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French letters lock together to create specific French sounds: understand this and you will not only be able to read French with ease, but gain confidence with your general French pronunciation.

First, I’ll record the different sounds that you will find in the French language, starting with the vowels and then the consonant sounds, and illustrate the sounds with examples in the form of a fun sentence. I’ll then focus on some challenging French sounds like the French U and the French R, explain the concept of liaison, and finally, I’ll give you pointers on how to improve your spoken French pronunciation.

This free lesson comes with audio recordings made by a French Parisian native (yours truly). Click on the link next to the 🎧 headphones to play the audio of the sounds and many examples.

French Sounds

In any language, written letters combine to make sounds. Sometimes it’s rather logical – like the word “dog” in English – sometimes much less, like the name “Sean” which is pronounced like [Shon]…

The good news is that French pronunciation is much more predictable than English pronunciation. Knowing how French letters group together to make a sound and the rules that govern French pronunciation will be a tremendous help.

First you may want to start by learning the French Alphabet.

French Alphabet Pronunciation

Please press on the audio player to hear my recording of the French alphabet. I left just enough time for you to repeat out loud.

a, b, c, d, e f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o ,p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

Now, the alphabet states the names of the letters. Not necessarily their pronunciation. Written letters combine together to make sounds. Let’s see how!

Let’s start with the most important French sounds : the French vowels.

19 French vowel Sound Pronunciation

There are 6 vowels in French : A, E, I, O, U and Y (i grec).

These vowels with often combine with other vowels to spell out different French sounds.

Here is a recap, however, to get a deeper understanding of how each individual vowel is pronounced in French, I suggest you follow this link to my free audio lesson on French vowel pronunciation.

I got really creative with my examples: I created full sentences loaded with the sound I wanted to illustrate. Use the audio to repeat them out loud! It’s a great way to exercise your French pronunciation and create reflexes!

You know a French teacher? Please share this lesson with him/her. I’m quite sure they too will find it useful!

	Letters	Pronunciation Tip	Example Sentence
1	a, à	Like “ah” in English When a is written à, the pronunciation doesn’t change.	Anne va à la plage. Ann goes to the beach
2	â	Not always pronounced differently (Like most Parisians, I don’t pronounce it differently), but sometimes makes the a sound a bit longer.	Anne regarde son âne. Anne looks at her donkey.
3	ai	A and I combine together to make the sound è. Note this sound is featured in French conjugations imparfait endings : ais, ai, ait, aient	Anne aimait son âne. Anne loved her donkey.
4	au, eau	All these letter combine to make the sound o, like the o in “toe”. This sound can also be spelled “o” or “ô” (see below)	Au parc, Anne a de l’eau. At the park, Ann has water.
5	an, am, aon	A sometimes combien with the letter N or M to make a nasal sound an. Follow this link to my free audio lesson to understand French nasal pronunciation and rules. This sound can also be spelled “en” and “em” – see below.	L’ambulance a un grand panneau blanc. The ambulance has a large white panel.
6	ain	Here we have another nasal pronunciation. This sound can also be spelled “in”, “im” or “un” – see below.	Anne a faim : elle mange du pain. Anne is hungry: she eats some bread.
7	e, eu	Sound a bit like the i in “sir”. Note that the letter e is very often silent in French, like featured in the pronunciation of the word cartes where both the final e and s are silent (the word ends on the t sound).	Je veux acheter ce jeu de cartes. I want to buy this card game.
8	oeu, eu	Like the er in “her” in English.	Ma soeur aime les fleurs. My sister loves flowers.
9	è, ê, e	Like the English sound in “hair”.	Cet hôtel avec la fête est près de la mer. This hotel with the party is close to the sea.
10	é, e	This sound doesn’t really exist in English, but is very common in French. It’s a bit like “ay” but with a closed mouth. The French é sound is often found in the end of a word spelled as “er” or “ez”.	Éléonore et Anne sont allées à la plage l’été dernier. Eleonore and Anne went to the beach last summer.
	en, em,	Another way to spell the same French nasal sound than in “an, am, aon” above.	En avant, ensemble ! Forward, together!
11	i, y	Like the ee in “see”.	Il va y aller avec son ami Yves. He’s going to go there with his friend Yves.
	in, im, un	Here is another way to spell the same vowel sound as in “ain” above.	Un matin, un lapin a pris un bain ? Impossible !! One morning, a rabbit took a bath? Impossible !!
	o, ô	Pronounced like the o in “toe”. It’s the same sound spelled by “au, eau“.	Oh là là, l’hôtel Bonobo est très joli. Oh my, the Bonobo hotel is really pretty.
14	o	Pronounced like the o in “not” or “son”.	Cet homme donne une corde a votre bonne. This man gives a rope to your maid.
15	on	The nasal sound based on the o sound.	Son mouton a une toison très longue. His sheep has a very long coat.
16	ou	Pronounced a bit like “oo” in English but without moving the lips (in English, the lips modulate on the “oo”; the French “ou” sound is clipped).	Où allez-vous ? Nous voulons aller à Tombouctou ! Where are you going? We want to go to Tombouctou!
17	oi	Pronounced like “wa” in English.	Toi ou moi? On décide à trois ! You or me? Let’s decide on three!
18	oin	Another nasal sound…	J’ai besoin de moins de soin. I need less medical care.
19	u	This sound doesn’t exist in English. Form an English “ee” sound (French “i“) then push your lips way to the front. See my detailed explanation below.	Tu as vu ? Lulu a conduit une voiture. Did you see? Lulu drove a car.

