In the videos I’ve posted to OffQc lately, quite a few informal contractions have come up. It’s imperative to learn these contractions to understand spoken French.
I’ve pulled together a list of these contractions; there’s a link for each one that will take you back to the video where it appeared so you can listen again and learn it.
- tu es pronounced as t’es (#977)
- il y en a pronounced as y’en a (#975)
- sur la pronounced as s’a (#975)
- peut-être pronounced as p’t’-êt’ (#975)
- je suis pronounced as j’suis (#964)
- il aime pronounced as y’aime (#964)
- bien pronounced as ben (#964)
- plus pronounced as p’us (#961)
- je suis pronounced as j’su’ (#961)
- de là pronounced as de d’là (#961)
- puis pronounced as pis (#961)
- pas de chat pronounced as pas d’chat (#961)
- tu n’es pas pronounced as t’es pas (#959)
- je me fâche pronounced as j’me fâche (#959)
Here’s something you can try. The sentences below have been written without contractions. Try to say them aloud applying whatever informal contractions are possible from the ones above.
Je suis bien content.
Tu n’es pas tanné?
Je l’ai croisée sur la rue.
Des fois je me fâche.
Il y en a qui disent ça.
Answers
J’su’ ben [chu bin] content. I’m really happy.
T’es pas tanné? You’re not fed up?
Je l’ai croisée s’a rue. I bumped into her in the street.
Des fois j’me fâche. Sometimes I get angry.
Y’en a qui disent ça. Some people say that.
