When they are first exposed to spontaneous conversations, learners of French often express surprise and frustration. "It's so fast", "It's not the French I was taught" and "I don't understand the accent" are typical comments.The problem comes from the fact that most people learn formal French through written materials in classrooms, books and software. The recordings associated with most teaching materials are made in studios from written materials and with professional voices. Although the language used on television, radio and in movies can be quite realistic, it is still not what you will hear on the streets.
If you aim to speak at an advanced level with native speakers, it's important to be aware of how spoken French differs from the written form. Here are some key things to watch for:
The sounds of the voice
The sounds of the language tell a lot about the speaker. You can usually tell the approximate age, level of education and gender of the speaker. Older voices are often more difficult to decipher than younger ones. Female voices are usually easier to understand than male voices.
There is of course the accent. Is it a sort of neutral broadcast accent that one hears in the media or a strong regional accent? Is the speaker from a certain region of France, Belgium, Africa, Quebec or Acadia?
One of the biggest differences between spoken and written language is how meaning is communicated by the sound of the voice. By articulating in certain ways, speakers can convey surprise, scorn, irony, anger, questioning, doubt, affection and all sorts of emotions that cannot be easily communicated in written form. Often we can detect if someone is lying just by the tone of voice. Or we might even say something like "Don't speak to me with that tone of voice."
Linguistic features of informal spoken French
Informal spoken language includes small talk or chitchat, casual conversations, telephone dialogues, pep talks, question and answer sessions and interviews. On the other hand, formal language is found in prepared speeches, lectures and conferences, movie and theater dialogs and radio and television announcements.
Let's say that you are overhearing a spontaneous conversation of friends sitting around a dinner table, what are you likely to notice from a linguistic viewpoint?
1. Slang, non-standard forms and colloquial expressions, many of which are rarely found in print. This can include coarse or extreme language.
2. Lots of body language with gestures, head movements and facial expressions.
3. Constant interactivity between participants in a question and answer format.
4. Simplified question forms. A very common pattern is to put the interrogative pronoun at the end, as in:
C'est quoi? vs Qu'est-ce que c'est? (What is it?)
C'est qui? vs Qui est-ce? (Who is it?)
Il arrive quand? vs Quand est-ce qu'il arrive? (When does he arrive?)
4 Short sentences with simple structures, often subject verb object. Simple tenses. No fancy subjunctives or literary tenses.
5. Plenty of repetition and rephrasing to ensure the other person understands, often starting with Autrement dit (otherwise said)
6. Interjections like: zut, merde, flute, hein, ho, c'est pas vrai, dis-donc
7. Abbreviations and clipped vocabulary. This may be professional jargon or shared terminology
8. Repeated forms: oui, oui,oui, non non non, absolument absolument
9. Systematic usage of pronoun ON instead of NOUS for "we"
10. Systematic usage of TU instead of VOUS for "you".
11. Incomplete sentences. Users may switch subject or change sentence structure in midstream. This is a big difference between ordinary users and professional speakers such as broadcasters, actors and teachers.
12. Fillers ("eh") and pauses marking time after words like "de...", "que...","je pense que..."
Often users will search for the right word, as in: Comment dire?, Qu'est-ce que je veux dire? disons...
13.Verbal tics: "si vous voulez", "si vous permettez", "vous savez", "tu sais" "voyez-vous", "permettez-moi", "comme on dit". This is similar to "you know" or "if I may" in English.
14. Uncorrected speech. Mistakes, confusion of similar forms, as in:
solidaire / solitaire
audition / addition
15. Usually a very limited vocabulary using the most common words in the language.
Stanley Aleong specializes in teaching foreign languages and believes that an effective strategy for achieving advanced proficiency in French or Spanish is to work with many carefully selected authentic examples. To learn more about some very effective learning tools based on this principle, visit Advanced French / Spanish.
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