Difficult Business English Words for French Speakers to Pronounce

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‘h’ sound on the beginning of a word

One of the biggest issues that native French speakers have with English pronunciation is that they sometimes miss the ‘h’ sound on the beginning of English words.  

Of course this sound does not exist in French, but it can sometimes confuse the meaning if it is missed from the beginning of a word:[/text_block]

‘th’ sounds at the beginning or in the middle of words

The ‘th’ sound is difficult for speakers of many languages.  Many French speakers attempt to use a ‘z’ or ‘s’ sound to replace the ‘th’ sound.  In my opinion, it is definitely worth training to get the ‘th’ sound correct. If this is too difficult, it is possibile to replace the ‘th’ sound with a ‘v’ or ‘f’ sound, which sounds much better than a ‘z’ or ‘s’ sound.  Some common difficult words include:[/text_block]

Words Ending in ‘aw’

There are only a few here, but they are very important for business. The pronunciation here should be something like ‘or’ as in the words ‘score’, ‘four’, ‘poor’:[/text_block]

Individual words

Due to the fact that English has borrowedmany words from French, there are many words which are the same in French and English.  With certain words, the pronunciation is completely different, and using a French pronunciation can cause confusion for a native English speaker.  Here are some important business words which French speakers often pronounce incorrectly:[/text_block]