /ʃ/ but sadly it seems the IPA doesn't make the distinction either).

[@jenschristianblom]

Hillarious!

[@nicolerosen7957]

Top!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you.

[@alankwood]

well done Got to Nottingham at last hehe

[@JeanLoupRSmith]

Very impressive. I would argue though - and that very much depends on the individual - that some, maybe most, people wouldn't pronounce words that end in -tion the way you're pronouncing it [-syõ] but more like [-shö:n] (excuse the bad phonetic transcript but hopefully you know what I mean). Then again, most French accents are like sandpaper to my ears (especially my own) so you may well be right

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

You may indeed be right. I thing I was switching between someone trying an English pronunciation of those words, and one of those people who pronounces all French loan words in English à la française as if the Brits have been saying them wrong for the last 1000 years.

[@yabiji342]

Hi Dave, do you teach the British accent for French native speakers?

[@jim9689]

This was awesome! Can you also make a "How to sound German when speaking English" video?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

I think I might well do that!

[@jim9689]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages That would be great! I recommend watching "Young Frankenstein", Teri Garr is superb with her German accent (her grandparents were Austrian).

[@benedettobruno1669]

😆😆😆 Me: a Sicilian watching a British man pretending to be a French giving advice on how to sound French when speaking English. This video cracked me up. 😆😆😆

[@carolhernandez7505]

Since you live in California, have you thought of coaching actors for roles with accents? You’d be great!!!

[@mathiashedelius1219]

You should have 1,800,000 followers at least instead of 18,000. Cheers!

[@Realgrande]

I learned 2 French words in the 1980's and everyone thought I was French. First I ate Frogs, Snails, dishes served with tons of butter and said " Depeche Mode". They said "Ooo la la you Fwench", I replied "Wee, Me Fwench". " Bone Jour, Bone Appetite, Bone Soup".

[@FransceneJK98]

So basically make the instagram duck lips and like you’re about to kiss and talk. 😂

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That’s a start.

[@JackHeywood]

very funny! ❤

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks 😆

[@benjibatch]

I don’t know if this was supposed to be funny but it was hilarious for me 😂😂😂

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

It was. And I’m glad.

[@Pro4Stars]

Hilarious. A Pink Panther sequel - coming soon to a theater (mobile) near You!? /A Swenglish speaking person

[@daniellehamilton9155]

Can you please do the same video but for Spanish?

[@Evan0614]

Incredible guide for anyone wanting to re-dub the voice acting for Disco Elysium ;)

[@zachary123212]

Any tricks regarding sentence prosody?

[@go0dlife]

This was great. We need a video about german English 😂

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Good idea!

[@suzannejoyk]

Lol I’m learning French so interesting

[@polyglotpress]

Ma maman parlait comme ça. Je ne m'en apercevais que quand il y avait des anglophones parmi nous. J'ai bien remarqué que le « u. » donne les anglophones le plus grand mal à prononcer. Il me semble que dans le graphique cartésien de la vidéo (6 : 26) il manque ce « u. » Peut-être il était question des symboles phonétiques dont je ne connais pas encore la signification ?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Le symbole en question serait le /y/. Je ne l’ai pas inclus ici parce qu’il n’y a pas de correspondance avec les son de l’anglais. Il me semble que les français se servent du /u/ , écrit dans l’orthographe française, pour prononcer le /u:/ de l’anglais.

[@azzadazza3082]

Can you please do Malta

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Hopefully one day I'll get to spend enough time in Malta to do it justice, but for now I don't think I'd recognise a Maltese accent, let alone be able to imitate one.

[@vairpalefroi]

The more frogs you eat the more you sound french.

[@ZWD2011]

Frenglish. The sound of being arrogant whilst being arrogant. Priceless.

[@christopherbentley7289]

Wah do ah feeel as eef ah ahm watcheeng an episode of ''Allo 'Allo"?

[@maryleenhagger8145]

I have lived in French speaking countries as a native English speaker. I hope that this can help my accent with those dreaded French words that begin with "r"!

[@manouplinck]

0:17 but thats a Gerbil..

[@cargumdeu]

I dont know if you revisit these pages to view new comments but here's one for you. Everyone's making videos about Sadiq Khan's anti-misogyny ad, featuring the word 'maaate'. It does get one ruminating on the myriad ways we have - and Australians have too - with this word, in all its regional dialects and any one of many intentions, from magnanimous warmth to barely contained violence. I was hoping you'd find the subject interesting enough to work up a new vid....regards anyway

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That’s an interesting one. Thanks for the suggestion. I try to keep up with comments but recently I’ve been a bit swamped - a good problem to have.

[@hannofranz7973]

Ass a Görman I beck you to brushh up on my Görman eccent when speaking English. Cann you give me some atvise?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Help iss on its Weh.

[@hannofranz7973]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Ssank you.

[@antoinemorin1816]

As it was pointed out already by some other comments, the way Québécois French speakers speak their English is much different. So this video is only about French French, or Metropolitan French. Here, "th" becomes "t" or "d", even "ts" or "dz" depending on what the next letter is. Vowels are also much more nasal. I have a lot of fun using this accent to trick English speakers. If you want to have a listen, try listening to an interview with George St-Pierre, a retired MMA fighter who has one of the most hilarious Québec French accents you can hear publicly :)

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks for that tip. I’ll give him a listen.

[@Kropotkin2000]

Personally, I watch Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films and try to imitate him.

[@docteurpikachu6913]

Effectivement, je ne peux qu'abonder en cette fine analyse.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Merci. Je suis content que ça vous ait plu.

[@jamesdavies3316]

I wondered what had happened to Ronnie Barker....

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

So now you know. Elvis and Lady Di say hi.

[@jamesdavies3316]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Dave, it was a back handed compliment, i love your delivery and content.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

@@jamesdavies3316 I took it as a huge compliment. The man was a genius.

[@piafounetMarcoPesenti]

Being John Malkovich helps.

[@jwcrummett]

So, uhh, any other RPGers here trying to work on their character's voice? 😅

[@Liofa73]

I wonder how the English sound when speaking French.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That might feature in a future video!

[@ayrtonpavot3096]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages please do it, this video was great (comoign from a frenchman), and I'd love to this the opposite situation

[@appoNo1]

Wenger vibes haha

[@patrickmurtagh9379]

Not quite sure what the point of this site is. Wouldnt it be best to put the effort into learning French!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

The point is to be fun and informative. As for people learning French, as I said at the end, isolating just the pronunciation without worrying about the vocab and grammar can be a useful exercise for getting a good accent.

[@ulaurszulenka24]

I hope this is a joke. Everyone laughs at people with such an accent and they are never taken seriously 😂

if you want a good laugh ask a French type what sound a duck makes. It's not quack.