If you started learning French via the written word, it can take time to adjust to the spoken language. The articles at La Guinguette, which come with native-speaking audio, transcript and translation, are intended to help you with the transition. Here are some tips to help you get started.
Try listening first without the text
Our natural instinct is just to follow along with text, but that’s a bit like looking up the clues to a crossword puzzle. Even if you cannot understand much at all, it’s important to try listening first without reading.
Take the intro from this month’s article. Listen now to the workshop animator and try taking it as a dictation.
You can use the three dots on the sound player to slow things down if you need to.
Now try picking up the rhythm. Underline the syllables the animator emphasises and split up the sentences after each weighted syllable. You should end up with something like this:
Reveal The Text
On vous félicite | d’avoir choisi | cet atelier | plutôt qu’un autre.| On va faire un atelier | où chacun | et chacune | de nos députés européens ou européennes | pourra présenter | un des sujets | sur lequel | il ou elle a travaillé | au parlement européen | ces douze derniers mois. | Caroline, à toi.
This is the classic rhythm of French. Each sentence is broken up into units of meaning, with a shade more emphasis placed on the final syllable of each unit.
Enchainement
Now, within each unit of meaning the rhythm is steady: one beat per syllable. But the catch is, that the beats do not necessarily correspond to the word-by-word transcription. On the contrary, when thinking in terms of spoken French, imagine that within each sub-group of meaning, there aren’t spaces between words: it’s the phenomen known as enchainement.
Let’s study this in more detail with Claude Gruffat’s first interview.
To begin with, we can break it up into units of meaning.
La vie d’un élu | c’est ce qu’on en fait. | Soit, on est élu | et on fait ça en dilettante, | c’est reproché à un certain nombre de députés européens | soit on est élu | et on y va vraiment pour faire quelque chose | et là, du coup, | la charge de travail, | elle est quand même assez forte. | On peut y passer sa vie,| en fait. | Parce qu’il y a beaucoup de choses à faire. | Quand on est… | quand on a… | quand on est militant | et qu’on à quelque chose dans les tripes | à défendre | il n’y a pas de limite.
And then we can just try removing the spaces:
Lavied’unélu | c’estcequ’onenfait.| Soit,onestélu | etonfaitçaendilettante, | c’estreprochéàuncertainnombrededéputéseuropéens| soitonestélu| etonyvavraimentpourfairequelquechose| etlà,ducoup,| lachargedetravail,| elleestquandmêmeassezforte.| Onpeutypassersavie, |enfait.| Parcequ’ilyabeaucoupdechosesàfaire.| Quandonest…| quandona…| quandonestmilitant| etqu’onàquelquechosedanslestripes | àdéfendre | iln’yapasdelimite.
This is already closer to what he says, but it’s still not quite right. For example, you won’t hear any “t” sound in “Soit on est élu”. Other syllables are simply dropped. Syllable by syllable, this is what we actually hear:
laviedunélu | cécquonenfait | soionéélu | éonfaissaendiletant | céreprochéauncertainombreddéputéeuropéen | soionéélu | éonyva vraimenpourfairquelqchoz | éladucoup| lachargdtravail | elleéquanmêmasséfort | onpeuypassésavie | enfait | parcquiyabeaucoudchozafair | quantoné | quantona | quantonémilitan | équonaquelqchozdanlétrip | àdéfendr | iyapadlimit |
Getting your ear in tune
It’s paragraphs like that one above that we need to be able to understand if we want to understand spoken French, not the cleanly spelt transcript. Practice yourself by listening out for what you really hear, not what you read. And when building your vocal repertoire, think in terms of units of meaning and how words link together, instead of treating words as individual units.
