Can An Italian Understand French? France, Paris

Welcome to episode 5! How much French can I understand as a native Italian speaker?
Links to the original creators! Check them out!
• What Parisians like an...
• dernière semaine au bu...
• On Teste 50 Mythes Ext...
French (français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl-languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.
French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents,[2] most of which are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 84 countries which share the official use or teaching of French. French is also one of six official languages used in the United Nations.[3] It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick, as well as other Francophone regions); Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere.[4]
In 2015, approximately 40% of the francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania.[5] French is the second-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.[6] Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language.[7] French is the second-most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German; in certain institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union).[8] French is also the 18th most natively spoken language in the world, fifth most spoken language by total number of speakers and the second or third most studied language worldwide (with about 120 million learners as of 2017).[9] As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast.[10]
French is estimated to have about 76 million native speakers; about 235 million daily, fluent speakers;[11][1][12] and another 77-110 million secondary speakers who speak it as a second language to varying degrees of proficiency, mainly in Africa.[13] According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language",[14] without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.[15] According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050.[16] OIF estimates 700 million by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.[5]
French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, the General Conference on Weights and Measures, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese

[@valyriantime910]

Hi Metratron ! I'm almost a native speaker since I'm from Gabon. And 95% of my generation speak French, even at home. I too thought that she pronounced PariSS the first time, as per your remark. But the 2nd time, I understood why "you" are hearing an "S" there. She's not actually saying PariSS. What's happening is, since the "R" is articulated with the throat in French (so the tongue almost stays flat) the stream of air vocalising the i, after freely passing the through the palet and the tongue almost hits the teeth, which are very close when you say Paris. That's what produces an involontary sibilant-like sound. It's more of of a "ich" sound, as a German would say it. That's what a foreign hear could hear, and interpret as an S, doubly mislead by the literal S which ends the word. I too hear it, but no way as an S. Being a native, I don't even think of it, but if pointed I know it just to be the result of pronoucing "RI" in Paris too strongly, à la française, and without deliberatly putting a sort of glottal stop at the end to prevent the false "sh" sound from occurring. I'm not a linguist though, but this how I understand the situation. Keep up the good work. I'm a huge fan. Hi from Morocco !

[@galier2]

Mbolo. That's exactly what happens here with the pronounciation of Paris.

[@Codd_rnw]

Perfect and clear explanation

[@shakya00]

Very Interesting theory. This is indeed not a S, but a "breathing sound" that has either an anatomic reason as you pointed out, or is simply a pronunciation that many French people adopted unconsciously.

[@thato596]

No she said an s we heard and s. At 1:50 she does not say an s when she says paris

[@shakya00]

@@thato596 You are obviously not French, no French person pronounce the "S" of Paris and she obviously makes a sound which isn't how we pronounce a "S".

[@korelly]

As a francophone, I can understand some Italian when it is spoken slowly. If I look at a text in Italian I can understand between 80% and 95%. But I also studied Spanish and Portuguese.

[@waxflow]

Exactly the same for me. as a French I was so surprised that I could read Italian newspaper and understand 80% without never learned it.

[@recorr]

@@waxflow je pense que vous exagérez, car, moi, issu de famille italienne, l'ayant entendu pendant mon enfance et l'ayant même étudié scolairement, je ne comprends rien à l'italien, car il y a beaucoup de faux amis, énormément même, et la plupart des mots clés dans une phrase sont précisément ceux qui ne ressemblent pas au français

[@MultiVaevictis]

c'est optimiste !

[@Loktane]

@@recorr après les Langues c'est un peu subjectif, car chaque personnes est différentes sur la compréhension des Langues étrangères

[@recorr]

@@Loktane Oui, en fait je ne mets pas en doute la bonne foi du commentaire de waxflow, mais je pense que l'on peut avoir l'impression de comprendre mais rater l'essentiel sans s'en rendre compte. C'est le 80% que je mets en doute, car même si 80% des mots du dico ont les mêmes racines entre les deux langues, je pense que 80% des mots dans des phrases n'ont pas les mêmes racines. (Les phrases étant principalement faites de petits mots clés, des conjonctions, des auxiliaires conjugués...) Surtout au vu de la vidéo sous laquelle nous commentons qui démontre bien ce que je dis.

[@unarealtaragionevole]

I'm glad you said France French when you were talking about numbers. It reminds me when I was in Switzerland and they were using septant, huitante and nonante even though they knew my tour group were all learning metropolitan...and our tour guide was from Paris and said something like please say it so they can understand it, and the lady said, "we don't have time for your silly number games." I still laugh about it.

[@patricialavery8270]

Oh those numbers.I remember it well.

[@massey81]

I grew up in the states when i was younger but moved abroad later on. My mother is french educated and she says i speak French like they do in Quebec. They apparently use the same style as the swiss when it comes to numbers.

[@divicospower9112]

These numbers are so dumb. In Switzerland (and Belgium) we kept the logical numbers. And that's more understandable for other people.

[@marna_li]

Danish uses a similar system to French - based around 20. They say things like ”halvtreds” - Think of a clock. Half to 3. ((3 - 0.5) * 20) which means 50. Not ”femti(o)” - ”five tens”. But lets face it: It is still decimal - just that they are using the terms from the older system. They don’t think in 20’s. So memorize words - which is hard to someone used to terms reflecting the decimal system.

[@Le_Trouvere]

France should honestly just switch over to huitante etc. Why not

[@pn4960]

Your ability to understand English also makes it easier for you to understand French since so many English words are actually derived from French.

