Product Review

This book helps its users to improve their pronunciation while they learn the basic rules of “standardized” spoken French. To that aim, the simplicity of the French used allows readers to easily grasp the principles of pronunciation and the related terms of phonetics. The book also takes into account the major contrastive features of the sounds of French and English in its presentation, and addresses the particular challenges that North American native speakers face when learning to pronounce French. Chapter topics include detailed treatments of all the sounds of the language, and discussions of the sounds which present the most difficulty for learners—such as nasal vowels, mid vowels, semi-vowels, mute e, and liaison. Coverage also includes the correlation between sound and spelling in the case of all vowels and consonants, and pronunciation and transcription exercises that are based on everyday spoken French. For French speakers who want to improve their pronunciation and use of the language.