Would you like to train more on French pronunciation? My audio lesson features full descriptions and pictures guiding you on how to place your mouth, lips and tongue, and many pronunciation drills!
Check out my downloadable audio lesson Secrets of French pronunciation to study French anywhere, at your desk on on the go on your mobile phone.

How To Pronunce the French U Sound?

The French “u” sound often eludes students of French. It’s often described as closed to the English “oo” sound, but in reality, it’s much closer to the English “ee” sound.

Mouth Position

Start by making a French i sound, so like “tea”, “fee” or simply “me” in English.
Then don’t move anything inside your mouth. But push your lips way out as a kiss, and then curl them up a bit as if you wanted to touch your nose.

Here is what you should be hearing. Ti—-iiiii-uuuuuuu

I find that it’s a huge help to start with the I sound and try to find the U as you’re saying the I.

Then you can add consonants : bu, mu, su, tu, lu…

Tuning Fork

Another way to find the U sound is to find a word you can pronounce. Many English speakers know how to say “tu” (you in French). So use this “tu” as a tuning fork.

Whenever you need to come up with your U sound, say “tu” out loud a couple of times, then isolate the U sound and repeat it a couple of times…

Now let’s move to the next group of French sounds: consonants.

What are French Nasal Sounds?

A French nasal sound is a specific way to pronounce French vowels. The various French nasal sounds are displayed in this fun example : un bon vin blanc (a good white wine).

The French could have used some kind of accent to indicate a nasal sound. Like ã ĩ õ… It would have made things so much simpler! Instead, we write a nasal sound in French with a vowel followed by an N or an M.

When To Pronounce N or M or a Nasal Sound?

At the end of a word
Ex: son (sound), pain (bread), fin (fine)

Is locked in by a consonant – at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word
Ex: oncle (uncle) , ample, ombre (shade), orange, bonjour (hello), ambulance, ont (they have)

In other words a vowel would unlock the nasal combo.
Un = nasal
Une = not nasal because of the e.

How do you make a French nasal sound?

A nasal pronunciation has to do with the air flow at the back of your mouth. Many people can just find the sound by mimicking the audio. If it’s not the case for you, I have several precise solutions to unlock this French sound: I invite you to follow this link to my free audio lesson about French nasal sounds – with many examples.

Now let’s move on to other French consonants.

17 French Consonants Sounds Pronunciation

The very good news is that French consonants are pronounced pretty much the same way English consonants are. Let me list the French consonant sounds, give you some pronunciation tips and illustrate the French pronunciation with some fun sentences I made up specially for you!

Please share this article with your French learning friends, on social medias, forums, with your French teachers… This really helps me out and encourages me to write more free content!

Now play the audio recordings and remember to repeat out loud – not just in your head!