[@LesangdesdieuX]

His hability to understand french definitly helped him too tho ahah

[@TheACSB010]

The words introduced by middle age French into English are coming from Latin, therefore they sound a lot like Italian, more than it does to French. Amd I say it as Italian native. Also, by personal experience, when speaking English, I sometimes do remove the final vowel spoken of advanced/technical/difficult concepts of italian words and anglicize it when I'm missing the English counterpart of Germanic root, and I sound just very educated for and English native. Small examples of advanced English words of Latin root with Italian counterpart: transpose/trasporre, origin/origine, originate, originare, elaborate/elaborare, declension/declinazione, marginal/marginale

[@_Ottho]

@@TheACSB010 They came from some form of langue d'oïl, which is not latin and pretty different from the occitan dialects already, but even more removed from any italian dialect. They might sound italian to you, but they're definitely more french, as the french that influenced it was already way different from latin. You might have gotten this impression from the fact french is very close to italian lexically. Also regarding your last point, you can see the link between language in a funny way : english people talking 'posh', very eloquently will often use more french originated word than your random english conversation. Likewise in french, as I said closest to italian lexically, the same mechanic kind of apply. Sometimes to find the meaning of a word, we can just search for a synonym that is more 'eloquent', or old timey, such as ones you'd find in old novels, but that arent used anymore. And using those when talking or even at work can sometimes sound weird, arrogant, sometimes 'posh' or classy. And England is France's first colony, never forget that truth. 2066 Franco-Italian alliance, we can bring them the much needed 40% of their vocabulary that's not french/latin based yet. And make England perfect, the finished product.

[@gaston6800]

@@TheACSB010 No. 28% of English comes from Old French due to the Norman Invasion in 1066 AD. French was spoken for a couple hundred years in England (although not by the large majority of people of course). But that's where it was introduced and influenced the English language. Old English is vastly different than English in the Middle Ages and practically unrecognizable to Modern English speakers because of how much it was changed by Old French.

[@ailleurd]

E vero

[@TheZapan99]

The older guy at 5:08 actually has the real accent of Paris, specifically the popular areas of Belleville and Ménilmontant. The younger folk speak a with a gentrified accent heavy with a final "schwa" that tends to be considered very grating and vapid by the rest of France. To give you an equivalent, they all sound (and often think) like Valley Californians.

[@domrogg4362]

Oh, no, not the Valley! 😅

[@gazlator]

Fascinating!

[@galier2]

Exactly.

[@Nanarachouilla]

Haha I was about to comment more or less the same thing 😄

[@unarealtaragionevole]

If by "Valley Californians" you mean...wealthy, spoiled individuals, who live in a southern region of their nation, spend their day complaining about their lives as they do nothing but spend ridiculous amounts of money on clothes, food, cars, and other frivolous things, while spending way too much time at the beach? Then...they are not Valley Californians, they are Tropéziens from Saint-Tropez. ;o)

[@arthurlevoir8357]

Don't worry, there is a reason why you hear an S at the end of "Paris" in the first video! It's a very common feature of colloquial speech, especially among younger people. We tend to add an S or an H sound when the sentence ends with a vowel. So, for example, I might say "Bonne nuit-hhh" [bɔn nɥih] instead of "bonne nuit" [bɔn nɥi] :)

[@9grand]

But the "s" is very very light

[@norbertlauret8119]

@@9grand Well, I'm french and I don't hear the "s"...

[@spoutnik7703]

@@norbertlauret8119 yep same

[@akenow.]

It's just at the end of the exhalation, we drop a very slight [h] sound if there's a vowel at the end. It can be tricky for French learners sometimes

[@sebastiencostalima9521]

​@@norbertlauret8119parce que t'es habitué, c'est plus l'accent parisien ça

[@Le_Trouvere]

At 3:22 She didn't pronounce the S in Paris, what's happening here is actually called 'final vowel devoicing ' where the 'eee' sound is finished with a breath straight after, similar to the german ch sound in 'ich' . It's actually a weird phenomenon that french people (from paris in my experience) often don't realise they're doing and they don't always do it! It seems to happen for emphasis on a final word of a sentence or a word that's emphasised on its own.

[@jacobbaker5442]

I've noticed that too and I hate it tbh

[@johndoes7569]

Maybe you wanna say "She did pronounce the S ..." because you can clearly hear the S in Paris....

[@jacobbaker5442]

@@johndoes7569 Jesus you're dense

[@OBIDU13]

French here, Paris is actually pronounced 'Pari'. No devoicing whatsoever, just a mute final consonant

[@jacobbaker5442]

@@OBIDU13 ok

[@yannsalmon2988]

It’s funny because the opposite way, trying to understand Italian when you are French, is (for me at least) way easier. Seems like the roots of words that we have in common are more obvious for us than the other way around. It’s like if a French tries to imagine how Italians would say this word, 90% of the time you’ll come up with something not that far off from the actual Italian word. It would be worth experimenting, but I think that a French speaking in a fake, totally made up Italian translation would actually be surprisingly somewhat understandable to a native Italian speaker. So oddly enough, it seems that Italian sounds closer from French than French sounds to Italian. It may also come from the fact that French may be slightly more used to ear Spanish and Italian than the other way around. There are lots of references to our Mediterranean neighbors in my country, but it seems to me that French references in Italy and Spain pop culture are not so common (not 100% sure, so correct me if I’m wrong). What is challenging though with this type of exercise is what we call the « faux amis » (literally translated to false/ fake friends) which are words that exist in the other language, sound very similar to a word of your own vocabulary and may even use the same Roman root but have totally different meaning. Those or particularly confusing because somehow the rest of the vocabulary is very similar to your native language. I’d say that Italian is more accessible to a French speaker than Spanish. For the anecdote, we used to have a quite offensive saying when talking about people that speak a very bad French : « parler français comme une vache espagnole » which translates to « speaking French like a Spanish cow » (told you it was offensive, I do hope that Spanish people have sayings to come back at us on this one). Oh, and that moustached bloke in the street interview definitely speaks the Frenchiest French I’ve ever heard, apart from the movies made until the 70’s.

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

It's because French underwent a more severe vowel and consonant reduction than Italian and Spanish, the former being the most conservative of the three. For example, a French will understand what acqua is because of the word aquatique in French, but an Italian would not understand what eau is without ever studying French. French lost the Q and rearranged all the vowels in water, introducing some new vowels too. Ironically eau uses every vowel except the one that it actually looks like it sounds O.

[@stronglytyped]

Native Spanish speaker here, French is phonetically impenetrable to me ☺️

[@jacobbaker5442]

Skill issue

[@MatthieuPiquemal]

As a French native speaker, Spanish was totally impenetrable to me originally as well, until I learned it. Same for Catalan and Italian. We do share a lot though, it's just that we struggle to recognize our similarities because of phonology 😉

[@MatthieuPiquemal]

@@Gelu345 the goose sound?

