Transcript

Hello everyone, I hope you are well.

Today, we are going to talk about pronunciation, the differences between written French and French spoken in everyday life by the French.

If you are new to the I am Elisabeth channel, on this channel, I offer you French videos where I explain and teach you the French language that is really spoken by the French in their daily lives.

There are differences between written and spoken French. For example, we will contract certain words, so we will actually delete certain letters in oral French to speak a little more quickly, to speak a little faster.

If, in writing, there is not necessarily a problem, in speaking, certain pronunciations of words can be a problem. You may not understand them.

That's what we're going to see here today. Obviously, you can pronounce them the right way.

I'm making this video so that, especially, you, you can understand either when you watch movies and the actors speak fast or speak a familiar language, or so that you can understand French people, French friends, if you talk with them or if you come to France.

I got the idea for this video after seeing a Tik Tok from an American. I think he is American. Anyway, he's an English speaker, who lives in France and explained that for a whole evening he was with friends of his girlfriend.

Throughout the evening, he heard people say "chui tired" and wondered who this "chui" was that was so tired. That's the first word we'll see in this video.

In French, obviously, we say "je suis". For example, I am tired, but in colloquial language, in everyday language, to speak a little faster, very often, we say "chui", "chui", and not "je suis".

The "e" disappears when spoken. Generally speaking, moreover, the "e" in "je" will disappear as soon as there is a consonant, obviously when spoken.

But again, you can say "I am". It's actually more correct. I'm just explaining so you can understand when French people speak.

We will stay on the same rule. For the second word that we are going to see is, "I do" that we will very often say "chfai". "Chfai".

This is what I was saying. In front of a consonant we're going to make the "e" disappear from "I". What are you doing? "Jfai" a chocolate cake. "Je vais" which becomes "jvai".

"Jvai" at the supermarket.

Where are you going? "Jvai" to the gym.

Where are you going on vacation? "Jvai" in Morocco.

When spoken, "tu es" becomes almost systematically "t'es", "t'es".

Instead of saying "you're happy", I will more spontaneously say "you're happy". As I've been telling you all along, this is colloquial language, truly spoken in everyday life. Obviously, you can say "you are".

If I say, "Where are you? You can answer "I'm in the bathroom" instead of "where are you?"

"You're happy with your new shoes" instead of "you're happy with your new shoes." You see, it's a little bit more language, a little bit faster.

The "u" in "tu" will disappear as soon as there is a vowel after it.

"You are" which becomes "you are".

But it's the same with the verb avoir. "You have new shoes", "you have new shoes", "you got milk at the supermarket" instead of "you got milk at the supermarket".

Still in the "you", when speaking, we will say "you know" rather than "you know".

"You know" where the car keys are? Not "do you know where the car keys are?".

It's quicker to say it that way.

"Do you know" where we're going tonight? Instead of "do you know where we're going tonight?"

"Déjà" and "dja". Here, we're going to suppress the "e" when we speak, we're not going to pronounce it. For example, if I ask you: Do you want to eat a pizza tonight? Oh no, I "dja" ate one this lunch.

So you hear? I might say, "Oh no, I "already" ate one this lunch" or "Oh no, I "already" ate one this lunch." You can hear the difference.

"Déjà" and "dja" is a contraction that can be made orally but as I told you for all the others, again, it is not mandatory or systematic.

I don't know, I don't know. Here, I took this example of a sentence, but it applies to all negative sentences, where there is a negation. Obviously, in writing, we always put "don't..." to express the negation.

When speaking, and this is almost systematic, it is almost always the case, the "ne" will be deleted.

We will keep the negation, but only with the "not". Do you know where your brother is? "I don't know" or "I haven't seen him". In colloquial language, in everyday language, the "ne" almost systematically disappears.

And by the way, here in this example, as we have seen, the "e" of "I" disappears before the consonants. So in reality, orally I could even say "j'sais pas". We had "je ne sais pas" and orally, you can hear French people say "J'sais pas".

If you're not a native speaker, it can sound very different.

"Maybe" which becomes "ptêtr" in speech.

We'll make this contraction to speak a little faster in colloquial language. "- Are you coming with us to the movies tonight? - Maybe, I don't know yet, because I have work to do!" Maybe becomes "ptêtr".

"There is" which becomes, "ya" and "there isn't" or "there isn't anymore" which becomes "ya not" and "ya more".

Let's start with the simplest of the two. "There is" which becomes "ya".

Again, it's almost systematic in colloquial language, we'll make a contraction. Instead of saying "il y a du pain sur la table", I'll say "ya du pain sur la table", "ya".

What is even more complicated if you are not a native speaker, is the double contractions. We saw it with "je ne sais pas" which becomes "chsé pas".

Here, it's the same thing. "There is no bread", it will become "ya pas de pain" or if I want to say, "there is no more bread, I ate it all", "ya plus de pain, j'ai tout mangé".

So at the same time, "il y a" becomes, "ya" and as it is a negative sentence, we remove the "ne". So, "ya no more bread, I ate it all".

That's it for today. We have seen some of these contractions, these differences between written French and colloquial French, spoken in everyday life.

If there are other words whose pronunciation you had a problem with, the way the French contracted the word, modified the word orally because in reality, it is modified, it is not just a problem of pronunciation.

Don't hesitate to tell me in comments. If you liked this video, put a "like" and if you are new, subscribe to not miss any video, I say to you very quickly.