‘Just such a diva, I love her’: French woman gets increasingly frustrated when she can’t pronounce basic English words correctly

Learning a language can be incredibly frustrating. Modern advances like Duolingo and even TikTok’s Food Challenge Filter can help zazz up the brain-intensive process, but sometimes even those fun, game-like lessons can still drive a person mad.

French TikToker @tatatopsecret, who uses the app almost exclusively to showcase her journey as an English speaker, has ample experience with just how frustrating those foreign mouth movements can be. In a recent viral video, the hapless young woman went toe to toe with some of the most frustrating and commonplace English words, and her fury immediately cast a spell on users over on the app.

The viral video, as well as her many others, shows the French Instagram model tackling “burger,” “pizza,” “Nutella,” and “hot dog.” But as anyone who has ever dared to learn a second tongue knows, different languages utilize different sounds and parts of the mouth and throat.

French comes from farther back in the throat. It uses a wider array of complex vowel sounds, silent letters, and is characterized by stress patterns on words. It’s also more rhythmic, emphasizing each syllable evenly. That melodic method of speaking is a conscious effort from the French government, which has famously censored American tech jargon in favor of more “French-appropriate” phrases.  Like changing “streamer” to “joueur-animateur en direct” or “pro-gamer” to “joueur professionnel.”

All those subtle word laws become incredibly apparent as you listen to the Tiktoker rage against the burger machine. In a comical back and forth, she asserts a Frenchified “burger” no less than 10 times, even attempting to copy Google’s AI pronunciation. Commenters came up with dozens of spellings for the desperately repeated word. Spellings of “begur,” “Beaugaeu,” and “beuhguu,” and a dozen more litter the comments.

She even tries to get the app to listen to Google instead. Still, Tiktok refuses the answer. After taking back over with an adorable huff of frustration, she finally beats the burger beast with a “beergeehrrr!” delightfully reminiscent of Steve Martin’s 2006’s The Pink Panther performance.

Rocketing through “hot dog” and “Nutella” like a native speaker, our girl takes a moment to steel herself before attempting OREO. The vowel-heavy American treat spits in the face of French linguistics, and that awkward composition comes out like someone speaking through a mouthful of water. Commenters threw out “Ohyeao,” “Oweooo,” and “ohheHOo” as phonetic guides, but the best by far came from OREO’s official account. “brb changing our name to ohwayoh.”

If listening to her struggle through “bourguergh” wasn’t enough, she’s shared dozens of her attempting animal sounds, vegetables, and a myriad of other American words.  

Those in the comments might not be any closer to speaking French after indulging in her content, but they are definitely one step closer to finding a cute French girlfriend to grab a burger with.