[@PossibleBat]

Don’t worry, some French person will take offense and bed you, making you very penetrable 😂

[@roidrannoc1691]

As a French speaker myself, I find reading Spanish very easy sometimes despite never learning the language, but understanding what is said orally is just impossible...

[@2chatons384]

Le Marais is a neighborhood (or quartier in French) in Paris...Very trendy, one of the oldest in Paris. Otherwise, the word marais means swamp in English.

[@mitchblank]

Cognate with "marsh". More specifically it's one of the architecturally oldest in Paris, since the older bits of the right bank got completely redeveloped by Haussmann 150 years ago.

[@Sxilder1k]

And Le Marais is well known for being the “gay” area in Paris, although she uses the more modern and less specific “LGBTQ” word.

[@paestum70]

I loved this video. I was born in the US to an Italian father and Italian was my first language together with English. I moved to France 15 years ago. Although I speak fluently, it's funny but when I am in doubt I go for an Italian term and *usually* it works. That said, it still drives me crazy how the French change genders all of the time on words!! La valeur, la couleur and many others. That is a major pain in the behind for Italian speakers! And it took me several years to be comfortable with saying 73 or 98 (soixante-treize or quatre-vingt-dix-huit instead of settantatre and novantotto).

[@galier2]

You can use septante-trois and nonante-huit. Only, you may then sound like a Belgian or a Swiss.

[@eviljoy8426]

i don t think it s a drama for us (italians) if you study french you know that often words that end with -eur that in italian are masculine, in french are feminine.. so it's not a problem..

[@paestum70]

@@eviljoy8426 exactly. What is difficult I think for Italian speakers is understanding and the pronunciation.

[@teebo_fr_en_it]

Ma... ma e stato voi a cambiare il genere delle cose! Un fior! Come qualcosa cosi piccolo e carino non potrebbe essere femminile?? :-)

[@paestum70]

@@teebo_fr_en_it non so se intendevi me o qualcun'altro ma sono d'accordo. A volte faccio fatica con i generi (la couleur, la valeur, ecc ecc) che sono l'opposto rispetto all'italiano. Ho imparato sbagliandomi.

[@P_Y_R]

Hey Metatron :D French native here, following what you've been doing for a while and an episode dedicated to it sounds fun :P a few notes : - The intro was perfect ;) - 2:20 We have another word close to "città" or "ciudad" which is "cité", but it's considered to be an old fashioned word :o you're spot on afterwards though, "villaggio" we have "village" too and "ville" comes from it, just a different word to signify it's bigger I guess :p - 3:28 You're right, the "s" is silent, she doesn't really say it but I can understand the confusion since her "i" lingers a little - 5:16 Spot on hahaha 5:30 "historique" you're right ! "caractère historique" basically means he feels like the city has an "historical mood", I don't know how to translate that better haha - 6:00 It was really perfect don't worry haha and you're right again about what he meant with "animation", he likes that it's lively :p - 6:40 HAHAHA but parisians aren't going to say that, you can get them everywhere hahaha, also "croissant" on its own was right already :p might have mixed it with "pain au chocolat" which is a different pastry :p - 9:20 & 9:40 Spot on once again ! A little difference with the Italian version it seems is the "de" became "à", as we say "beaucoup de choses à faire", but otherwise yes :o For the other videos I was writing down the sentences because I thought it would be easier to pick up the similar words if they were written down but you actually read some stuff at the end so it was pointless haha Very entertaining and interesting still ! Makes me wonder how I would do if the roles were reversed.. maybe i'll try it out :p

[@gemmafollows]

As a native English speaker, listening to French is almost impossible. Reading it is an entirely different story. Reading the article about shields, I understood about 30-40 percent.

[@jfrancobelge]

I'm French and, working in an international environment, I've see many foreigners learning French. And I've realized that a major difficulty of my mother tongue indeed is: written French and spoken French often seem to be two different languages... largely due to the "liaisons" between words and the silent letters.

[@tymanung6382]

@@jfrancobelge Also, pronouncing + spelling offer more problems 1) many silent letters, even whole syllables in 3rd person plural of verbs 2) several spellings for each nasal vowel To learn standardized Intl Phonetic Alphabet!s letters for French can help.

[@fuckdefed]

One problem is that I can read a French sentence and understand 80% or 90% of the words and still not understand it, or only half understand it, as all it takes is one or two unknown words or strange idioms to throw me.

[@fabgac4071]

An Italian cementing french language in English is a hard stuff kudos for you. Ciao dalla Francia.

[@danielimperato9904]

I am Italian born in Switzerland so I speak french and italian so I can see all the similarities. And for the numbers, every time I talk to a French I say that in Switzerland, we count numbers correctly, and not base 10 at first and then base 20 after sixty. Septante ( settanta, seventy), huitante (ottanta, eighty) et nonante (novanta, ninety) Saluti dalla Svizzera!

[@eivindkaisen6838]

They did have that system in France, too, but the Academie Française changed it back/or standardized it to the base 20 system, which, I believe, was used up to 120 at least into the 18th century.

[@holygooff]

For those who are confused about the French accent: It has nothing to do with the Gauls or Franks. French pronucniation used to be much more like the written language, i.e. they proncounced their words fully like they were written. It only started changing a few centuries ago. I suppose this had something to do with the way the influence of the court of the obsolutist monarch and later (19th century) the bourgeois state. French before that time wasn't that different from Italian. Listen here to an example kzbin.info/www/bejne/goDSgZurhc6plc0, it's a scene from a Molière play in the original language.

[@xouxoful]

Sometimes, sometimes not. Typically diphthongs were pronounced (eau, chevaux, maître), but letters were also added later to recall latin etymology and those were never pronounced (ex : doigt instead of doi)

[@maku4210]

To enlight your thoughts about the french accent and especially why is there too many silent letters in written french it came simply from "l'académie française" that decided to create general spelling rules in 18th century because as you said with the example of Molière at his time written french didn't had rules and was written as it sounded like but 17th century french was way more different than latin in the prononciation that's why "l'académie française" added silent letters in words to show the latin roots of french language

[@valerietaylor9615]

I once read something to that effect. That’s why French spelling is so unphonetic. English spelling is just as bad, but since England never had anything equivalent to the French language academy, I don’t know why so many letters were retained that were pronounced in Old and Middle English, but are now silent. Does anyone else know?

