The sounds of French words October 17, 2009 @ 4:11 pm
Ha! It’s funny that I’ve used the word ’sounds’ in the title above. In French, the word is ’son’ and it is pronounced with a nasalised ‘o’ instead of pronouncing the ‘n’ at the end — a bit like ’song’ in English (but not exactly: we don’t have an equivalent in English). Phonetically, it would be ’sɔ̃’, rhyming with the French words for ‘bridge’ (ponte) and ‘egg-laying’ (sonde). To me, it sounds very similar to some other words in French which French people say are completely different. For example, the following sentence in English:
I smell the blood without feeling a hundred percent.
…would be written like this in French:
Je sent le sang sans me sentir à cent pour cent.
It might not mean a lot when pronounced in English, but that all changes in French. Here is a very rough way of writing in English how it sounds in French (keeping in mind that ‘ong’ is really a nasalised ‘o’):
Zhe song le song song ma sontear a song pour song.
It’s probably best if you get a French person to say this sentence for you. If you want the linguistic translation, it’s probably something more like: ‘ʒœsõ lœsõ sõ mœsõtiːʁ sõopuːʁ sõ’.
What I’m getting at is that a whole sentence in French can have more than one word that sounds the same, making it much harder to guess the meaning unless it’s in context. Is it any wonder I struggle with this language! I know we have ‘two’, ‘to’ and ‘too’ in English, but that seems like peanuts when compared with all the words in French that are pronounced the same way, even if written differently. And that’s not even including the French word for ’sound’ — and any other words that sound the same when spoken — into the equation. Am I the only one?
Hallelujah!
You’re so right! I’m with you. And when you don’t understand the words that give context, you have no hope!
And don’t get me started on vers (towards), vert (green), verre (glass), ver de terre (earthworm) and faire (to do)! Not a chance!
And my son (who understands French much better than I do) has just added vers (a verse) and fer (iron)…any others?
BTW, I like all the tessellating icons down the side!
I know they’re pronounced differently by French people, but I still struggle with hearing that difference between the words ‘par’ (by) and ‘pas’ (not) - it can totally alter the meaning of the sentence, even when in context. Nasty.
The icons are called Gravatars and you can get your own by visiting http://www.gravatar.com (that’s how I got my cow logo as a gravatar).
That reminds me of when I first moved to France. I was walking through town with some real estate men to look at an apartment. We passed by the fish stand and I said “Je sens le poisson.” There was a stifled laugh. My now-husband told me that I meant to say “Ca sent le poisson”, because otherwise, I would be saying “I smell like fish” instead of “I smell fish”.
And April, I had the same problem early on. My boyfriend was trying to tell me to exit a roundabout “par la! par la!” and I thought he was saying “pas la!”, so of course I didn’t take the right exit.
Haha! Great roundabout AND fish story.
That reminds me of my difficulties with poisson and poison are also quite confusing for me. If you don’t hiss the double-’s’ in poisson (fish), it sounds like you’re saying poison (same word in English). Not good to get them mixed up.
Do you know this one ?
“Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cent six scies scient quoi ?”
Even french people are often confused by this sentence.
The translation is :
“If six saw saw six cypress, what does six hundred and six saw saw?”
The answer is of course “six cent six cyprès”.
mimick, that’s a mouthful! I tried saying it slowly and it’s just as hard. One in English for you that’s quite similar: “She sells sea shells by the sea shore” but I think the French one is much harder.