What English word do you think the French don't know how to say correctly?

[Julie4]

I once spoke vocally with an American woman, using this word, and it was a moment of terrible embarrassment 😂

[RavVid]

Generally a French person's pronunciation is off but always charmingly so.

The use of the word THE is the big give away that someone is from out of town. Why do I go to the beach but I don't go to the Rosebud beach except for when I do? Most native speakers can't explain that.

You seem to have your the's down pat. :)

It is I think unfair that we expect immigrants to be at IELTS Lev 8 when most native speakers would fail. It gets fairly arcane at L8. If someone says they will go to the Rosebud beach it will not cause me any confusion though it might prompt me to ask if they particularly like Rosebud beach.

[Julie4]

Yes, that's true, we are disasters 😂 There are so many English words that, when we pronounce them, they don't mean what we think they mean, lol. For me, it was the word 'beach,' but with my pronunciation, I literally said 'bitch' when I meant to say we should go to the beach 😭

[RingOfFire]

"For me, it was the word 'beach,' but with my pronunciation, I literally said 'bitch' when I meant to say we should go to the beach "

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[RingOfFire]

I was in a hotel in Paris once when I was a young man and spoke to the maid in the hallway to tell her it was okay to enter the room to clean. As a child I took French classes in school. I don't know what I said but she started laughing hysterically. I just smiled and walked away. I have no idea what I said!

[Julie4]

Well I guess you didn't say she could go clean the room 😂

[RingOfFire]

I guess not!

[RavVid]

Funny. Even funnier that across Europe the vowel sounds remain the same in the different languages but in English it is the vowel sounds that vary most across the dialects of US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

To the extent that a NZ girl who had spent time in Scotland needed me to translate for her. She complained shop girls wouldn't serve her. Saw the problem immediately. She would say "woona a poortaa wuug". After I said she means she wants a party wig the shop, girls would bring out a selection for her to choose from.

We do like like the french accent even if it momentary confuses us as to why we should go to the bitch :). Don't ever change!

[RavVid]

@RingOfFire My equivalent experience was my companion wanted red wine at a surburban bar we found ourselves at. The barman politely let me struggle through my attempted French. Then said "You mean you what a red wine".

The whole bar laughed but very good naturedly. We had a great time there.

[RingOfFire]

🤣Good one! 👍

[RavVid]

@RingOfFire It was a fun time as we were made welcome.

[abc3643]

15 years ago I hosted an exchange student from Rennes France named Brice (said like ”Breece").

Having studied French from 1975 to 1979, I understood French pronunciation and expectations for how to pronounce words.

In French, words that begin with the letter H often have the H as silent.

For example, the English phrase of "The hotel" is in French "L'Hôtel" said like "low tell"; the h is silent.

Instead of saying "house", Brice would say "owse"... akin to saying "house" with a silent h.

[purplepoppy]

Towns like Leominster, Worcester, Alnwick. Peoples surnames like Manwaring

[purplepoppy]

May I suggest the old British TV series of allo allo, it contains lots of French mispronounciations

[AviatorTom]

I often worked with the French. They let me know thst they always speak correctly.

So, to answer the question, there is NO WORD the French say incorrectly. It is we, the non-French, who say it wrong. 😎

[Julie4]

Mdr, I like that way of looking at things. 😂

[NathanDavis]

hmm, yeah...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q1A5A8Xe22s

that's a toff one...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XVLzDaOYUdk

[DJB72]

After 21 years in South Africa I can honestly say the way the French speak English is more accurate than the majority of people here.

11 official languages, innumerable local accents all trying to say "management" and butchering it completely. And that's just the president's cabinet...

[DryGermanGuy]

According to George W. Bush, it’s „entrepreneur“. 🙄😂

[Julie4]

It's true 😂😂

[DrPepper12]

I haven't read any answer yet but I will GUARANTEE that some self fluffing USA American asshole who thinks he (it's ALWAYS he) is both funny and knows history has answered some non witty variation of the word "Surrender".

[Staximus]

I don't know, I haven't heard anybody speak English with a French accent in person in a long time

[KostasKouvalis]

"Squirrel" seems to be a popular one😂

[RyanEC]

Have you improved your English?
I can’t think of any specific words.

[chrissykerdock]

probably schedule

[andreasderjuengere]

''Kindergarten'' ? ... heh heh

[Avicenna]

Le Weekend

[Anonymous]

Queer

[DaBiggestBird]

Food.

[Jennz6]

T-Shirt

[Dongie]

Room

[Dongie]

But who cares if it's a female speaking. Their accent is the best.