[@alexd6393]

I think you are wrong on cause and effect. In past French didn’t pronounce like they were written, they written like they pronounce… It is spoken language before to become written language. That is why you have multiple way of writing in 16/17th century, close to pronouncing. Then, some people decide to have “rules” in writing, and we are stoked with old rules that are not link to how people talk. We should made our written closer to the spoken language… but…

[@xjmmjbnqfstjdijoj2044]

Modern French speakers, especially the younger generations, tend to devocalize closed/high vowels (i, u, é) at the end of utterances. This phenomenon is called "vowel devoicing" So Paris can sound as /pariç/ Merci as /meʁsiç/ Voulu as /vulyç/ Parlé as /paʁleç/ Modern French speakers seem unable to clearly hear this sound as it is not perceived as a consonant but rather as an allophone

[@pierreriviere9158]

There are mainly three factors that influence the pronunciation of the French language (on a short scale of time) : regional accents, generational drift and immigrants influences.

[@pusillirex]

I believe what makes you think the woman is saying the S in Paris is "devoicing": she's actually pronouncig Paris as /paˈɾiç/ instead of the standard /paˈɾi/ As a native speaker I think this phenomenon is a lot more common with the word "oui" which is often pronounced /wiç/ instead of /wi/. I'm no linguist btw, it's from my experience

[@mitchblank]

I think that's about right. As an English speaker I wouldn't even have noticed the "s" (I had to go back to listen for it after he mentioned it) because in english we'd use a very deliberate "s" at the end. "par-iS". In Italian so many words end in a very strong vowel sound (and, if anything, it's likely to be stressed more at the end of a sentence) so he's expecting "par-IIIII". But she doesn't linger on that final vowel. As you said, you often hear the same thing when "Oui" is said by itself -- the final vowel stops as soon as it starts.

[@paull6449]

It's that new fangled annoying "hhh" sound that younger women add to the final i of the word, like Paris. They do it in Quebec also, now. 🙄

[@remilenoir1271]

The "R" in French is an uvular fricative ([χ] / [ʁ]) though, not a dental tap ([ɾ]).

[@valerietaylor9615]

I was in France during the late 1980s, and I heard middle-aged French people saying “oui” with the German “ Ich” sound at the end.

[@DarkSamus100]

I am really enjoying this series. Really fun and interesting. I always thought that the French were weird, complicating themselves with 70 = soixante-dix, 80 = quatre-vingt, 90 = quatre--vingt-dix. In most cantons of Switzerland, 70 is septante, 80 is huitante, and 90 is nonante, much easier than the French French, with Geneva, being an exception, who still uses quatre-vingt for 80. I'm curious to see what other languages, or dialects you'll try to gauge how much you understand the spoken and the written of that chosen language or dialect. Anyway, thanks from a French-speaking Swiss, may you, your family, friends and also those who read this, have a good day, and bless you all noble ones.

[@roidrannoc1691]

If you're wondering about the numbers, it's because of the Gauls, that used a vigesimal system instead of a decimal system. 0-69 we use a decimal system. 80-99 we use a vigesimal system. 70-79 is the mutant inbred baby of both systems.

[@daxamgh6126]

I think Neuchâtel and Jura also use "Quatre-vingts"

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

My family is from Piemonte, so growing up I was used to the local dialect that belongs to the galloromance family and has a lot of similarity with French. Making this premise because I believe it is what plays a big role in me understanding reasonably decently not only written but also spoken French despite no formal study - of course provided they don't mumble too much or/and speak 70 words per minute.

[@sarumanthewise8511]

Hey Metatron! Long time viewer, both main channel and this one. just wanted to say that you have inspired me to take the leap and learn another language! Just so happens that I chose French, lol. Anyways, thank you for all you do, and you have done more for us than you could ever imagine. Keep up the good work!❤

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

"bouclier" is tricky. We have another word for it from the same root as "scutum"/"scudo" which is "écu" (scuderia => écurie), meaning specifically a medieval knight's shield (also the name of an old currency, as is found in several languages) but it's not transparent either

[@yukine5547]

I really appreciate this channel a lot. It became a part of my morning routing to watch the new video you uploaded. Tibi gratiam debeo, magister

[@callumbush1]

Very informative and interesting series.

[@rosacuore15]

You have a great understanding of knowledge in general, and I am confident to say within few months you can learn conversational skills in Romanian language, as well as many other romance languages and other languages apart from romance group of languages. I have emphasized my native language because I am fluent, regarding written different complex concepts, not only conversational. Thanks so much 🙏for your content on social media! Appreciate you! 👌

[@jeanleduy9923]

Merci, je te suis depuis longtemps. C'est toujours intéressant.

[@benjaminreyes8115]

Really interesting video! I recently discovered your channel and I have really enjoyed your content. As a languages enthusiast it has been a nice finding. Keep with the great content Metatron!

[@matf5593]

I speak French, we do have another word for city… cité…. But ville is most common. Merci!

[@NoName-yw1pt]

And how is villa in french?

[@matf5593]

@@NoName-yw1pt In French, “villa” is “villa”, a feminine noun. E.g. Une villa à la campagne. A villa in the countryside. 😄

[@NoName-yw1pt]

@@matf5593Merci 😁

[@yannsalmon2988]

Yes, cité is used only for very big cities like Paris. Cité has a magnificence, grandiose, beauty aspect to it where Ville is your average town. You will also see it used for naming some parts within a city or its suburbs, as a kind of try to make the neighborhood sound better. So paradoxically, if you see a neighborhood named « cité de… », most of the time it’s a part of the city that really sucks… So to sum it up : Cités (big cities) > Villes (cities & towns) > Villages (very small towns & villages)

[@matf5593]

@@yannsalmon2988Ouais! E.g. Cité de Vanier (Ottawa au Canada). Not the greatest réputation....

[@circeowaggles]

This video I've been waiting for

[@jerichogonzales1290]

As an anglophone french isn't to difficult to read.( thank you William). However the spoken language definitely takes work.

