French pronunciation for non-natives
1:1 online coaching focused on the music of French
"Master the rhythms and sounds of French to express yourself more clearly
and be better understood"
![Isabelle Cottenet Isabelle Cottenet](https://mlk5g6glyjwl.i.optimole.com/cb:jqTz.64d47/w:auto/h:auto/q:mauto/f:best/https://www.secureyourpronunciation.com/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/isabelle-cottenet-scaled-qdk9byiuk28j80oizpwyu9al54itkqujtkbo73o1uy.jpg)
Interpreters
![Interpretes Interprètes, traductrices et traducteurs](https://mlk5g6glyjwl.i.optimole.com/cb:jqTz.64d47/w:auto/h:auto/q:mauto/f:best/https://www.secureyourpronunciation.com/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/Interpretes-qeq81lidhdg2soph1r36297zgg53b13teh5ej7nu1c.png)
- Turn your French into a B language
- Understand fast speakers better
- Elevate your interpretation with natural-sounding delivery
Professionals
- Follow conversations with ease
- Chat with your colleagues
- Negotiate on an equal footing
- Boost your credibility
Individuals
- Engage in meaningful discussions
- Connect with French people
- Get ready to move to France
- Interact with your in-laws
French grammar and vocabulary are not a problem but...
- speaking French does not come easily.
- you worry that you are not always understood.
- you struggle to pronounce certain words.
- your "French voice" does not sound natural.
And yet you dream of…
- being taken seriously.
- speaking up in meetings.
- sharing your ideas with confidence.
- being complimented on your French!
You have tried to go it alone...
Congratulations! This is an excellent way to expand your vocabulary and discover new expressions.
🎯 Now you need to practice speaking and get into your ‘French persona’ to reach the next level!
There are plenty of free resources online, but it’s easy to feel lost and overwhelmed.
🎯 Get the help of a professional trainer with a good ear to help you stay motivated.
Your coach can:
- identify and fix your challenges
- draw up a customized plan and exercises
- prioritize areas for improvement
- adapt to your learning style
- and give you a boost when you need it!
But they worry about hurting your feelings or just switch to English.
🎯 Targeted feedback will help you:
- correct your mistakes,
- progress with confidence,
- and stay motivated.
Conversation classes are an excellent way to practice and enhance confidence.
However, conversation classes don’t focus on pronunciation!
🎯 If you treat pronunciation like a workout by focusing on sounds, rhythms and intonation, your accent will improve sooner.
Why is pronunciation so difficult?
Some French rhythms and sounds don’t exist in your language.
You can only correctly pronounce what you hear.
Traditional language courses focus on grammar and vocabulary, but rarely on phonetics or phonology.
They often overlook the musicality of the language and don’t provide pronunciation feedback.
What's the secret to improving your accent?
- Develop your listening skills to identify and distinguish new sounds
- Train your speech muscles to articulate French sounds
- Develop your imitation skills
- And of course, practice regularly!
My approach to pronunciation teaching
My pronunciation coaching sessions focus on the musicality of the language.
In our 1-to-1 sessions, I’ll walk you through the elements of spoken French, helping you master its rhythms, intonations, and sounds to express yourself more clearly.
This personalized approach makes learning fun and effective!
A safe and welcoming environment
My goal is to make each session enjoyable so you can explore and experiment without fear of judgment.
Prioritizing for efficiency
After an initial assessment, I prioritize key areas to focus on, helping you improve the clarity of your French pronunciation.
Customized learning journey
Each session addresses your needs and adapts to your learning style, taking into consideration your lifestyle, native language, level of French and schedule.
Articulation training
We work on strengthening your French speech muscles to help you pronounce and connect sounds clearly, smoothly, and comfortably. Get ready to smile (a lot), make faces, and stick your tongue out!
Honing your listening skills
It's essential to be able to hear the unique sounds of French for clear pronunciation. In our sessions we focus on developing and refining your listening skills to achieve this goal.
Practice resources
After each lesson a video recording, session materials, practical worksheets and audio files will be available in your private Pronunciation Folder for independent practice.
Empowering strategies
Each session is packed with actionable tips and strategies to help you start using new sounds in your daily life and make your independent practice highly effective.
And if you're up to it...
we could even use songs to support your learning journey in a fun and effective way. The songs we choose would help you develop your listening skills, memory and diction.
What my clients say
I’ve been actively learning French for 2 years and while I knew my accent and pronunciation weren’t great, I didn’t really know how to go about improving in an impactful way.
