What does this sentence mean ?

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Benb0n

#176116 Thu, 29 Dec 05 03:50 PM

I'm learning French with a book in English. The book tells that:

"The letter L in French is pronounced like the English L, except it is pronounced with the tongue against the upper teeth, rather than behind them, as in the English L."

=> What is the difference between "against the upper teeth" and "behind them" ?

Benb0n

Joined on Thu, Dec 15 2005

New Member (15)

I appreciate any help from you !!!

Difference Between

pieanne

#176162 Thu, 29 Dec 05 05:22 PM

I could show you, but it's hard to explain! Smile [:)]

The French L is pronounced - from the front of the mouth - with the tip of your tongue touching the back of your front teeth; the English L is pronounced with the tongue slightly curved, the tip touching the part of the palate just behind your front teeth. The result is more "rolled", more guttural, from the back part of your mouth.

Have you tried - and compared - the speaking dictionaries?

pieanne

Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005

South of France ...But I'm Belgian!

Veteran Member (7,512)

I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

Tagalong1966

#176258 Thu, 29 Dec 05 11:32 PM

In English, the tip of the tongue is against the back of teeth while in French, the tip ot the tongue touches the tip of the teeth. This make the English "L" sound flat when compared to the French.

Tagalong1966

Joined on Tue, Dec 27 2005

New Member (15)

Benb0n

#176443 Fri, 30 Dec 05 12:56 PM

The French L is pronounced - from the front of the mouth - with the tip of your tongue touching the back of your front teeth;

in French, the tip ot the tongue touches the tip of the teeth.

Whom of you is right :-?

Benb0n

Whom

Phuongninhbao

#176480 Fri, 30 Dec 05 02:12 PM

I like the definition of Pienna.It seems the French L is tender than English L The English L is roller than French L. When I pronounce Langue, it seems the tip of my tongue touching the back of my front teeth. but when I sing La la la la la la, It seems the tip of my tongue touches the tip of my teeth. I used to teach my students to pronounce correctly English L by repeating after the casette I'll: aiel instead of ail.In our language , it's not difficult to pronounce these L. If you pronounce with fine airs, with nose voice,like a women, it's French L{ of course ,you imitate the casette}If you you pronounce with a throat voice with a roll tongue , you got an English L.

Phuong Ninh

Phuongninhbao

Joined on Fri, Nov 11 2005

hcm city

Full Member (134)

phuongninh

Benb0n

#176523 Fri, 30 Dec 05 03:31 PM

Incomprehencible Stick out tongue [:P]

But thanks for all help.
In short, I get that the English L is more rolled than French. That's all. Hope it right Big Smile [:D]

Benb0n

MrPedantic

#176817 Sat, 31 Dec 05 01:35 AM

Benb0n wrote:
The French L is pronounced - from the front of the mouth - with the tip of your tongue touching the back of your front teeth;

in French, the tip ot the tongue touches the tip of the teeth.

Whom of you is right :-?

"Which of you is right", Ben! Smile [:)]

To confirm: when you pronounce an English L, the tip of the tongue curves to touch the gum (or palate) above your teeth; or sometimes, the point where your teeth emerge from your gum.

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (12,168)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Whom

Benb0n

#177096 Sat, 31 Dec 05 02:05 PM

OK. Mr Pe

Admin please bestow me this topic for French Big Smile [:D]

Thanks in advance.

Hey Pieane, you live in France, isnt it ? So you might have had a dictionary English-French, can you tell me where can I download a dictionary like that ? I has been looking for it a few days, but get no result.

Besides that, I can distinguish some very similar Friend sound. And dont know how to speak Nasal sound. It's really a big problem to me. So, can you help me read these French IPA symbols:
-

And 4 Nasal sound:
- [

]
- [

]

Benb0n

Images

LanguageLover

#177114 Sat, 31 Dec 05 02:36 PM

About the first two symbols, is pronunced the same as epsylon, the only difference is the shape of lips, you have to form round lips to have that sound, the same as you do in pronuncing /o/ or /u/. is pronunced the same as /e/, just with round lips. Just shape your lips to a round form and you'll have the sounds.

As for the nasalised vowels, try to attach a nasal sound (/n/, /m/)to the plain vowel (I do not know what keys on keyboard to push to have those signs!), and just pay attention to the change when they are adjacent to nasals, and then try to eliminate the nasal sound but keep pronuncing the same vowel. Then you'll have it. I know it is very difficult to explain how to pronunce a sound, and it is even more difficult to understand the explanation. But just continue trying, and you would eventually succeed!

This chart may comes handy, have a look: [link] , you can hear the sounds by clicking on them. Good luck,