[@khelian613]

Actually motivates me to learn italian someday :D thank you for your videos. And your accent is actually very good!

[@emmanuelwood8702]

you should do Corsican.

[@michaelmartinelli2258]

Buongiorno Signore Metatron! I am new to your channel and do enjoy the language comparisons to Italian. Simply having a wonderful time viewing your videos. As we say at home: " i ragazzi nella mia famiglia sono alti e Biondi." 😊 Ciao!

[@ericscavetta2311]

Would really love to see you do an episode on Langue d'Oc / Occitan! Probably the closest to Italian, or at least to Genovese or Piemontese.

[@TheFreeRunPorject]

Now do Quebec French.

[@VoodooAngel63]

Cajun French from Louisiana could be interesting.

[@jacobbaker5442]

​@VoodooAngel63 it's literally french pronounced as if it was English

[@jacobbaker5442]

Or Belgian french

[@ImaginatorJoren]

Swiss French? He did Swiss Italian already

[@andraflorescu]

Omg, HECK YES! Quebec french can be overlooked or sometimes made fun of. I didn't of that until he mentioned it in the video, but doing Quebec french is such a good idea

[@tricaurelie]

Oh I'm so glad you finally tackled my mother tongue 🤗🇫🇷

[@alexisandrey2181]

There's a reciprocity between Italian understanding French and French understanding Italian. As a French if an Italian speaks slowly I understand between 70 to 80% of words depending on the regional accent of that Italian, a Roman Italian I understand 80%, Turin Italian also, Napoli 80%, But for example Friuli region, Sicilia, Venetia I have really hard time.

[@onclesam1463]

Your french accent is flawless. I'm impressed !

[@noaryogi3721]

Bonjour de Bretagne!! J adore t es videos (more video on Celts please)

[@mayu2242]

Ce serai cool qui fasse aussi des vidéos sur d’autres régions avec d’autre accent et voc très différent (Bretagne, Picardie, le Midi)

[@WineSippingCowboy]

Like 👍 Number 825. American here 🇺🇸. I learned Spanish 🇪🇸 as a 2nd language. I used it to learn Spanish. This helped in reading 📚 and comprehension. 😃😃 Pronunciation? Only 1/2. The mute words were the hard parts: goes opposite Spanish, where the speaker pronounces virtually every letter in a word. Good 👍 video 📹. Suggested next language: Chavacano. It is a Spanish creole from The Philippines 🇵🇭

[@adon9768]

Bravo pour votre idée originale. Et surtout hyper bien traité.

[@LeJobastre1215]

5:12That guy isn't "so french" he just has the traditional parisian accent, there's various accents in France, the southern ones influenced by Occitan for example are very different

[@mayu2242]

True! But then again, I feel like it’s a bit normal since Parisian culture is the most popular of the French cultures

[@caliberto5087]

As italian living in Paris I can write that understand french is pretty easy. For sure the closest idiom to italian.

[@bongdonkey]

There are several French words in Sicilianu language. Even in English there are many French words. Grazie pi lu video, Saluta!

[@brunolima7402]

Portuguese from Portugal has many words that were influenced by French. Thanks for the video, Metatron.

[@Gab8riel]

More so than Brazilian Portuguese? Random anecdote, once had a Portuguese guy correcting me when I used the word abajur. "Chama-se luminária. Abajur é francês.".

[@KnightofAges]

​@@Gab8riel Yes, because Brazil didn't get invaded by the French. Also, Brazil wasn't as involved in European culture as mainland Portugal (almost all the fashion and novelties for 150 years came straight from France, and we took lots of new words from there). And the Portuguese guy that 'corrected' you was completely wrong. The Portuguese word for 'Abat-jour' is 'Abajur', and there is no other variant. In the early 70s, an alternative was proposed, and it was "quebra-luz". Nobody cared, and that alternative didn't gain traction. For this story, just google 'abajur abat-jour' and pick the result from the site 'Ciberdúvidas da língua portuguesa'.

[@tcbbctagain572]

Brazilian portuguese also has most of those words

[@tcbbctagain572]

​@@KnightofAges Napoleon's invasion had nothing to do with that influence. Portuguese wasn't even influenced by French, it was influenced by Occitan.

[@KnightofAges]

@@tcbbctagain572 Portuguese was formed by Occitan clerics that came to Coimbra in the 11th century. That said, we were talking about exactly how much French words are used, and we got tons of French words put in from all the French stuff that came here since the early 1800s into well the 1960s. Hence the word 'abajur'. This is not a talk about the medieval origin of the language, rather about new words introduced in the last two centuries.

[@thegreekchad5066]

Occitan would be cool to do

[@mariemartino1310]

Mec, tu t'es bien démerdé à l'oral et à la lecture ! Bravo 👍

[@wyattwahlgren8883]

I don't mind this series, but I wouldn't mind if you slowed down just a little bit. I like your other videos from this channel, and I don't expect them to go away, but I'm starting to miss those other kinds of videos. With that being said, I have two suggestions: Cajun French and Rio Platense Spanish (Argentina and Uruguay). Rio Platense Spanish is considered to be a difficult accent to understand, but it is influenced by Italian, due to immigration. I would be interested in both of those specifically.

[@fs400ion]

As some suggested, you should do one with Québec French! It has a lot of similarities with other romance languages that France French doesn't have, like saying nous-autres/vous-autres (nosotros and vosotros from Spanish), or also the infamous ``Quessé ça`` a slang for ``Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça (what is that)`` which sounds exactly like the Spanish Que es eso. Also, in Québécois when we say « sur le (on the) » it becomes ``sul`` like in Italian. « La télécommande est sul' (sur le) sofa » We kept older words like « drette » (right) but we also say the modern form which is «droite». The older form « Drette » is just like the catalan word « Dreta ». We sometimes pronounce the final consonnant of some words like « Nuit » (night). Finally, the Québec diphtongues. Québec kept a lot of diphtongues, making it the romance language that sounds the most like portuguese when it comes to such sounds. The « Non » sounds a bit like the Portugese « Nao » (though it will sound like that rather when the Québécois that says it is mad or acting childlike). Words like « Reine » (queen) will sound like « rène » in France French (no diphtongues) but in Québec you'll hear the i « rè-i-ne » Anyway here's a video where we can hear different Québécois speaking kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5OuZ6aGrKumq5I&ab_channel=Mat%C3%A9oDumontier

[@CaptainBiceps]

"nous-autres/vous-autres" existe en Français de France ça n'a pas encore disparu en tout cas.

