Aha ! So to the French ear there's no difference (or no différence)

Chatting with one of the guys yesterday he asked how we pronounce the english word for mouton. I said "sheep", like the french word for crisps, "chips" = sheeps.

He said, so what about a big boat on the sea? I said "ship". He said, "ship, sheep, what is the difference?"

So I tried to demonstrate the sounds ee - i - eh (sheep, ship, shep), and he said that he cannot hear the difference between sheep and ship.

This was WONDERFUL news.

One of the hassles I have is ensuring I pronounce, e.g., différence as deeférãs and not différãs.

But if people can't tell the difference anyway, then I don't need to stress out about it!

But, I have decided that I need to keep working on conjugaison, so I am going to do a verb a day. All useful tenses (present, future, passé composé, imperfect, present subjunctive, conditional) just to revise it. Tenses like the pluperfect and future perfect are made up from the others. And I'm going to get play my verb quiz, too. I just feel uncomfortable with some verbs now and again, and I have to choose my verbs carefully when praying with the "We ask that you ..." construction..

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