AJ | French - Learn French in a friendly community! | Page 1

hallow mapleBOT Apr 7, 2026, 10:52 PM

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Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 10:54 PM

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It sounds like text-to-speech

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imo

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 10:55 PM

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Sounds like a native anglophone being very careful in the way they talk

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 10:55 PM

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weird
sounds like it has TTS artifacts to me

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and the delivery is VERY flat

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 10:56 PM

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I hear tons of anglo accent so it's hard to definitively hear it as tts/ai

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 10:57 PM

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for me it's not AI because, ironically, AI does a better job lmao

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this sounds like the TTS stuff I could do on my mac 15 years ago

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 10:58 PM

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It sounds like a guy reading a script focusing way more on pronunciation than intonation

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 10:58 PM

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https://ttsfree.com/text-to-speech/french-canada

French (Canada) Text to Speech

Text-to-speech French (Canada) by TTSFree, online speech synthesis with natural sounds, and lifelike voices. Free mp3 download

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I just generated that and it sounds like the same voice lmao

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 10:58 PM

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Lol

modern hedge Apr 7, 2026, 10:59 PM

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jade monolith I hear tons of anglo accent so it's hard to definitively hear it as tts/ai

Yeah, this is basically what I was wondering. I’m trying to avoid stuff like this because its just about the 100% opposite of what I hear on practice exam clips for the TCF test.

Would you have any recommandations for content like this that has more natural soundinh audio but also proper transcriptions/text?

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 10:59 PM

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It's very much not "canadian french" unless they mean Ontario or something lol

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 10:59 PM

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TBH it sounds better than the voice
But I think they're applying massive compression on that site

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 11:00 PM

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modern hedge Yeah, this is basically what I was wondering. I’m trying to avoid stuff like thi...

Usually radio canada is pretty good idk why it's weird this time

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I don't have a whole lot of other suggestions

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 11:01 PM

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well they're actually up front about it

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 11:01 PM

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Ah lol

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 11:01 PM

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except that isn't AI

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it's OLD school TTS

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there are much better models that create nicer audio

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 11:02 PM

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Yeah

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I'd think AI would actually use a radio canada type voice

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Not.. anglo

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 11:02 PM

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yeah, I can't just for the quality of the accent
sounds neutral to slighly canadian to me

modern hedge Apr 7, 2026, 11:03 PM

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vivid cargo well they're actually up front about it

Ohh, yeah I missed this ig, ty

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 11:03 PM

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fwiw other articles may not be!

modern hedge Apr 7, 2026, 11:03 PM

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jade monolith Usually radio canada is pretty good idk why it's weird this time

Do you know if other articles there are generally better? I just started having a look at their stuff so don’t know how they are more broadly

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 11:04 PM

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I've never had issues anyways

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But I don't really use it all that often

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Since I live in quebec already

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 11:05 PM

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maybe focus on video content and not text articles

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if you want good audio, that is

modern hedge Apr 7, 2026, 11:10 PM

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Yeah, to train my listening, I was doing basically random youtube content with its own subtitles for a while but I think the autogenerated subtitles in youtube are really bad.

Like when I went to a TCF practice test and heard more real-ish audio there and tried to write out what I was hearing and compared it with the transcript, I realise I am hearing mostly gibberish lol. Bottom one here is the actual transcript and the top is what I hear so now I need to start training listening more actively with real text

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 11:11 PM

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Seems like you're using stuff that's a bit above your current level

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Don't hesitate to slow content down or look for content that's graded for a lower level

jade monolith Apr 7, 2026, 11:26 PM

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Try InnerFrench

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But it's also worth noting that even imperfect hearing or imperfect subtitles are useful, especially when you're able to go back and verify (though this isn't 100% necessary)

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We often forget that practicing what we DO know among otherwise difficult content makes it easier to process, and then in turn gives you more time to process the stuff you're less familiar with

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Making errors and struggling a bit is an important part of learning, though it's still good to have less frustrating content to really solidify the bases

vivid cargo Apr 7, 2026, 11:41 PM

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@hard spear I'm moving your comment here
(we answer in the auto-created threads to keep the salle-de-classe channels tidy)

modern hedge Apr 8, 2026, 2:49 AM

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jade monolith Try InnerFrench

I did a lot of innerfrench for the first few months of listening. I might try going back to that as well but would you have any recommandations for something just a bit more higher level where its more closer to native and not as slow and explain-ish as innerfrench?

jade monolith Apr 8, 2026, 2:51 AM

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modern hedge I did a lot of innerfrench for the first few months of listening. I might try go...

I've heard the later sessions of innerfrench are better for that but beyond that im not sure, i mostly just started talking in vcs

modern hedge Apr 8, 2026, 3:32 AM

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Thank you!

rapid glen Apr 8, 2026, 10:40 AM

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If you go onto the InnerFrench website, the episodes have difficulty ratings based on listener feedback. The episodes with discussions/interviews are generally harder than the infodump episodes. Journal en français facile by RFI, https://francaisfacile.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/les-voisins-du-12-bis-le-podcast-en-français/, French Mornings with Elisa, Le français avec Yasmine. There are also a bunch of podcasts from Choses à Savoir that are probably good for you

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There's also https://apprendre.tv5monde.com/fr

paper hawk Apr 8, 2026, 1:29 PM

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vivid cargo

how do you do this it won’t let me

vivid cargo Apr 8, 2026, 1:30 PM

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just clicked, didn't do anything special

paper hawk Apr 8, 2026, 1:30 PM

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no i mean how did you send the file