Georgian → French
French uses 36 sounds. You already own 16 of them from Georgian. The other 20 are the work — and 13 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: close, but not identical
French: good · written "on", "om"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: without the aspirated part
French: bread · written "p", "pp"
Your /pʰ/ is the one in ფული (money).
the move: without the aspirated part
French: table · written "t", "tt", "th"
Your /tʰ/ is the one in თევზი (fish).
the move: without the aspirated part
French: when · written "c (a,o,u)", "qu", "k", "ch (Greek words)"
Your /kʰ/ is the one in ქალი (woman).
the move: rounded
French: you · written "u", "û"
Round your lips for /u/, say /i/. NOT English 'oo'.
Your /i/ is the one in ის (he / she / it).
the move: rounded
French: fear · written "eu", "œu (closed syllable)"
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: close, but not identical
French: bread · written "in", "im", "ain", "ein"
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: rounded
French: brown · written "un", "um"
Parisians merge it into /ɛ̃/: brun = brin.
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
French: flower · written "f", "ph"
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: velar → uvular
French: street · written "r", "rr"
Uvular — at the back, like a light gargle. Never rolled at the tip.
Your /ɣ/ is the one in ღვინო (wine).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
French: summer · written "é", "-er", "-ez", "es (les, des)"
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
French: water · written "o (final)", "ô", "au", "eau"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
Words you may say identically
Two or more French sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
Genuinely new
Nothing in Georgian sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
mountain
Closest thing you own: — but bilabial → palatal.
girl
Exceptions: ville, mille, tranquille keep /l/.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant, velar → palatal.
dough
Merging with /a/ for most younger speakers.
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → open, unrounded.
little
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → close-mid, rounded.
child
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → open.
yes
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant.
eight
Say /y/ and glide into the next vowel. nuit, lui, pluie.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Georgian | French | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, heavy clusters | Syllable-timed |
| Stress | Weak and non-contrastive. Two-syllable words take it on the first syllable; longer words tend toward the third-from-last. No pair of Georgian words is distinguished by stress alone, which is why dictionaries do not mark it. To an English ear Georgian can sound evenly stressed, almost flat — that is correct, not a lack of expression. | This is the one that surprises everyone: French words have NO fixed stress. Prominence lands on the last syllable of the rhythmic GROUP, not of the word — so the same word is stressed differently depending on where it sits. 'Un chocolat' stresses -lat; 'un chocolat chaud' moves it to chaud and the word chocolat loses it entirely. There are no French minimal pairs by stress, because there is nothing to contrast. |
What you have that French doesn't
17 sounds with no job in French. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Georgian has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned French from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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