Why French is Hard to Learn for English Speakers

[@ingramdw1]

Sometimes I despair with my struggles learning French, then I think about what a nightmare English must be to learn. I rate myself as good with my native English, but couldn't explain to you all the rules and conventions of the language - somehow I just know them. I can only hope French will be like that for me one day.

[@s.j4606]

I learned English without any specific effort. It was very gentle and reasonable. Now it's 7 months that I study french but I can only understand simple conversations .

[@markward3981]

You are doing great. Keep going

[@Yutappy99]

Silent letters are my favourite sound.

[@edgargarybautista3017]

J’adore le son de votre nom - Géraldine Lepère

[@QuizmasterLaw]

French is both the easiest and toughest language for native Anglophones (followed by Dutch). It all comes down to STRESS timed versus SYLLABLE timed and liason, which is the french practice of running words together when the second word starts with any consonant. Once you get around the different rhythm its cognates so many cognates and most grammatical structures are parallel too. I love French but these two lemmas are under taught or not taught at all and so we have less fluency than we ought.

[@phillipmcduffie9353]

Thanks so much for this latest video. This should be shown to students at the beginning of a class in French as a foreign language. They should become aware of many of the difficulties of speaking and understanding spoken French. To me, you have been the main advocate for teaching Modern Spoken French, as a language different from Textbook Written French that we all learn ( as that is what is taught in schools. ) Students typically are not aware that they are not learning Spoken French. They think they are speaking Spoken French when they are speaking Written, perhaps Formal French. They become very flustered because they cannot understand a French person speaking Modern Spoken French. How can teaching the French language be done better? Ch'sais pas ! = Je ne sais pas ! The teacher may claim that there isn't enough time ! This happened to me in beginning French at University. Three classroom hours per week versus five classroom hours per week in high school. My idea: Two hours per week for Written Textbook French, and one classroom hour per week for Modern Spoken French. With emphasis on speaking and understanding Modern Spoken French and when and howto speak more formal. The problem is getting enough teaching materials for Modern Spoken French. It would be nice if there was a textbook. Teachers love textbooks ( I know I do. ) Textbooks allow for practice through repetition, which is absolutely necessary to learn any language. Thank you so much for your help over the years. From Phillip, your friend from near Houston, Texas USA. In July 2024. Can you put your full name. I don't know how to spell it. Is it Géraldine Luper ? Sorry.

[@hollish196]

It is the triple vowels that throw me. Both the pronunciation and the spelling. And learning spoken of any language is the most valuable for daily life. Love your videos because they are so sensible and useful.

[@user-wv2le3ch9b]

Always amused that almost all people believe their own particular language is soooo hard. Learning any foreign language as an adult seems to be a process and a challenge to approach fluency, at least for ordinary folks. I'll take French grammar and learning French any day over, let's say, Scottish Gaelic syntax, its definite article, aspiration, and genitive case, to name just a few things in that language's grammar. Also while Geraldine's English is wonderful, English seems to be about as hard for many French-speakers as French is for the English- speaker- English phrasal verbs come to mind. Again, every language is a task for most and has its own particular pitfalls for the learner, but Geraldine does make understanding French a lot easier and points out those pitfalls for us in French. She's a great teacher with consistently useful content.

[@cleancutguy1892]

I'm a native Spanish speaker. French has so much in common with Spanish and all we need to learn is all those new nasal, the tricky R and the two U sounds. I find it easier to understand French people who live in the south of France. Parisians speak way too fast and they chop their words a lot.

[@tbilod]

Hearing French is the hardest part. French often sounds like a long monotone to my English ears. In spoken French they talk too fast, they clip words and slur words.

[@kylev5602]

I agree. For the first two or three years I was learning French, I could not hear the individual words a native French speaker was saying. It was just a French-sounding wall of sound. It was only after four or five years that I could recognize words. Now, after 10 years I can understand spoken French pretty well.

[@user-gy1pz6mq4n]

English may have adopted many french words but its germanic roots make it very different on so many levels

[@paulthomas281]

@user-gy1pz6mq4n Very true. The phrasal verbs in English are particularly difficult for speakers of French, Italian, and Spanish.

[@DeRhamme]

Thank you so much for your help on my journey to learn French.

[@marieparker3822]

I speak French but I don't understand it. I don't have too many problems with the pronunciation. I have a problem with segmentation - when a French person speaks it sounds to me like one long word. Of course, I realise that everyone speaks their own language much more quickly than they realise. In school we learned to read and write French - the wrong way of doing it, I think. (I know all about preceding direct objects and past participles, and disjunctive pronounsa.) You are a great teacher, Geraldine.🙂

[@SummerDream3r]

The way Rs roll in French is also different. Even if English speakers say Paris in somewhat proper pronunciation, the way they roll the Rs will be different than native French speakers. It has this back of the throat element that's different to English. It's one of the challenging aspects of French.

[@kaymuldoon3575]

The French don’t roll their Rs, it’s actually called a “uvular r.”

[@SummerDream3r]

@@kaymuldoon3575 whatever it is, it's hard to imitate. lol

[@MS-et4cw]

I'm from asia and though it was extremely easy for english speaker to learn french! Like we have huge advantages for learning other asian languages.

[@justynmacfarland9322]

This video is a beautifully detailed presentation of the most beautiful language! Thank you!!

[@kenlodge3399]

Yes, you are an expert where's I am not. Plus you'll be accurate and correct in almost all of your observations of how we speak, both French and English. BUT, But, but I travelled to France by myself, walking and visiting and getting around all over Paris and then the countryside. In all of my travels I have just one observation - the French Language Has No Consonants; No, non, None, aucune!

