Transcript

Hello everyone, hope you're well.

Today, we're going to talk about pronunciation, the differences between written French and the 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, certain words are contracted, meaning that certain letters are eliminated in spoken French, to speak a little faster.

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

That's what we're going to look at here today. Of course, 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 by an American. I think he's American. At least, he's English-speaking, lives in France and explained that for an entire evening, he was with friends of his girlfriend.

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

In French, of course, we say "je suis". For example, je suis fatigué, 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 orally. Generally speaking, the "e" in "je" disappears as soon as there's a consonant, obviously when spoken.

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

We'll stick to the same rule. For the second word we're going to look at, "je fais", we'll very often say "chfai". "Chfai".

That's what I was saying. In front of a consonant, we're going to make the "e" in "I" disappear. What are you making? "Jfai" a chocolate cake. "Je vais" 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" almost systematically becomes "t'es", "t'es".

Instead of saying "you're happy", I'll more spontaneously say "you're happy". As I've been saying all along, this is colloquial language, truly spoken on a daily basis. Of course, you can say "tu es".

If I say, "Where are you? You can say "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 more language, a little faster.

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

"Tu es" becomes "t'es".

But it's the same with the verb avoir. "You've got new shoes", "t'as des nouvelles chaussures", "t'as prix du lait au supermarché" instead of "tu as pris du lait au supermarché".

Still with "tu", when speaking, we tend to say "t'sais" rather than "tu sais".

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

It's quicker to pronounce 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 drop the "e" when we're speaking orally, and not pronounce it. For example, if I ask you: Would you like to have pizza tonight? Oh no, I "dja" had one for lunch.

So you hear? I could say "Oh no, I've "already" eaten one this lunchtime" or "Oh no, I've "already" eaten one this lunchtime". You can hear the difference.

"Déjà" and "dja" are contractions that can be made orally, but as I've said with all the others, again, they're not obligatory or systematic.

I don't know, I don't know. I've used this example sentence here, but it applies to all negative sentences, where there's a negation. Obviously, in writing, we always use "ne...pas" to express negation.

When speaking, and this is almost always the case, the "ne" is dropped.

We're going to 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, everyday language, the "ne" almost systematically disappears.

In this example, as we've seen, the "e" in "je" disappears in front of the consonants. So in reality, when spoken, I could even say "j'sais pas". We had "je ne sais pas" (I don't know), and you can hear French people say "J'sais pas" (I don't know).

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

"Perhaps" becomes "ptêtr" when spoken.

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

"Il y a" which becomes, "ya" and "il n'y a pas" or "il n'y a plus" which becomes "ya pas" and "ya plus".

Let's start with the simplest of the two. "Il y a" becomes "ya".

Again, it's almost systematic in colloquial language, we're going to 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's even more complicated if you're not a native speaker is double contractions. We've seen this with "je ne sais pas", which becomes "chsé pas".

Here, it's the same thing. "Il n'y a pas de pain" will become "ya pas de pain" or if I want to say, "il n'y a plus de pain, j'ai tout mangé", "ya plus de pain, j'ai tout mangé".

So at the same time, "il y a" becomes, "ya" and since it's a negative sentence, we delete the "ne". So, "ya plus de pain, j'ai tout mangé".

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

If there are other words whose pronunciation has caused you problems, if the way the French contract the word, modify the word orally because in reality, we modify it, it's not just a problem of pronunciation.

Don't hesitate to comment. If you liked this video, put a "like" and if you're new, subscribe so you don't miss any video, I'll see you soon.