A little tip to make you sound more French
This little tip is an easy adjustment you can make to your speaking to make you instantly sound more French
TL;DR — always stress the last syllable of words in French
All words are made up of a certain number of syllables. This is true in both English and French. Look at these words, for instance:
- fun (1 syllable)
- open (2 syllables = o⋅pen)
- inspector (3 syllables = in⋅spec⋅tor)
- helicopter (4 syllables = he⋅li⋅cop⋅ter)
- inhospitable (5 syllables = in⋅hos⋅pi⋅ta⋅ble)
- invisibility (6 syllables = in⋅vis⋅i⋅bil⋅i⋅ty)
In English, each word tends to have one syllable that you stress more than the others. For example, if you say the word “intelligent” out loud, you’ll notice that you stress the “tell” part in the middle: in⋅TELL⋅i⋅gent. If you stress a different syllable, it doesn’t quite sound right. Try saying “in⋅tell⋅i⋅GENT” or “in⋅tell⋅I⋅gent”, and you’ll hear what I mean.
There are even some words in English whose meanings change depending on which syllable you stress. For example, the word “present” has two syllables; if you stress the first syllable (PRE⋅sent), it means a…
