Difficult Business English Words for French Speakers to Pronounce
'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:
have / has / home / house
then / think / therefore / theory
hotel / habit / happy / hard
I am the head of.. / high / hold / I am on holiday / hire new staff
'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 possible 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:
the / this / these / those
I hope / health / half / hand
through / thank you / thorough / within
although / within / another / together
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':
law /LORR/
saw /SORR/
draw / draw up / withdraw / flaw
Individual words
Due to the fact that English has borrowed many 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:
employees /EM ploy yeez/
clients /KLAAAII ynts/
identify /aaaii DEN ti faaii/
idea /aaaii DEE ya/
mature /me CHURR/
women /WI min/
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