Connecting words with Greta, A2 in French
It is a very good idea to take advantage of a holiday in Montpellier to plan French classes and this is exactly what Greta, medical student from Germany, did last week!
Before her trip, she happened to visit my website and sent a message so we planned a videocall to talk about her expectations. She wanted to work on French pronunciation which is a good thing because in French, some sounds are definitely important, for example showing a clear difference between sound “é” like in “bébé”, sound “è” like in “fête” and the different sounds “e” like in “France”, “melon” or “fleur”.
Also, we talked a lot about connections between words (liaisons). Unfortunately, it is all but easy since, in French, some connections are:
- definitely expected: “dans un an”, “mes amis”, “tout à fait”
- too weird so to be avoided: “avoir mieux à dire”, “le but de ce rendez-vous est de parler de l’opération”
- optional (you can do it or choose not to do it 😅): “il ne veut pas rester avec sa maman mais avec son papa”*
*connecting both at the same time here would still be a little weird
Don’t worry: the more you practice outloud reading in French, the more you will develop an intuitive skill about dealing with liaisons