Top 10 French Mistakes Among Spanish Speakers

[jrineakter]

Are you a Spanish speaker and do you often make the same types of mistakes in French ? You are not alone! These mistakes come from the grammatical , lexical and phonetic differences between French and Spanish . These are what we call typical mistakes , because they are made by a large number of speakers . Discover in this article 10 mistakes made by Spanish speakers in French and explanations to correct them.


In Spanish, there are 5 vowels. In French, we have 16! So it's very difficult to pronounce French vowels if you're a Spanish speaker, because most of the sounds don't exist in your native language.

The nasal vowels "an", "in" and "on" in particular are problematic. For example, words like "child", "garden", "monday", "truck" or "shadow" are difficult for a Spanish-speaking learner to pronounce. They will tend to pronounce these vowels as "ane/ame", "ine/ime" and "one/ome". This is a common mistake .

Tip: The nasal vowel is a sound that passes through kuwait whatsapp number data the mouth and nose at the same time. To make sure you are using your nose correctly, pinch your nose. If the sound changes, then it is good.

Here's a little sentence to help you practice pronouncing these French sounds correctly: A bench full of white bread is a full bench of white bread.

Read also: French pronunciation: 8 exercises to improve

2. Confusing the consonants “z” and “s” when speaking
The Spanish "z" sounds very similar to the French "s." This is why Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing between the two sounds.

To pronounce "z" in French , you smile and clench your teeth tightly. Your tongue should be behind your bottom teeth. There is a slight vibration in your throat: that's what makes the difference with the consonant "s". In short, it's like imitating the sound of a bee!

Please note that when making the connection between a word ending in -s and the following word, the letter "s" is pronounced "z":



3. Having a rising intonation at the end of sentences
The intonation of the French language

Intonation in French is used to indicate whether a sentence is a statement, a question, an order or an exclamation. It is also used to convey emotions (anger, joy, sadness). Using the right intonation is therefore very important to be well understood by others.

However, Spanish-speaking learners tend to raise their intonation at the end of every sentence, even if it is not a question. Therefore, the sentence could be misinterpreted as a question, when it is not.