How to Fake a French Accent

If you cannot actually speak French, you can actually begin to learn something about the people and the language by imitation. Also - there may come a time when you need to fake a French accent. The techniques and tips below will get you off on the right foot.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A mouth
• A little time to practice
• A sense of humor

1. OBSERVE NATIVE SPEAKERS: go to a French conversation class at a local school, or a group that meets regularly.
   Even if you cannot speak, you can hear how various French speakers sound.
   When you get home, practice a few key words that you noticed were especially different.
   Once you have a sense of how the pronunciation works, go to the next step.
   Learn a few expressions like "OOF!" or "eeehhh". Use these sparingly, though.
2. BODY LANGUAGE: imagine you are holding a small plate with a piece of birthday cake, with a candle on it.
   Hold the imaginary plate in front of your face, and pucker up to blow the candle out, but instead of blowing, say, "Booof!" with a minor expulsion of air.
   Use this for any number of responses to questions you do not understand or do not want to answer, such as "What time does your shop close?"
3. ATTITUDE: much of the meaning in a language is conveyed by attitude.
   If you are trying to embody the French way of communicating, look at some French movies.
   Do not smile much - instead, cultivate an attitude of boredom and non-chalance (that is French for "nothing bothers me".)
4. ACCENT: The most overused way you hear a French accent faked is to simply change a "th" sound for a "z" sound, and dropping your "H's", for example..."Zey 'ave no business 'ere!"
   This is not going to cut it for the expert French accent impressionist.
   You might begin by changing - "TH" for "V" or "F" sound.
   Try a few of these on your own before venturing in public.
   - OR you might follow an old French tradition and resort to miming.

Tips & Warnings

• actually learning the language is preferable to faking an accent and can also be fun!
• Check out the RESOURCES section below for more related information on learning a language.
• Do not attempt to actually use this in France or with French people. It might be misinterpreted and looked on unfavorably.
• Never use this to gain favorable seating in a fancy French restaurant
• Use garlic sparingly until you have acquired the correct spit-to-speech ratio.