Students often struggle with English pronunciation. This is nothing to be ashamed of. After all, everybody has an accent!
If you want to have a more native-like accent when speaking English, which is to say a more standard English accent (like British Received Pronunciation or General American English), here are a few helpful exercises and videos. Some of them are specifically for native French speakers; others are directed more generally at learners of English (of all levels).
You can always consult one of the dictionaries we recommend if you are wondering how to pronounce a particular word. For more general information, we recommend the resources below.
To start, if you’re a French speaker, it might be helpful to be aware of some common pronunciation patterns that are quite specific to native French speakers talking English (although speakers of other Latin-based languages like Portuguese or Italian might find that they make similar ‘errors’). These patterns are often very systematic, as they are influenced by pronunciation ‘rules’ in your first language. Simply being aware of them (and trying to avoid them when speaking English) will already help you a lot!
Non-native speakers of English often have trouble mastering stress since the rules are so complicated. This video from Rachel’s English gives a nice explanation about the differences between a stress-timed language like English and a syllable-timed language like French. We strongly encourage you to watch this video. (Her other videos are great, too!)
You can find more information about stress placement (and more) here.
If you want to practice, we recommend checking out these websites:
- Tim’s Pronunciation Workshop from BBC English
- Cambridge Assessment Practice (choose ‘Pronunciation’ and then your level and time)
- EngFluent English Pronunciation Exercises
EnglishClub also has some games listed on their Pronunciation page.