[@fs400ion]

@@CaptainBiceps Mais beaucoup moins répandu. Au Québec c'est du vocabulaire courant

[@CaptainBiceps]

@@fs400ion c'est peut-être "moins répandu" mais ça reste assez courant en France. Bon c'est sûr qu'un mec peu éduqué ou un adolescent ne s'en servira jamais en France mais je l'ai toujours entendu perso depuis tout petit.

[@bipboup7761]

Hi ! French from the south here. In the south, we have a lot of expressions, words, that are closer to italian. If someone still uses a bit of Patois, Provençal or Occitan, you may be able to understand better (also with the accent). I think that coming from French to italian is easier, because of the following thing : some words like Hôpital have had their pronunciation transformed, and deviated sometimes quite a lot from the original word in pronunciation. However, we still have adjectives that have the same meaning, same ethymology, but remained closer to the originial spelling. exemple : hospitalier is the adjective for "related to hospital world", so if you have good vocabulary, you might be able to find a lot of italian words like that, while the italian speaker can't use french adjectives. I agree with the written thing, I have never studied italian or Spanish, and I can read it (and hear it when spoken slowly and clearly), and still pick up the important informations of texts, while although I live in Flanders and speak german, it's super hard for me to understand the flemish (it's getting better now).

[@holygooff]

I live in the Flemish region. ALmost everyone speaks a sort of patois here. It's not Dutch, it's not German, it's something else. But we gave up on our own standard language as well.

[@LuisKolodin]

have you noticed that Portuguese has liaison QUITE EXACTLY like in French? I'm very surprised no one ever says about liaison in Portuguese, this is usually a "trademark" of French. liaison and nasals make Portuguese more similar to French in phonetics, while Spanish is more similar to Italian: open vowels with no contraction/liaison.

[@XX-rq2ox]

It's amazing because even if you don't understand what you read you still say it pretty good.👍.

[@gabrielbour1722]

when she says Paris she pronounces it with a sh sound, and not with a s sound. I'm in South East France, near Marseille, we often use a kinda shwa sound at the end of words, PAriE, or sounds like ing, bread du paing, wine du ving. Croissant au beurre (butter) ou pain au chocolat, Croissants au chocolat are not real. Ciao dalla Francia, ci sone molti Italiani che vengono vistare a la mia citta Aix-en-Provence.

[@ViciousDoormat]

Pain au chocolat is definitely more famous and eaten than croissants au chocolat, but those definitely exist as well

[@Aloon-jy7we]

As a French speaker, this was a really fun video! At 3:20 and 7:13 the girl doesn't pronounce the s in Paris. What you really hear is a phenomenon of Paris regional accent: when a word ends with a vowel in which the tongue is moved near the palate (meaning either I or U), we oftentimes push a little air afterwards, that air passes between our tongue and our palate and makes a sound that sorta resembles a mix between a h and a sh sound. I believe that's why you thought she pronounced the S in Paris

[@celinelagarde8980]

At 4:15 Le Marais is a neighborhood in Paris. It’s also mean a swamp. From the 9th century, following a drying up of the land, many inhabitants settled. To live sustainably, they cultivated agricultural products. Thus, from a swamp, the Marais has become a vast market garden.

[@Chiamami_Capo]

Now it's 🏳️‍🌈🐀🐀

[@bjbjboxford]

For Metatron who likes latin. In French the word on comes from homo hominis in latin. (homo means human in Latin, man is vir in Latin) So, the expression `on vient` means human(someone) is coming homo at nominative became on (we say cas sujet for Old French) and homo at accusative became homme (we say cas regime in Old French) French lost its declension very lately 16th-ish, (Spanish around the 2nd century and Italian around the 8th) and there are a lot of doublets in French from cas sujet/regime, (gas, garçon, pute, putain, col, cou, etc...) I think Maison comes from Maneo,es, manere (to stay in Latin) maison is where one stays Casa gave case in French and Chaise in Occitan (a town is called la chaise-dieu) and also CHEZ in Genitive form. "Chez moi" a sort of in "my casa's" if that makes sense. Aujourd'hui , d'hui comes from hic, haec hoc in genitive form huius, Aujourd'hui means this day of today. (yes, it is cumbersome) By the huius also gives oui. Merci pour tes vidéos.

[@KertPerteson]

Interesting, I've heard of french having declensions in the past but not of italian and spanish

[@bjbjboxford]

​@@KertPerteson the proto-Indo European had declensions, I think 8 cases. So, all the proto-Indo European languages have or had declensions in their history. In English, only the genitive barely survives nowadays. (the 's at the end for the possession) Classical Latin had 6 cases of declensions. (1 was lost, the instrumental and one was almost dead the locative save some expressions) but already the vulgar latin (the colloquial language spoken by everyone) was already much poorer in declensions. the wikipedia page is very interesting about it, roman languages are definitely coming from that vulgar latin. French kept far longer its declension because French had more germanic influence and German has still its declension (4 cases left) Romanian still has its declensions, I would assume it may be the result of the influence of the slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Polish.._ They all have declensions.

[@maxpower9979]

Cool video. It is funny to hear an Italian saying that our language sounds lovely when I do feel, as a Frenchman, that our language just sounds normal (especially Parisian French) and it's Italian that sounds like singing. About the Paris-sss, I don't think she is trying to say it with a final s (as in English), it is more like she was about to start another word and stopped, or like the "euhhh" that we may mutter after a sentence, to avoid stopping it abruptly.

[@dontimotedelaplantxa7426]

Funny thing is, you've got the "jump" right, but recognized the wrong word. The word he used was "saut", which at the time, when Normans brought French to England, was still "sault" (assault/summersault) and there we are already close to "salto". It is by the way quite a common shift to be found: salvo-sauf/alto-haut/caldo-chaud

[@lazios]

Any Italian with average/good education can understand French written easily; spoken? It's different (unless the words are slowly articulated, in that case the vocabulary is so similar that you can really understand a lot).