	Letter	Pronunciation Tip	Example sentence
1	b	Pronounced like in English	Le bébé boit un bon biberon. The baby drinks a nice baby bottle.
2	c=s c=k	Before e or i sounds like s. Elsewhere sounds like k	C’est certain que Caroline et Coralie aimeront ces citrons acidulés. It’s certain that Caroline and Coraline will like these acidic lemons.
	ç = s	“ç” also sounds like s	Et ton garçon, ça va ? What about your boy, is he OK?
3	ch=sh ch=k	Most of the time sounds like ‘sh‘. Sometimes like k.	Christophe cherche le chemin pour aller chez Charlotte. Christophe is looking for the way to go to Charlotte’s house.
4	d	Pronounced like in English. Often silent at the end of a French word.	Denis vend un grand domaine dans le Doubs. Denis is selling a large estate in the Doubs (French region).
5	f	Pronounced like in English. F Makes a liaison in v (as featured in neuf ans [neu van])	Fabrice est veuf depuis neuf ans. Fabrice has been a widower for nine years.
6	g	Like the g in “go”.	Gabrielle se gare devant la grille du garage. Gabrielle parks in front of the garage fence.
7	g=j	Before i and e, sounds like the s in “leisure” (like a French “j“)	Comme beaucoup de gens, Giselle aime les giraffes. Like many people, Giselle likes giraffes.
	h	H is silent is French, meaning that it is not aspirated as it is in English – unless its a foreign word. Some h’s in French prevent any liaison before them. Watch out! Th is pronounced like a “t” in French!	Arthur et Théodore habitent en haut d’un salon de thé. Arthur and Théodore live on top of a tea house.
	j	Sounds like the s in “leisure”, just like g + i or e.	Je sais : je vais ajouter de l’huile de jojoba ! I know: I’m going to add some jojoba oil!
	k	Same as English. Not very common in French.	Karine fait du kayak au Kentucky. Karinne is kayaking in Kentucky.
8	l	Same as in English, pronounced the same when double l.	Les lutins allument la lune qui luit alors toute la nuit. Elves ignite the moon which then shines all night long.
9	ill=y	“ille, ail(le), euil(le), ouil(le) etc…” combination features a sound similar the the y in “yahoo”.	Les abeilles lèchent le miel qui coule de la bouteille. The bees lick off the honey that is dripping off the bottle.
10	m	Same as in English except when featured in a nasal sound as explained above.	Emmanuelle a mangé mes mirabelles ! Emmanuelle ate my prunes!
11	n	Same as in English except when featured in a nasal sound as explained above.	Nathalie et Noémie vont organiser l’anniversaire d’Anémone la nuit du neuf novembre. Nathalie an Noémie are going to organize Anemone’s birthday on the night of November nine.
12	p	Same as English. Often silent at the end of a word.	Papa parle beaucoup avec Pierre et Pedro. Papa speaks a lot with Pierre and Pedro.
	q/qu=k	Sound like k. Sometimes the u of the “qu” is pronounced in a latin word (as featured in “aquarium”).	Qu’est-ce qu’elle dit ? Quelqu’un a rayé la laque de son aquarium ? Mais quand ?? What is she saying? Someone scratched the varnish or her fish tank? But when?
13	r	Ah… the infamous French r. See below for tips on how to pronounce the French r. It’s softer than you think, and in any case, it’s never the Spanish rolled r.	Renée et Raoul rient rarement de rien. Renée and Raoul seldom laugh because of nothing.
	s	Same pronunciation as in English. Watch out, the letter s is often silent at the end of a word. Also, a written S between two vowels makes the sound z.	Salut ! Sophie sait que ses soeurs sont aussi ici ? Hi! Does Sophie know her sisters are here as well?
14	t	Same pronunciation as in English. Often silent at the end of a French word. Th is pronounced “t” in French!	Timothé et Thomas ont sauté à l’élastique du haut du petit pont. Timothé et Thomas bungee jumped from the top of the small bridge.
15	v	Same pronunciation as in English.	Véronique et Valérie vont en ville avec leur voiture : vroum-vroum ! Véronique and Valérie are going downtown with their car: vroum-vroum!
16	w=v w=w	Sometimes pronounced like a v or sometimes as an English w… Not a common letter in French hence my crazy example…	Elle a perdu son kiwi dans le wagon lit ! She lost her kiwi in the sleeping car!
17	z	Same pronunciation as in English. Note that “ez” make the sound é – this is important for French verbs. Also, a written S between two vowels makes this sound z.	Chère Zoé : oseriez-vous venir visiter le zoo avec moi ? Dear Zoé: would you dare to come visit the zoo with me?

