French Pronunciation

Contrary to the English r, the French r is pronounced by moving the tongue to the back of the mouth.

revolution
bonjour
rendez-vous

Pronouncing r the french way, will help you be understood better and not only greatly improve how you sound in French, it will help you be understood better. Sometimes when I felt I was exagerating my French ‘r’, my teacher still thought it sounded good however you can still overdue it.
Vowel Sounds

ou vous – jour
oi toi – voiture
on / om bonbon – pompier
ai fraise – aimer
ei treize – peigner
ain train – demain
ein peinture – ceintre
in/im/ym invisible – important – sympa
un / um lundi – humble
en / em comment – embouteillages
an / am chanter – jambe
eu cheveux – heureux
eur chanteur – aspirateur
oeur coeur – soeur
oin plus ou moins – point
au jaune – dauphin
eau chateau – beau
ay pays – rayure
oy voyage – aboyer.

French Listening

Shortly after the French presidential election, the French government announced that the development of Paris as an international financial center was a high priority on its agenda.

At a time when more and more issuers, in particular issuers from emerging countries, are considering going public, and more and more issuers
look for alternatives to U.S. capital markets, the French government considers that time is of the essence to improve Paris’ competitive
situation, especially as it compares to London, which currently is by far the most attractive financial center in Europe.

Any success in this area will be linked to the government’s ability to open the French financial markets to foreign issuers, investors and
professionals. Accordingly, several reforms are being considered, including lowering the remuneration ‐ based taxation at banks and other
financial institutions and the stock ‐ exchange tax (impôt de bourse), in an effort to facilitate the immigration of highly qualified financial
specialists,etc.

Project

Hand out a worksheet with the sentences to be translated and an introduction such as “Please understand that using an online translator is, in my eyes, tantamount to cheating. I would certainly rather you write to me five sentences that you translated than a hundred sentences that a computer program translated for you.”

Instructions for students

Open a blank document in Microsoft Word. In the header please put your first and last name and the date (in French).

Type the following sentences into Microsoft Word, making sure that you insert all of the accents (see accent lesson).

Il y a de la neige en Afrique ? Mais oui ! Voilà une vue superbe de la vallée d’Ourika au pied de l’Atlas, une chaîne de montagnes en Afrique du Nord. Ce petit village isolé est situé au Maroc. Remarquez le minaret de la mosquée. Les Marocains, qui parlent arabe et français, sont des musulmans.

L’île Maurice est dans l’océan Indien à l’est de Madagascar. Ces petites Mauriciennes sont dans la cour d’une école primaire à Port-Louis, la capitale de l’île Maurice. Ici on parle deux langues : le français et l’anglais.

Find an online translator. Copy a sentence into it and have it translate the passage from French to English.

Skip two lines and paste the resulting translation into Word. At the end type the name of the translation service that you used.

Read through the translation, underlining the errors and oddities that come from an online translator.

Skip a line and type a paragraph that explains why you think it would obvious to your teacher if you used an online translator for a homework assignment.

After your paragraph, skip two more lines and type the following:

“I understand (name of teacher)’s policy on online translators. I agree that I will not use an online translator for assignments in his/her class, without his/her prior knowledge and consent. By signing below I acknowledge that if I use a translator on my assignments that I will be dealt with according to (name of school)’s policy on cheating.”

At the end of that please skip five lines and type your name and the date. Please print out this assignment, sign above your name, and return to your French teacher.