[@recorr]

In the customary comparison of common words between two languages, we often overlook the fact that the most crucial, frequently used, and briefest words do not share any resemblance. And even if there is a resemblance, it often leads to significant ambiguity.

[@HighLight43]

Hey Metatron, great video. I have a small correction to make, though. You said something like "two different kinds of Spanish" during the intro and I feel the need to point out that Catalan is a separate language. It is spoken in Spain, but also in southern France and Alghero, Italy. It isn't a "kind of Spanish". I look forward to more videos in this series. Keep up the good work

[@KelK1]

Bravo pour ton accent 😊

[@FrenchLightningJohn]

i think the other reason you might had less problem is that you also know english and english do loan and use a lot of french word in their language, like materials and matériaux being the same

[@thebenis3157]

The French loanwords in English usually have equivalent words in Italian that are almost the same. Surely there can be some instances where knowing English might help, but they're definitely very few

[@evernightcg9081]

Do Rumantsch next🎉🎉

[@sh-og6ys]

bravo, tu es trop fort

[@ironiccookies2320]

You should try to see if you can understand some of the other Oïl languages like Norman, Picard, and Walloon.

[@Morkeoth]

Hey ! Nice video ! Just for you to know, she doesn't say the "s" at the end of Paris, she elongate the "i" and her tongue slightly touvh her palate, producing a slighlty wisthling sound that can ressemble an 's' or a 'sh'. ;)

[@astridvallati4762]

If one is Piemonteis, French is relatively easy ( both Pronunciation and Vocab)...at my HighSchool Finals in French, the Prof. Of Faculty at Univ. Commented on my diction...I replied, " Pourquoi je suis Piemonteis! Madame la Professeuse."

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

Is that why Carla Bruni is so good at French?

[@Kollum]

about the word "voiture", it is actualy quite generic in french, it means passenger vehicule. For instance, a horse puled cart with comfy seat and roof is a "voiture", or if in a train, you have a seat in a passenger wagon number N, you search for "la voiture n°N", "wagon" being for cargo only.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

When asking the reverse, if a French can understand italian, we seem to be at an advantage as italian retained more of latin than french did (that notably had a significant gallic influence). I never had any course in italian (except if counting some of your videos) but can understand a decent amount of written italian, more than the other main romance languages. Of course spoken italian is spoken, a northern pronunciation (and slowed down over normal speed) makes a lot of difference.

[@axo_lolt4083]

Bravo

[@Lyendith]

Regarding "ville" we also have the word "cité" but it refers more to an old, medieval-style city ; or in the modern sense to a (usually pretty poor) housing block.

[@P-Mouse]

it would be interesting to see some videos like this on some of the languages similar to English maybe like German, Icelandic, Norwegian, or Afrikaans,

[@DanSolo871]

Or Frisian

[@valerietaylor9615]

Or Yiddish.

[@Funktastic_Ed]

In French we also say "cité" wich is synonim of "ville". "Cita" > "cité" > "city" Parisian French, is in fact neutral French, but the real Parisian accent sounds like this guy at 5:07 there's about a dozen different accents in France, some of wich sound very specific, and pretty hard to follow for non used ears. If you listen to a Parisian and a guy from Marseille, you'll notice it clearly.

[@romain6275]

12 accents seulement ? Rien qu'en Lorraine, j'en compte au moins trois.

[@dbjoker2073]

ooohhh do the Québec accent! I'm really curious how much harder it will be for you!

[@livrowland171]

In the second one she says she's doing her vlog in the car on a Monday morning because everyone was sleeping at home and she talks about the week coming up. She says at work at lot of people are off, on holiday. She talks about 2 people called Luna, one who has left and the other who is working with them until September and who looks after cracotte (it means biscuit, maybe it's her dog), and she says her best friend Mathilde who she has known for years is coming back from holiday and she is doing some shopping and they are going to bruncher - have brunch .

[@racineurr.8924]

Hello sir. One thing for sure. Your pronunciation is fantastic. That's where the latin roots (if I can say that) show. I speak Québécois French and I can assure you english speaking have much trouble speaking French. What's funnier though, you truly have a very strong Québécois accent. I see (understand) no Paris or France accent here. Go watch Québécois movies or soaps or interviews and you'll see by yourself. Avec toute mon admiration, monsieur.

[@ML-kp8db]

Bravo mon Grand! Un jour tu feras le beau français Québecois. J'adore ton intelligence! Vous êtes une de mes outils favori à ma reconstruction cerébrale. Mes ailes ce déploies! Grâce à vous en parti. Un héros et ami dans ma solitude. Vivez longtemps et prospérez🖖

[@emailvinz]

So fun to watch ! 'vetura' for 'voiture' ?, 'machina' is close to 'machine' in french that means 'engine', that makes sens ! The Spanish say 'coche' for car, which in french refers to a horse carriage. It is so funny to see how the roots of the words are from the same origin (latin), but forked in different ways. By the way (I'm french), maybe it is easier for a french to understand an Italian (if he speaks slowly), because at least Italians are pronouncing almost every letters, that makes the words more understandable. For a French, the Portuguese language sounds totally from outer space too, and is impossible to understand unless you have studied it, BUT, reading it is possible quite decently. Thank you for that cool video.

[@kuuransworkshop4243]

Another thing to add for maybe another video: french language on french teritory change with your location. While parisian french is the most knowed for foreigner, the way to speak, the word in usage, the tone and the body language have subtle or big difference between french region. You should also try it in corsica, belfort, lyon, marseille ans other big city in the western coastline to have a real global understanging of what france french is really (while also not forgetting the island all around the world who have huge difference compare to continental french)

[@ttora]

Hi! Very fun video and very good idea. I'm French and about the "Pariss", she doesn't actually say this, she pronounces "Pari" as you thought she should. She just speaks fast and breath heavily afterwards which gives that illusion of an "s". When I'm listening to her I clearly hear "Pari" without the "s".

