Vowels & nasals you can now say
P45.pronunciation-and-liaison.01 · Audience: guest, language-pro, it-ml · Prerequisites: Hear what you don't yet produce
Perception (P44) taught your ear the contrasts Russian never trained: /y/ (the vowel of tu), /ø/ (deux), the é/è pair, and the four nasals. Now the mouth. Each target below plays a model — a different native voice each time — then you record and get a phoneme-by-phoneme score. The red chips are where to repair; the one to watch is almost always the vowel your first language does not have.
Your recording is scored, then discarded server-side — nothing is stored. Scoring needs the Azure key; without it you still get the model audio to imitate and self-check against.
/y/ vs /u/ — round your lips as for ou, then say ee without moving them. tu, not tout; rue, not roue.
Say: tu
Say: Tu as vu la rue ?
/ø/ and /œ/ — the deux / peur vowel: lips rounded, tongue forward. Russian rounds and backs; keep the tongue front.
Say: Je veux un peu d'eau.
é vs è — closed é (été) vs open è (mère). Mixing them muddies verb endings (parlé vs parlais land differently to a French ear).
Say: J'ai parlé à ma mère cet été.
The four nasals — blanc /ɑ̃/, blond /ɔ̃/, brin /ɛ̃/, brun /œ̃/. Do not sound the n: the vowel itself is nasal, the consonant stays silent.
Say: Un bon vin blanc.
Say: Les enfants regardent un long film.
Schwa — the light e of le, petit, demain. Keep it short and rounded; do not replace it with a full Russian vowel, and drop it where French drops it (p'tit).
Say: Je ne le vois pas ce petit.
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Later in Pronunciation & Liaison
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