French Accent Help!

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 7:35pm

Hey guys! I am auditioning to be Lumiere in my high schools production of Beauty and the Beast and I am having issues with developing a French accent. It is very easy to find websites that tell you how to pronounce French words with a French accent but a totally different story to find sites that give you English words with a French accent.

I'd really appreciate you tips, grammar rules, etc. Thanks a lot!

[BluCat500]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 7:39pm

Mayhaps this thread will help a bit

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardname=bway&thread=856334#1179587

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 7:42pm

Watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail and imitate John Cleese

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 7:43pm

Kinda sorta...thanks though.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 8:38pm

Drop "H"s.
"R"s should have kind of a gutteral sound- and sound slightly like "l"s. SLIGHTLY. Hard to explain, but if you've ever heard an "R" pronounced with an exaggerated French accent, that's basically it.
"I"s can sound like "ee". (Example: "Ees," instead of "Is")
"Th" sounds can be replaced with "z"s. (Example: "Zees ees true" instead of "This is true")

As people have suggested, it's easier to listen and then imitate than it is for someone to explain (sidenote: I may be totally off with some of these, so don't take my word as the gospel). And it depends on if you're doing a really over-the-top accent, or not.

[sassypanz]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 8:46pm

Rs you vibrate your uvula is what the person above is trying to say. Like the spanish and italian rrrrs exept not with your tongue but with ur uvula!

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 8:49pm

Exactly (I think). Heh...

[LoudIrishGirl]

Posted: 7/18/05 at 8:51pm

Watch "French Kiss" then do NOT do what they do in that movie. Watch that as a what you SHOULDN'T sound like movie.

[phantom_tenor]

Posted: 7/19/05 at 7:41am

watch lots of french tv shows and movies. It'll give you a feel for the sound of the language, which in turn will help you with the accent. It works, trust me.

And practice your lines in the accent over and over.

[jerseygurl]

Posted: 7/19/05 at 9:08am

try this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/

[kas]

Posted: 7/19/05 at 9:24am

i have tons of dialect tapes from David Alan Stern - look him up. but... kevin kline really wasn't that bad in french kiss. juliet and the other guy (villian) were french.

[bella cantato]

Posted: 7/19/05 at 10:44am

Listen to Greg Jbara on the DRS soundtrack.