[@thegreekguy1124]

When watching a video you should put the window thing in the up right corner so we can see the subs

[@famillebeaulieu-luangkham2923]

Hi ! That's not an "s" when she says "Paris" but rather an "h" sound that sounds like a whistle in the microphone ;) and it's a common pronunciation "defect" or habit, to kinda "sigh" on the final word of a sentence. "Paris-hhhh" ;)Oh, and VERY nice shelf behind you by the way !!! :D

[@tatianaoliveira2191]

French is the hardest of the Romance languages (and Romanian too), atleast to me... Spanish is the easiest to me (I'm from Portugal, so I understand Spanish to an extent), I understand a little bit of Italian (might take some classes, it’s a beautiful language)

[@diogorodrigues747]

I disagree with you, the easiest one for a Portuguese speaker isn't Spanish, it's Galician.

[@fredericjuliard4261]

Merci.

[@AJos17]

She doesn't pronounce the "s" at the end of Paris. She actually does a sort of breath at the end of her sentences like a "shh" (to mark the question I guess). It's interesting that you can hear a "s" because as a french person myself I could never hear it, it's pretty common to do these kind of noises while we are speaking I guess.

[@VoodooAngel63]

I find that I understand quite a lot of written French but it is more difficult to understand the spoken word with my knowledge of Spanish. I would not say I am fluent in Spanish but probably conversant. I did learn a bit of French, about the equivalent of 1 year high school French, as a young child and then took a year of French in high school.

[@AlinefromToulouse]

it is always the case for Romance languages, I think a French speaker can understand enough if reading a book in Italian, but certainly not spoken Italian.

[@PeloquinDavid]

In France (in the "standard metropolitan" dialect), there is a fairly recent tendency for people who finish a sentence ending in an "i" sound to add a slight hissing sound quite similar to the German "ich". We do not use that sound in French Canada, BTW.) It's not an "s" sound and would not usually arise in the middle of a fluidly spoken sentence.

[@zaringers]

It’s true that it’s more like a german "Ich" and definitely not an s, but it is because when you pronounce i "ee", you have your mouth contracted and your vocal cords vibrate (vocalize), and the hissing sound is simply the some air that goes through the mouth still contracted to pronounce the i, but when you are not vocalizing (you don’t make your vocal cords vibrate) anymore. You can here it in the end of sentence because there is no more words to pronounce, so the mouth stays in this position and we naturally don’t contract the throat to stop the air, because we don’t pay attention to it anyway (and nor are we conscious that this happens). I wonder if here people notice it because there is famously a mute s at this end of "Paris" when pronounced in French and that the hissing sound kinda looks like an s..? It doesn’t only happen with i that some air goes through the mouth, but with other vowels it looks more like an "h" sound I would say? Like if I were saying "Alors là.." in a way that mean "I can’t trust this", you could definitely hear an h at the end.

[@valerietaylor9615]

I heard French speakers adding the German “ Ich” sound at the end of words back in the late 1980s.

[@PeloquinDavid]

@@valerietaylor9615 At my age, the late 80s ARE recent... 😉

[@SteveAaron]

She says Pari, not Parisss. You’re just hearing the end “sh…” she puts at the end as a way of speaking, I guess…. That’s just the way she speaks. But you’re absolutely correct, we say PARI, not PARISSSS”. The “s” is silent.

[@kanrakucheese]

If you’re still doing this next year, I’d like to see Finnish or Hungarian for the first of April (since I’m sure even you’ll have difficulty recognizing a single non-noun).

[@kanrakucheese]

@@graemeduncan472Hence "first of April"

[@DrSAM69]

Oh you should do Corsican, definitely!

[@Chiamami_Capo]

Sure, nice region of Italy

[@regisdumoulin]

As a French speaker it's kind of funny that the comments Metatron makes about understanding French are the ones I would make about understanding Italian : to me it feels like Italians are speaking too fast and the language becomes much easier to understand when people speak a little slower and articulate more. I could even relate about the comments regarding vocabulary such as voiture and machina... Which I would understand as a French speaker because it sounds like "machine", which is the generic term for any kind of mechanical equipment. Two remarks, "le Marais" in the first video is the name of an area in Paris, it means marshland/swamp and is connex to the Italian 'mare' but very different from the Italian word. Oh and the woman in the second video spoke too fast, used passably correct turns of phrases and generally speaking was difficult to understand even for the native speaker that I am. The Italian intonation is very different from standard French but quite similar to that one if the south of France where I am from... Lastly I think Italian is a beautiful very melodic language!

[@FegureItout]

hey hey, great video, if you do french from quebec, try to find older video from the 1960s, we use to roll R on everything, sadly not anymore, but that being said remember that quebec use old french from the 1500s and this type of french is closer to latin then paris (modernise french, (we still use ((freit))witch mean froit) thank again for your preciouses time

[@KevDaly]

“U” Is fiendishly difficult for English-speakers as well. Counting in twenties might be borrowed from Gallic? I think in “aujourd’hui” just the “hui” is cognate with “oggi” - since “jour” means “day” it originally meant “On the day of this day”.

[@mattiamele3015]

Yes. In Italian “al giorno d’oggi” means “today” as in “nowadays, in this day and age”.

[@tchop6839]

3:20 the sound at the end of Paris is not an ‘s’, but another sound - a voiceless palatal fricative /(ç/ in IPA). It’s the same kind of sound that Americans make at the start of the word ‘human’, or like ‘ch’ in German ‘ich’. In French, unlike in German, the sound doesn’t actually carry any meaning and is instead a sort of filler sound which we put between ‘i’ and a pause or stop of speech. A different example is ‘oui’, which tends to get pronounced /wiç/ and not /wi/

[@PattyBG1103]

In U.S I studied Spanish, Italian and French. French was most difficult. You should try Maltese. My neighbors were Maltese on one side and Barese on the other.

[@NoName-yw1pt]

Do Neapolitan next

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

Maybe Occitan next?

[@ceohadenough894]

You need to do a video for Occitan

[@rodolphetuveri8923]

Actually at 2:30 we also have in french the word cité which is an old word for town. But which is pretty negative lately because it means town suburbs really not nice to live in. So we prefer to use ville.i think from villa in latin. Place with homes. :)