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French voice over
What do you mean by French voice over ?
January 10, 2017

About the author:


You are looking for a French voice talent? I work from my professional home studio for many different types of projects like TV commercials, radio, corporate videos, eLearning, cartoons, video games, audio guide, documentary etc.

I usually deliver recordings within 24h and offer retakes free of charges if needed.


What’s a French voice over?


It sounds pretty obvious, right? Isn’t it simply a voice over performed by a French ?

Well it’s not so obvious. First you have many parts in the world where you speak French, so several and distinct needs for the French voice over market.


European French voice over:

European map of the ability of speaking French
In dark the countries where French is a native language.

Usually called European French voice overs, those are voice talents from France, Belgium and Switzerland with a neutral French accent. It is free of accent and sounds flat.

As you can see on the map, many countries near France integrated French in their culture.










African French voice overs

African map of francophone countries.
Represented in dark blue the countries usually considered part of the Francophone Africa.

Their population was 392 million in 2015. They actually represent the main part of the francophone population.

Those countries have a strong accent. Usually they call for European French voice over for recording TV and radio commercials. As there are several accents inside France itself, you will find different accents within francophone countries in Africa.


French Canadian voice overs

Finally, the French Canadian. The Canadian accent is very strong and at times it is not understandable by a French from France.

Canadian voice overs have their own market in Canada. Canadian might call for a European French voice over for their voice over needs, but the reverse almost never happens.



French Parisian accent?

As far as I know, there was a Parisian accent within the 30’s which has more or less disappear.

Here is a good example: https://youtu.be/NeHVI3DArpY


I would say there is no really Parisian accent, but that would not be objective as I live near the capital.

In my opinion, what might be considered as a Parisian accent today would be a snobbish way of talking that you often hear in Paris and around. Here is another good example: https://youtu.be/eUKTxrLf5b4


Finally, I leave you with a very nice video that shows many different French accent, from Canada, Africa and Europe : http://dai.ly/xaphf7

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