Suggest that you add oral drills for new verb forms

John M.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Suggest that you add oral drills for new verb forms

Since learning a new language, especially once as inflected in different forms of pronunciation compared to English (or, say, Japanese, which I speak), involves considerable oral drilling (at least when learned in school), may I suggest that you add a recording that functions as an oral drill of new verb forms at, say,  the B2 level and above? 

For example, an oral drill of 'e-' + endings: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent. A strong-voice emphasis on practicing pronunciation would I think help enormously in achieving a correct understanding of voicing the specific forms, because while the examples sentences are good, the quality of speakers is sometimes uneven and sometimes verbs are quickly slurred into the next word, making it difficult/impossible to hear the correct pronunciation.

In the above examples, "Soudain, ils eurent l'impression d'être suivis" has "eurent" quickly sliding into "l'impression." As the pronunciation of this plural verb form is indistinct (though of course it's probably perfectly natural French in the context of the full French sentence), practicing correct pronunciation is difficult. 

So, to repeat, a stand-alone recording of something like 'e-' + endings: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent and or B2 forms would be helpful.


Asked 5 years ago

Suggest that you add oral drills for new verb forms

Since learning a new language, especially once as inflected in different forms of pronunciation compared to English (or, say, Japanese, which I speak), involves considerable oral drilling (at least when learned in school), may I suggest that you add a recording that functions as an oral drill of new verb forms at, say,  the B2 level and above? 

For example, an oral drill of 'e-' + endings: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent. A strong-voice emphasis on practicing pronunciation would I think help enormously in achieving a correct understanding of voicing the specific forms, because while the examples sentences are good, the quality of speakers is sometimes uneven and sometimes verbs are quickly slurred into the next word, making it difficult/impossible to hear the correct pronunciation.

In the above examples, "Soudain, ils eurent l'impression d'être suivis" has "eurent" quickly sliding into "l'impression." As the pronunciation of this plural verb form is indistinct (though of course it's probably perfectly natural French in the context of the full French sentence), practicing correct pronunciation is difficult. 

So, to repeat, a stand-alone recording of something like 'e-' + endings: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent and or B2 forms would be helpful.


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