If you’d like to say “What is your name?” in French, you generally have two options. To pose the question formally, you’d say “Comment vous-appelez vous? Speaking informally, you can simply ask “Comment t’appelles-tu?”
The literal translation of the question “What’s your name?” in French is “How do you call yourself?” What sounds like an unnecessary double reference to you/yourself comes from the use of a reflexive verb. While these verbs likely sound a bit awkward, you probably use them in English all the time without noticing. An example would be, “I threw myself on the bed.” or “I washed myself.” And just as you use them without thinking in English, most students of French tend to adopt French reflexive verbs just as naturally.
Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion® methodology teaches you to speak the language, not just memorize the words. What makes it so effective is that we prepare you to use the new language in your everyday life. So it’s not just about the features, but what you’re able to do because of them. That way, you’ll be ready to handle any situation with ease and confidence.
Learning French
When you first start learning French, you may be tempted to wade into memorizing long lists of vocabulary words. But this is not an effective way to learn the language. Instead, you should focus first on learning just a few of the most commonly used phrases and their pronunciation. After all, the goal of learning a new language is not vocabulary acquisition. Rather, to achieve a level of comfort and confidence needed to have conversations in French.
Most learners realize immediately that there are commonly used words and conversational phrases that make up the backbone of the language. Learning these common words and phrases will give you a solid foundation. In addition to greetings like“Bonjour”or“S’il vous plaît”it’s also smart to learn the words that native French speakers sprinkle throughout their sentences, such asquoi, où, qui, quand, pourquoi,andcomment.These common words are very similar to the English words who, what, where, when, why, and how—and they will pop up often in everyday conversations.
As you probably know, the French language is infamous for itsje ne sais quoi—which is an indefinable quality that makes the French accent sound somewhat mysterious. But what may seem to be an elusive aspect of the French language’s appeal is really just a nuance of pronunciation. The language can be challenging to learn, because it is much more nasal sounding than other languages. Practice will help you become comfortable with this distinct difference. And that’s why it’s important to learn French pronunciation as you learn common words and phrases.
The French alphabet has the same letters as the English alphabet, but some of the letter sounds are pronounced quite differently. One of the most familiar sounds in French is the pronunciation of the lettere.In French,eis pronounced “euh” and can be heard in many French conversations. That’s because it’s used in the same way English speakers use the sound “uh.” In French,eis used as a pause or as a connector to another thought.
You’ll be glad to know that the French language includes helpful accent marks to guide your pronunciation. There are five different French accent marks to learn:the cédille (Ç), the aigu (é), the circonflexe (â, ê, î, ô, û), the grave (à, è, ù),andthe tréma (ë, ï, ü).These accent marks most often indicate that the pronunciation of the letter is irregular. That said,the circonflexeis used only in French writing and doesn’t affect the pronunciation of the words in which it appears.
Acquiring proper French pronunciation depends on getting immediate feedback and making corrections. Rosetta Stone helps you dial in your pronunciation with our patented TruAccent™ speech-recognition engine. It instantly compares your voice to native and non-native speakers—so you get real-time feedback for the most accurate pronunciation. It is a valuable tool in helping you learn to understand and speak in French.
After you are comfortable with the building blocks of French, you can move on to learning the longer phrases that make up the backbone of everyday conversations. Rosetta Stone’s brief and bite-sized, 10-minute lessons are built to help you do just that. The language lessons will guide you towards speaking French with comfort and confidence.
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Built by experts, Rosetta Stone has been the leading language learning platform for 30 years. Through carefully scaffolded lessons, you can learn language immersively with the exact pacing you need to feel conversation ready. Whatever your reason for learning a language, Rosetta Stone helps you experience the joy of making meaningful connections with the world around you.