Now, let me help you help you with the French R.

How To Pronounce A Perfect French R

All it takes is 3 simple steps:

1. stick your whole tongue to the top of your mouth.
   This preparation step is very important: concentrate and really try to glue your tongue, back and front to the roof of your mouth.
2. lower only the tip of your tongue and press it hard against the back of your LOWER front teeth.
3. Open your mouth and create a vibration in your throat, where you say the G of “get” in English.

That’s how you’ll pronounce a perfect French R.

Your tongue is going to make like a curvy slide as you can see on the exaggerated picture I drew to illustrate this lesson. More tips and audio practice in my free audio lesson on how to pronounce the French R sound.

Now let’s talk about a very important French pronunciation concept : the dangerous liaisons!

What Are Liaisons in French Pronunciation?

“Une liaison” in French pronunciation is the fact that the final written consonant of a word becomes the first sound of the following word.

That sound may be the sound of the written consonant, or change slightly.

Let’s take an example.

Ils ont
The final S of “ils” is totally silent.
“I-L-S” in French will never be pronounced [ils] nor [ilz]
However, the final silent S of “ils” will affect the following word, the “ont” in liaison.
“Ont” (pronounced [on]) will be started by the S of the “ils”, which becomes a Z sound in liaison.
So in pronunciation, “ils ont” is pronounced [il zon]

Examples of French Liaisons

Let me provide some examples with audio recordings.

1. Un ami – a/one friend – liaison in N between “un” and “ami”
2. C’est un ami – He’s a friend – 2 liaisons in a row here: liaison in T between “est” and “un”, liaison in N between “un” and “ami”.
3. Un petit enfant – a little child – liaison in T between “petit” and “enfant”.
4. On a – we have – liaison in N between “on” and “a”.
5. Chez elle – at her place – liaison in Z between “chez” and “elle”.
6. Un grand enfant – a tall child – liaison in T between “grand” and “enfant”
7. Nous avons – we have – liaison in Z between “nous” and “avons”.
8. Ils ont – they have – liaison in Z between “ils” and “ont”.
9. Deux heures – 2 hours – liaison in Z between “deux” and “heures”.
10. Ce n’est pas ici – It’s not here – liaison in Z between “pas” and “ici”.
11. Ils ont été – they have been – double liaison: first one in Z between “ils” and “ont”, second one in T between “ont” and “été”.
12. Mon premier amour – my first love.

There is a lot to say about French liaison, more than I can include in this general guide about French pronunciation. Yet – you guessed it – I have already published a free lesson with audio, exclusively available on French Today’s blog! Learn everything there is to know about French liaisons with 100 examples and audio recordings.

Now that I’ve laid down the basics of French pronunciation for you, let me answer a critical question: how do you sound more French?

How to sound French?

In this free lesson, you learned the major French sounds.

If you have a great ear mouth coordination, you may be able to mimic my audio recordings and learn French pronunciation that way.

In my downloadable audio lesson Secrets of French Pronunciation, exclusively available on this website, I explain thoroughly how to place your mouth, lips, tongue to produce the different French sounds, explain all the pronunciation rules and provide many examples with audio recordings and audio drills. The whole lesson is logically structured to help you progressively build up your understanding of French pronunciation. And for many students, this lesson made a huge difference.

Yet, to really improve your French pronunciation, the key is to repeat whole sentences. So you get not only the individual sounds, but also develop an ear for how they all flow together, and get the music of the French language. I suggest you check out my French audiobooks, recorded at several levels of enunciation to help you master both traditional and modern spoken French pronunciation.

You may be interested in this other article about how to improve your French accent. As a matter of fact, a whole section of this French Today blog is dedicated to French pronunciation. Check it out!

