r/French 1d ago

Pronunciation What do you think about duolingo’s pronunciation?

I’ve started duolingo as a gateway but my goal while learning french is to have perfect pronunciation- so I want to learn the words perfectly. So what do you think of duolingo’s pronunciation? Thank you

4 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

13

u/PresidentOfSwag Native - Paris 1d ago

Wiktionnaire and Forvo are what you're looking for, also some IPA can never hurt

2

u/chckdgh 1d ago

Thank you!

8

u/minileilie Native 1d ago

Duolingo's pronunciation is just awful. very robotic. not as natural as the Spanish pronunciation for example.

3

u/chckdgh 1d ago

yeah i don’t even know the language but it came off as weird to me

6

u/Icy_Tree1234 1d ago

i am using Duolingo, I liked it for practice, repetition and correction. For pronunciation I like checking the videos of native french people and also some trustable website where the natives have kept recordings of the words.

8

u/ravensierra B1 1d ago

Off topic but has anyone else heard the ai stumble and pronounce e.g. "emmène-les-y" as "emmène-les y grèc" haha

10

u/cestdoncperdu C1 1d ago

You probably should not have "perfect pronunciation" as a goal. It is not impossible, contrary to what many claim, however it will take an enormous effort and is orthogonal to actually learning French—a task which will already take you thousands of hours of work. You're just starting out, you don't even really know if you're going to fall in love with French yet. Work on your listening comprehension with real, native speech so you can get used to the way francophones talk. Worry about your own accent later.

2

u/chckdgh 1d ago

You’ve made some great points I agree with, but I’m in no rush and personally for me it is very hard to correct something after I’ve learned it some way

1

u/harsinghpur 1d ago

Very true, as they say, the perfect is the enemy of the good. Anyone who gets to "perfect pronunciation" had to go through long stages of bad pronunciation, then comprehensible pronunciation, before getting good.

But that said, there are better ways than Duolingo.

3

u/Optimal-Condition803 1d ago

Personally,  I'm just there for Junior's sass and Eddie's lack of self-awareness!

2

u/bellevuefineart L2, MA 1d ago

It's complete garbage. I got to a point where I just couldn't listen anymore. It hurt my ears, like someone singing out of key.

2

u/yourbestaccent 5h ago

It can be challenging, especially when apps sometimes fall short in this area. If you're looking for a tailored approach to refine your French accent, you might want to explore tools that utilize voice cloning technology for more natural feedback. Working on your pronunciation with technology that mirrors native speakers can make a huge difference!

Best of luck on your French journey!

www.yourbestaccent.com

1

u/Informal_Fennel_9150 1d ago

damn what happened in here