Techniques to improve pronunciation when I can manage to say parts of the word but not the full word (e.g. 2 nearby R sounds)

Question

Is there any tip on how to pronounce words that have two r's?

I'm using Forvo as my main "how-to-pronounce-something". But even when I hear these words 200x being pronounced, I can't!

Let me give you an example:

• I can pronounce mardi(1), ordinateur(2, but far from eachother), mercredi(2, close but first r comes after the vowel);
• I can't pronounce progrés, prendre and many other words that has the sound of the consonant combined with the sound of r

So, again, is there any technic to master these kind of words? For the rest, I can pronounce it all (mother tongue br-portuguese helps), this words make me feel a little bit sad. (I'm a good(?) way)

Answer 1

I don't know if it'll work for you, but my technique for hard-to-pronounce foreign languages where I can manage to pronounce individual syllables but not full words, has been to do slow pronunciation drills, working backwards from the end of the word - for example

Rès, rès, rès, rès

Grès, grès, grès, grès

Ogrès, ogrès, ogrès, ogrès

Rogrès, rogrès, rogrès, rogrès

Progrès, progrès, progrès, progrès

Le progrès, le progrès, le progrès, le progrès

Maybe try this out, walking your way up the word very slowly, and see if it works? Hope this helps, and if it works let us know how it goes!

Answer 2

@qoba x 3: I'd say that's how slow you want to start IFF you're sure you're having issues. Generally go a bit slower than you really need to, 1-3 or so times, in those cases. Then alternate native-average-speed attempts whenever detail work get's boring, with slow-speaking native speed most of the time otherwise.

My key is (as a pro-pro-pro-level linguist) to repeat at six full times full-speed, once I get it perfect (with the native speaker standing there, I feel the pressure ;-] ... a HIGH FI audio recording or better video-with-stereo is OK too) making sure I don't trip up(catching breath is OK) at all, even if this means restarting the count often, even twice or so, if I need too, or even four times if I'm very new to the language/lect.

Only way to improve the trick that I know of is: Always keep going across a couple of word boundaries, even before the start of your "etude" even if that means you need to add something of your own up in front (the last chunks added) to do so. Especially in Frenches of France or the Carribean.

Never learn grammar wrong, always play around and talk to yourselves, and stay interested in real phrases and accents AND obscurely over-erudite pre-modern written-only pomposities.

Always have toggling between fastest/fastish for yourself (potentially pretty damn slow, relative to anybody but an "announcerish emphatic declamatory" language-lab example) ultra-perfect-pronunciation "textbook" attempts (speed one), and best attempt at fast Native or favorite-native(s') idiosyncratic flavor-exact mimicry in your arsenal, so whichever gets boring, you can switch to the other for half a minute before quitting, so you can end on a good note.

Enjoy!

Thank you all. If someone would translate this or @qoba's answer into (France std) French, I'd love to hear how to do so, and learn whether or not I'm using the wrong language (lost the linc to the FAQ).

Answer 3

Simply cut the word in blocks mentally. Using other words where you can.

Can you say "pro", like a "professional", un pro ? Ok. Can you you say "grès", like the mineral "sandstone", un joli grès ? Well... simply say one after the other, as if they were 2 words following each other in a random sentence. In no time, you'll be able to join them.

Pro + grès => pro grès => pro-grès => progrès.