There are few fundamental differences between the French language and the English language. Knowing some of those differences will help you improve your understanding of the French language.

English tends to pause much more between words than French does. This is why English speakers often have the feeling that French is fast. As a matter of fact, it really is.

French speakers tend to deliver words at a faster pace with no much pause between words as English speakers do. To give you an example, it takes a French speaker twice as less time to say the word “bonjour” than it does an English speaker. When English speakers pronounce that word it sounds like “bon…jour” such as two words instead of one. Remember, French speakers pronounce word in one breathe, very rarely two.

English is a stress-timed language while French has only one stress always at the same place, the end of the word. All syllables have an equal prominence which makes the language sound more flat than a lot of other languages. This flat equal prominence makes the French language hard to understand for many foreigners.

On the other hand, French speakers tend to pronounce words more fully and clearly than English speakers do in English. Each word is fully pronounced and leaves less room for guessing about what was said. This is very noticeable when someone gives you his or her name. Even English speakers might have a hard time to understand someone’s name sometimes, especially over the phone. In French, however, there is much less room for such error due to the fact that the pronunciation is pretty clear and neat. This is due to the fact that in French words are more articulated.

In French the clear pronunciation can make up for the flat fast pace and lack of pause between words. As a student of the language, what you might lose in understanding because of these difficulties you may be able to make up with the clear and precise pronunciation of each word.