Can British people understand French?
Second or additional languages 23\% of the UK population can speak/understand French, 9\% can speak/understand German and 8\% can speak/understand Spanish. 62\% of UK citizens cannot speak any second language. These figures include those who describe their level of ability in the second language as “basic”.
Can English speakers understand French?
So, in general, English speakers do not understand French unless they’ve studied French, and vice versa. For both groups, the spoken forms of these languages present the greatest difficulties. English doesn’t have that many easily recognisable cognates with French.
Why does French sound like English?
Because they have an accent. English speakers do too, and it shows when speaking other languages where you wouldn’t expect to hear it. Just like us, the French are used to pronouncing certain sounds a certain way.
Why does French sound like that?
Apparently, the ancestors of the French, the Gauls, applied a lot of lenition and assimilation. In lenition, consonants become silent, such as the dropped t in bon vivant. In assimilation, the consonants blend in with neighboring vowels, so seconde is pronounced seu go(n)d rather than seu ko(n)d.
What is it like to speak French with a British person?
As a French speaking person, I find it lovely to hear a British or an Amercian person speaking French. They could have been lazy and stick to speaking English everywhere but no, they took the time and effort to learn french, that in itself makes is very impressive and charming.
How common is it to hear an English accent in France?
Hearing an English accent isn’t as common as hearing a French accent (I believe), for the simple reason that you can get around pretty well by knowing English only in this globalize world. As a French speaking person, I find it lovely to hear a British or an Amercian person speaking French.
Do French noises translate to English?
While some might be regional, there are some characteristic noises that French people make across the board while speaking that don’t translate to English in the same way. And, yikes, I may even incorporate them into my conversations when speaking French!
Is French a language of strange sounds that leave you scratching?
Oh, and it’s the language of strange sounds that will leave you scratching your head. If you’ve spent any time in France or around French people, you might have noticed some of these strange noises that French people make that aren’t commonplace in the English language. And no, I’m not talking about the French “R”!