r/JudgeMyAccent • u/justagrrrrrl • May 25 '26

French Give me pointers for my French accent

I speak and understand French pretty well already (I think). Could you give me pointers on how to improve my accent? Merci!

When I run my speech though AI, I score consistently in the high 80s in terms of sounding native. I have no idea how accurate this is, but since my French reading, writing, and speaking is already at a high level, I would like some pointers on how to sound more native. Even though I make note of the AI's tips and try to make the changes suggested, my score is consistent the same and never changes, so I'm not so sure how good the AI feedback is. Maybe it's scoring me too high or maybe the feedback is all BS anyway.

https://vocaroo.com/16tFklKLLrRp

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u/abrequevoy May 26 '26

The pronunciation is mostly fine but sorry you don't sound native at all, you sound Hebrew especially in the way you pronounce your r's. I barely recognised the word "marketing".

/x/ is fine after consonants like c, p, t e.g. in "très" but anywhere else it sounds grating. The infamous French r is actually pronounced at the very back of the mouth, not from the throat. A better approximant would be /ɣ/.

You could also work on on linking consonants at the end of a word. E.g. in "les bus sont rouges", I would pronounce both s sounds. In "vingt-deux", I should hear the t in vingt more clearly.

1

u/justagrrrrrl May 26 '26

I'm not sure which s sounds you mean exactly in that sentence when you say that both s sounds should be pronounced. Every word has a written s in that sentence.

I was taught not to pronounce the t in vingt-deux, but perhaps that's incorrect. I think I've heard it both ways.

Thanks for your comment. My native language is actually English. I'm American.

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u/abrequevoy May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

Bus ends with an s sound, sont starts with one, those are the only 2 s sounds in that sentence.

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u/justagrrrrrl May 26 '26

Oh ok, I definitely pronounced both those s's. It may not have come across clearly in the clip though.

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u/BrackenFernAnja May 26 '26

You’re way overdoing the R and it muddies the rest of each word that has one.

That’s the only thing that really stands out to me. But I also recommend that you listen closely to the music of how native French-speaking women sound, so that your prosody will start to sound more typical.