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Ten Hard French Words To Pronounce

Ten Hard French Words to pronounce! Hope you doing well because we going to do a lot of pronunciation! 

Follow with the cheat sheet here:

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1. FIVE French Verbs Very Difficult to Pronounce

Again, the idea is not to get the perfect pronunciation. It’s to be able to understand some words that are very common and to gain more proficiency when reading or pronouncing

1. Grignoter = To nibble/to snack. The sound ‘GR’ is really guttural while ‘GN’ is like the ‘NI’ in ‘Onion.

2. Grapiller = To CherryPick/scrape. The sound ‘GR’ is really guttural while ‘ILL” is like the ‘Y’ in ‘You’

3. Bringuebaler = To sway/to shake/to wobble. ‘BR’ is also guttural while the ‘IN’ is almost like ‘PEN’ without voicing the N at the end.

4. Bourlinguer = to travel around/to wander around. Remember ‘GU’ like in ‘GUEST’ while the ‘IN’ is almost like ‘PEN’ without voicing the N at the end.

5. Emberlificoter = To Bamboozle. ‘BER’ in French sounds like ‘BEAR’ in English while ‘EM’ is almost like ‘PEN’ without voicing the N at the end. (No ‘M’ sound at all).

Par exemple :

Laure bourlingue souvent en Amérique du Sud = Laure travels around/wanders around often in South America.

J’aime grignoter des amandes = I like to nibble on almonds.

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#2 FIVE Hard French Nouns Very Difficult to Pronounce

6. La trouille = Fear/Fright. ‘OU’ is like ‘OO’ in ‘COOK’ while ‘ILL’ is like ‘Y’ in ‘YOU’

7. Bredouille = Empty-handed. ‘BR’ is really guttural while while ‘ILL’ is like ‘Y’ in ‘YOU’. 

8. La débrouillardise = Resourcefullness/resilience. Here again, You’ll have the French ‘BR’ sound coupled with ‘OUILL’. To pronounce ‘OUILL’, make sure to start with ‘OU’ (OO in English) and ‘ILL’ (Y sound in English).

9. Carabistouille = Small lies/Harmess lies. ‘R’ in French is not the ‘R’ in English. The French R is pronounced in the throat, in the same place where you say G as in ‘GUEST’. You’ll find more practice here.

End with ‘OUILL’, making sure to say ‘OO’ and ‘Y’ as in you. (No L or I sound).

10. Prestidigitateur = A magician. More of a tongue twister but remember ‘GI’ is like the ‘ZHUH’ in front of  ‘I’ in French. No ‘DJI’, only ”ZHUH’ like in ‘TREASURE’ EUR’ is pronounced ‘UHR’ 

Exemples:

Les enfants racontent des carabistouilles.

Ce prestidigitateur a beaucoup de débrouillardise.