So you want to learn French! Congratulations, you’re learning to speak one of the world’s loveliest-sounding languages. The flowing sentences, lilting tones and soft words all add up to a language made for whispering sweet nothings. In fact, it has been voted the most romantic language of all by people from ten different countries — including Italians, which means there really must be something to it!

While beautiful, the pronunciation can have you tripping up. For one thing, French speakers tend to avoid pronouncing consonants at the end of their words. We’ll go into more detail later on, but some great examples are words like ‘trop’, ‘poulet’, ‘vous’ and ‘froid’. For all of those, you just can simply pretend the last letter doesn’t exist. 

Another reason is the way French is spoken physically. French calls for you to keep your mouth more closed than open, and because of this, it feels very subtle. 

Anyway, let’s crack on with our French pronunciation guide. We’ll walk you through the rules, how to pronounce key words and phrases, and how French pronunciation can differ not only in different countries, but between regions within France! It also doesn’t help that French has six vowel sounds and four consonants that don’t exist in English at all. Mon dieu !

Starting with the basics — learning how to speak French

Let’s begin by going back to basics — with letters and numbers!

French alphabet (letter) pronunciation

There are plenty of letters that sound exactly the same in French as they do in English — F, L, M, N, O, Q, S and Z to be exact. 

Some others are close, but no cigar — A is more like ‘ah’, B is nearer to ‘beh’ and G and J are softer versions of their English cousins, more like ‘zhee’ and ‘zheh’ instead of ‘jee’ and ‘jay’.

And then, there are some absolute humdingers. E sounds like ‘uh’, H is ‘ash’, R comes out as ‘air’ and W is ‘doo-blah veh’ (basically meaning “double V”, whereas in English we use “double U”). Don’t even get us started on Y, which the French chose to call ‘ee-grec’ — essentially “i” in Greek.. Why, indeed! 

All of this sounds very confusing, so we’ve put together this French alphabet pronunciation chart for you:

French vowels pronunciation — with accents

Like most languages (English being an exception), you may have noticed some French letters also come with funky squiggles. These are called accents or diacritics, and they change how the letter sounds out loud — and sometimes what the word means.

The cedilla (ç)

This one only goes underneath ‘c’, and makes it sound like an ‘s’. You’ll only ever see it before ‘a’, ‘o’, or ‘u’. An easy example is ‘Français’ (French!). 

The acute accent (é)

Only ever found above an ‘e’, it changes the pronunciation of the vowel from ‘uh’ to ‘eh’.

The grave accent (à/è/ì/ò/ù)

This one’s used above an ‘a’ or ‘u’ to distinguish words that sound the same but have different meanings. Above an ‘e’ it tells you that the vowel is pronounced ‘ay’.

The trema (ë/ï/ü)

The trema is written over the second of two vowels, and signals that you need to pronounce them separately. Without it, the vowels would flow into each other. For example, ‘Noël’ (Christmas) would sound like ‘nole’, instead of ‘no-ay-l’.

The circumflex (â/ê/î/ô/û)

The most interesting of the bunch (in our opinion!). As we’ve mentioned, many English and French words share the same root. Over time, the French stopped pronouncing the ‘s’ in certain words, but still wrote it in the same way – in short, it turned into a silent letter.

Eventually, the spelling changed to match, and the ‘s’ was taken out. But they added a circumflex in its place. Like a memorial for the fallen ‘s”.

For example — the French word for «forest» is “forêt”.

So although the circumflex doesn’t change how you say the word in French today, it does tell you there used to be a sneaky ‘s’ in there!

French consonants pronunciation

Let’s move on to some of the other interesting letters in the alphabet.

H is always silent in French — even if a word starts with it.

R creates a sound we don’t have in English. You may have heard of people ‘rolling’ their r’s, but in French it’s more of a rasping, gargling noise.

Q acts as a hard ‘c’, even when it’s ‘qu’. 

French pronunciation rules

And because it wouldn’t be French without some exciting rules and exceptions, there are plenty of rules to remember about how consonants work together too. 

French number pronunciation

Some of the most troublesome numbers in French are ‘trois’ (sounds like twa), ‘quatre’ (katra), ‘cinq’ (sank), ‘sept’ (set) ‘huit’ (wheat) and ‘dix’ (deece). And that’s just some of the numbers between one and ten!

