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Active & Passive Skills

Setting Goals

Intonation – the "Speech Music"

Vowel Placement

Vowel Sounds

Consonant Sounds

Beginner Exercises

Intermediate Exercises

The right way to practice French Pronunciation

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II. The vowel placement

Very simply, a vowel is a sound you make when you vibrate your vocal chords through a completely open vocal tract. That means your mouth and throat are open, not obstructed or constricted in any way.

Vowel placement refers to where you place emphasis when you create vowel sounds, in the front, center, or the back of the mouth, in particular. Vowel placement can differ widely from language to language.

Once again, here we see a point of significant difference between English and French. A very forward vowel emphasis is part of what creates that unique “French sound.”

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