Enter Isabelle! In only a couple of months, my pronunciation has radically improved and it’s been noted (and complimented) by my French co-workers.
Isabelle made the classes and the practise sessions super fun and really helped unlock some areas where I was totally stuck (nasal sounds).
Within about 10 minutes of conversation, she had pinpointed exactly what I needed to work on, and then tailored every lesson towards this with very engaging and interesting content.
She would also point out things I was unaware I did incorrectly, and gave very clear examples on how to improve.
Considering the relatively few hours we've worked together, the progress is astounding and I would come away from every lesson with a very clear improvement - so I would absolutely recommend her to anybody learning the French language.
I was looking for someone who could help me with my French pronunciation following a health setback that affected my speech.
Over a series of sessions, she helped me reunderstand the specific aspects of French phonetics (oh, how easily one overlooks them!) and provided me with valuable breathing, pacing, posture and pronunciation exercises that I continue to use.
(*SFT: Société Française des Traducteurs)
She is supportive and encouraging always. My motivation to speak French fluently has been greatly enhanced and I look forward to each session.
This is a delightful experience for me and I can wholeheartedly recommend Isabelle.
![<i>I always appreciated the way Isabelle was providing feedback.</i>](https://mlk5g6glyjwl.i.optimole.com/cb:jqTz.64d47/w:auto/h:auto/q:mauto/f:best/https://www.secureyourpronunciation.com/wp-content/plugins/elementor/assets/images/placeholder.png)
This helped me not only improve my French pronunciation, but also build confidence when speaking French and immerse into French culture, history, and art.
I always appreciated the way Isabelle was providing feedback and her ability to mix traditional teaching methods with innovative and interactive techniques and tools [...] Merci Isabelle for your guidance during the past months!
Elle m’a aidée à comprendre mes erreurs de prononciation et d’intonation et à progresser en travaillant des points précis.
Plus question de confondre voyelles fermées / ouvertes et les différentes nasales !
J’ai adoré sa méthode qui utilise le chant pour rendre la phrasé plus léger – maintenant, les Français:es m’écoutent et me comprennent plus facilement 😉
I first saw her giving a presentation for the Société Française des Traducteurs and was struck by her enthusiasm and evident in-depth knowledge of the French language.
I have already noticed an improvement in my understanding of certain aspects of pronunciation that I have struggled with, even after years of learning French.
Her approach is playful, targeted and tailored to be as effective as possible. I hope to continue working with her so that I can make as much progress as she clearly has with her impeccable American accent!
She has an amazing level of expertise in pronunciation and was able to identify and clearly explain the differences in how I speak in my native language (English), versus how to create new sounds in French.
Not only is she an expert in the subject, she is an incredible teacher!!! She has a variety of methods to coach her students to exercise and understand different sounds, and is very clear in her communication style.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Isabelle and strongly recommend her to anyone looking to improve their pronunciation!
Elle est très patiente et a su m'aider à découvrir de nouvelles facettes de la langue française, ce qui a même amélioré mon orthographe.
En tant qu'hispanophone, j'ai trouvé fascinant de comparer la position de la langue pour certaines consonnes entre les deux langues. Son matériel et ses exercices sont vraiment utiles et ont même amélioré ma compréhension orale.
Je recommande vivement ses cours !
She easily picks up on everything that needs to be improved, and has a program readily available to improve it.
I've enjoyed my lessons with her, and will ask for more in the future. In the meantime, I'll practice my homework suggestions.
Private online coaching sessions prices
Découverte
One
30-Minute Call
A la carte
One
1-Hour Session
En douceur
4-Session Pack
(45 min each)
Equilibré
4-Session Pack
(1 hour each)
Intensif
4-Session Pack
(1 hour each)
Freelance interpreters and translators in France
If you’d like to claim pronunciation sessions as a professional expense and are subject to VAT in France, 20% VAT will be added to the rates listed.
Please contact me before booking your session or package online.
If you are NOT subject to VAT, you can book the sessions at the prices above!
Commit to consistent progress with a 12-session program
If you’re ready to engage in a focused 3-month journey to improve your pronunciation with regular sessions and independent practice, let’s talk!
Book your free 30-minute call to discuss your goals, how we can achieve them, and determine if we’re the right fit.
After our meeting, I’ll send you a detailed quote and you can then decide if you’d like to move forward with me.
Looking forward to meeting you soon!
(Psssst, booking a 12-session program is also better value for money 😊.)