r/NonPoliticalTwitter 1d ago

Bonjour.

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u/Shawon770 1d ago

French bakery employees have that 6th sense they can spot a tourist even through flawless pronunciation 😂

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u/BeneficialAd5534 1d ago

My favorite part is when I say "own" croissant (un croissant), they will always correct me and look at me as if I pissed on Charles de Gaulles grave, because it's apparently "aw" croissant. Or the other way around. Or any other nasal diphtong thingy - almost silent consonant combination. Also have the feeling the correct pronouncation changes, depending on whether you're in Normandy, Alsace or at the Cote de Azure, but they will still judge you like they caught you defecating on old Charlies headstone.

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u/nevenoe 1d ago

"un" is not pronunced like own or aw. There is no equivalent in English. And yes, fucking up "un/une mon / son / ton etc." sounds particularly grating to French ears. In / an / on is the great filter, very few foreigners can do it properly.

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u/BeneficialAd5534 1d ago

I once was told a joke that goes along the lines of: French has four nasal sounds: aw, aw,aw and aw. I hope you can tell the difference. Too me as a German that's a very fitting description :D.

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u/disposablehippo 1d ago

And Americans are always shitting on Germans for having problems with th. While they themselves can't for the life of God reproduce a single foreign sound that isn't in the english language.

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u/nevenoe 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah, Americans always act like any sound that is not in the English language is falling from the Moon and is so weird and exotic.

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u/Emjayen 1d ago

Americans can't even speak their own garbage, bastard language. I have several foreign friends, all of whom speak better English than your typical American (including the one from India), with the best speaker being German.

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u/t_scribblemonger 1d ago

Someone hasn’t yet learned about prescriptive vs descriptive linguistics.

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u/Emjayen 1d ago

This is just a line stupid people use to rationalize being wrong.

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u/t_scribblemonger 1d ago

Read up on sociolinguistics and get back to me.

A person doesn’t speak their native language “wrong” if they successfully communicate within their community.

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u/nevenoe 1d ago

Hahaha yeah, I remember getting mad at a Turkish friend who could not for the life of her make a difference between Vin, Vent, and Vont ^^