[@michaelmedlinger6399]

I do find it amusing when English speakers complain about the problems learning French listed here (admittedly, I did as well when I made my first attempts at learning French at university). But English has tons of silent letters and an orthography that drives even native speakers crazy with all the homophones, homographs, and homonyms (just to mention a few issues). And how do non-native speakers deal with phrases like „Whadjedo yesterday?“ or „Wherdej get that hat?“ or „Weda been stupid t‘do that.“

[@pat_hurst]

Merci pour cette vidéo🦋

[@khush1894]

Tbh Enlgish and french have so many similar words that it shouldn't be hard for an english speaker to learn it (except the gender concept and sounds). I think it would be much more harder for someone speaking unrelated lanuages like hindi, japanese, korean etc.

[@panidarattabrogly5331]

Couldn't agree more (btw. I'm Thai🙂)

[@evie1915]

Some english speakers insist on using the english alfabet on french word. It Sounds bad to the english, so yes really bad for the french speakers.

[@pamelawing5747]

I find some of the pronunciation of vowels to be challenging. It's hard to get the tongue and lips in the right place. It's like many non-native English speakers trying to say :THE". It comes out as a "D" sound and it's because the tongue is not positioned correctly. For some vowel sounds one of my lessons said to make my mouth as an "O" shape while saying "EEEEEE". SO much easier said than done but you hear the difference between the two sounds. I think the vowels are much harder than the "R" sound. I also think that people get too tied up in the grammar differences wanting to know why it is said that way in French. Its is that way because it is that way and just learn it. I stopped taking a class a few years ago because people were asking why all the time and everything stopped and it was just a waste of time.

[@jamess9607]

Appreciate the classy content. Loved the holding the nose bit to get the 'un' sound right. Thank you.

[@paraconseils9679]

Bonjour à toi; en termes de prononciation, je trouve très dommage que, au fil des années, la manière « parisienne » de ne pas faire de différence entre le son « un » et le son « in » se soit imposée; il ya cependant encore des régions, dans le Sud notamment, où cette différence persiste: je la fais, personnellement, de façon naturelle! Bonne journée à toi👋

[@peterboli9431]

For non French and non English speakers, if they're asked to choose between the two languages of basis of difficulty in learning, I believe many will chose French as the hardest. English is easy to learn no matter your native language. Française est trés complexe.

[@panidarattabrogly5331]

Couldn't agree more!

[@rosiebowers1671]

What do you find easier about English: the weird inconsistent rules, the *unhinged* phonetics or the gazilllion different regional accents, some of them quite impenetrable?

[@joyadero8590]

@rosiebowers1671 For starters, English doesn't have the genders. Also, The verbs don't have to be conjugated differently for each person and tense. The conjugation is the hardest part for me 😖

[@Treinbouwer]

I think the hardst part for English speakers in that there is no culture of learning other languages. I never liked it as a kid, but my mom was there to help and everybody went through the same progress: parents, grandparents, oncles, aunts, older cousins etc. Everybody tells you how important/anoying it is and why and how to do so. In fact now I have been through it, I can see how much it helps me to know those languages. I find the focus on English unfortunate. German and French (obligatory too) are important too and I even benefit my efforts for latin and greek (not obligatory). (I am Dutch)

[@ayeshajarrett2398]

Je vous remercie pour votre vidéo. Je vais m'exercer en français écrit.

[@kathleenallan3335]

Lol, have to say.... I had no problem with French, Spanish or Dutch! 😁 ...and I am Scottish! Lol

[@christopherbeckerdite4273]

Je vais travailler le futur en français écrit. Merci beaucoup.

[@GauravYadav-bw9sc]

❤

[@addis11100]

brench is dab

[@willhovell9019]

French isn't hard for English speakers , one third of English words are French and over 50% of English words are Latin based..There is a difference in some sounds in French such a U and guttural R in French , and French speakers struggle with TH ,normally coming out as ZZ, and difficulty in pronoucing AW as OW . The premise of your title is entirely false ,as any linguistics student will attest

[@evie1915]

So you wrote this in english?

[@laydownlays]

They have said, Peter Sellers French accent, from the old Pink Panther films, are a good example of a Brit exagerating a French accent.

[@nawimal]

🎉🎉🎉

[@anthonyshephard6073]

Apparently English prononciation causes you a major problem. A pity as many of we French speak and pronounce English quite competently.

[@markward3981]

🛑 stop ... Stop saying it is hard for someone learning. This is a. horrible teaching l strategy. It intimidates and often convinces the student that their progress won't bear fruit.

[@hunchbackaudio]

French is hard to practice with French speakers for two reasons. First they don’t understand their own language unless it’s spoken exactly in the right way. Second, they don’t no how to slow down and speak clearly, so if you’re able to bring your message across, the answer will sound like a muffled machine gun. My strategy is say bonjour and then switch to English. If that doesn’t work, move on to the next person.

[@rosiebowers1671]

« Unless it’s spoken exactly in the right way »: methinks someone is overestimating their own skills a little bit. If people don’t understand you, it’s probably not because your pronunciation is just a tiny bit off.

[@hunchbackaudio]

@@rosiebowers1671 That's what I thought, until about 30 years ago, I was in Annecy in a restaurant with a group of friends. At the next table was a group of Canadians trying all kinds of ways to make themselves understandable to the waiter, without much succes. One of my friends who is pretty good at French had to step in as translator. Afterwards they told us their Canadian french worked only one way in France. They understood everything the locals said, but had such a hard time making themselves understandable. Weirdest thing ever.

[@marekjanik9962]

Qui se soucie des Anglais ? Je suis allemand et j'apprends le français et l'anglais en même temps

[@laydownlays]

Who cares, the 500 million English speakers.....

[@fitzerelli1]

It's way to complicated.It is like a secret code that the french don't want you to crack.