You know Parisians speak English. You know this because when you try to speak French to them, they speak English to you. But that’s usually a few cursory sentences: “right this way,” “what would you like,” “it’s 10 euros, you gave me five.” The real question is, can Parisians speak English when you’re actually asking them to speak English? Especially English that’s more than just a few canned phrases meant to help confused English-speakers navigate the city.
We sent a Paris correspondent onto the streets to find out about Parisians’s English. Whether they’re better at English than you thought they’d be, or maybe worse, we can promise that there are exactly as many quintessentially French “uhhh” (“euuuh“) sounds as you expected.
Like this video? Try watching French people try to pronounce hard English words or French people try to pronounce French words the way that Americans pronounce them.
