Knowing when to pronounce and when not to pronounce the letter E is key to speaking French like a native. Among other places, E usually isn't pronounced when it's between two consonants (and doesn't have an accent mark).

In this lesson, Patricia will show you how to pronounce the six French vowels and the vowel combinations ai, an, au, ain, and aim.

In this video, you will learn how to pronounce some vowel combinations with the letter E (ei, eu, eau) as well as the differences between é, è, and ê.

Patricia concludes her series on vowels and vowel groups with a discussion of the vowels O and U. She also mentions a French word that contains all five vowels, but none of them are individually pronounced. Can you guess what it is?

Why do we get "hen flesh" (chair de poule) when it's "duck cold" (froid de canard)? Learn more about these and other poultry-related expressions in this video.

There are many expressions in French linked to the color red, several of which have direct equivalents in English. Discover a few of them with Patricia.

Red alert! There are even more French expressions using the word rouge. Patricia explains several of them in this video.

Tune in to Patricia's lesson on musical expressions and idioms in French. You'll hear plenty of interesting phrases that are worth noting.

En avant la musique! (Let's get on with it!) Patricia continues her lesson on various musical expressions used in everyday language.

Patricia breaks down some more musical expressions, such as c'est la même musique, c'est du pipeau, violon d'Ingres, and si ça te chante.

To conclude her series on musical expressions, Patricia will sing your praises for having learned and practiced everything she taught you.

It took two hundred years to standardize French spelling before it could be taught in schools using a method called la dictée (dictation), in which a student writes out the words he or she hears. As a matter of fact, this is the exact same principle behind Yabla's Scribe game!

Patricia explains the importance of dictation exercises for learning French. Now an essential teaching tool in the classroom, dictation was originally a pastime for French nobility. The author Prosper Mérimée created a dictation exercise for Empress Eugénie that stumped even the brightest intellectuals. Think you can beat them? Try it yourself here.

Patricia explains the multiple benefits of dictation exercises. Having fallen out of favor in recent years, dictation is making a comeback after the French Ministry of Education realized that language skills were deteriorating. Why not take full advantage of Yabla's Scribe game to improve those skills?

The first of April is the day of hoaxes, pranks, and jokes. In France, the tradition is to hang paper fish on people's backs and shout, "Poisson d'avril!" (April Fish!).