Once again, we’ve made a handy-dandy chart for you:

French words pronunciation — the important ones

Here’s a French pronunciation cheat sheet of useful everyday words you could easily mispronounce. We’ve also pulled out a few videos from our app so you can compare your french pronunciation with audio of native French speakers.

Oui ‘wee’

The French way to say ‘yes’, the pronunciation of ‘oui’ in no way matches the way it looks.

Non ‘noh’

Now to the opposite — saying ‘no’. Pronouncing ‘non’ is pretty easy, just say it as in English, but ignore the second ‘n’.

Au revoir ‘o-rehv-waa’

You use ‘au revoir’ to say goodbye to someone you won’t see for a while. Here’s how a native speaker says it.

Maman ‘mam-oh’

‘Maman’ is ‘mother’, and pronounced similarly to ‘non’ — because we don’t pronounce the ‘n’.

Faim ‘fam’

Related to the English ‘famished’, you pronounce ‘ j’ai faim’ (I’m hungry) by ignoring the ‘i’.

Monsieur ‘me-syuh’

This is the French form of ‘sir’, but a bit more of a tongue twister.

Je t’aime ‘zh-uh taym’

Declaring your love in the language of love. Does it get any more romantic? If you want to hear more, we’ve got all the info on how to say ‘I love you’ in French. 

French food and drink pronunciation

The French love their food, so make sure you get these right! Here are some examples of how certain foods are pronounced in French:

Croissant ‘quah-san’

These fresh breakfast pastries are a big part of the culture. And it’s pronounced ‘quah-son’, not Quackson (that’s one for you Tom Holland fans) 

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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/av8Ew8jbn8k 

Crêpe ‘crep’

This one’s nice and similar to English. Did you spot the circumflex? This means once upon a time it was ‘crespe’ — it’s allegedly linked to ‘crispy’!

Macaron ‘ma-ka-roh’

This delicious one’s in with the ‘don’t say the last letter’ crowd. Not to be confused with coconut macaroons — you’ll be laughed out of the patisserie.

Ognon ‘uh-nyoh’

Like the vegetable itself, the french word for onion has many layers. Spelled ‘Oignon’ till 2016, it was decided that it would lose the ‘i’ to avoid pronunciation confusion.

Cabernet sauvignon ‘cab-ayr-nay so-vin-yoh’

If there’s one thing the French love more than food, it’s wine — so you need to know how to order one of their most famous varieties. Like macaron, ignore the last letters here.

French names pronunciation

There are certain names that are pronounced very different to their English counterparts. Here are a few of the more common ones: 

Jean ‘sz-oh’

You need a kind of ‘sz’ sound for the French equivalent of ‘John’, like the ‘s’ in ‘television’.

Genevieve ‘szen-uh-vi-ayv’

In the same way as ‘Jean’, you pronounce the French form of ‘Jennifer’ with a buzzy ‘sz’.

Loïc ‘low-ik’

This name is thought to have links to either ‘Louis’ or ‘Luke’. Thanks to the trema, we pronounce the vowels separately.

Difference of accents in different regions in France

One of the best ways to learn a language is to live there. But a complication with French pronunciation is that natives say words differently depending where they’re from. This is why we use videos of native speakers from different regions of France to teach you the language on our app — that way, you’ll get a taste for it before you even get there! 

French pronunciation in Paris

The Parisian accent is seen as the typical French accent. Just like city life, speakers are quick-paced and merge words together. For example, you’ll hear ‘chais pas’ instead of ‘je ne sais pas.’ So listen closely!

French pronunciation in Marseille

This one has an official name: Marseillais. In south-east France, the accent could easily be a song — it’s light and lilting. Vowels are spoken with a nasal style, too, so words ending in -ain sounds like -ay. 

French pronunciation around the world

Quebecois pronunciation

Spoken in the French regions and cities of Canada, like Quebec and Montreal, this sounds very different to standard French because it has more vowel sounds. The word ‘moi’ is more like ‘mow-ay’ for example. 

This is the flavour of French that the queen, Celine Dion, speaks. Here she is being interviewed by France News 2 — see if you can hear the difference.

African French pronunciation

Because so many African countries have French as their official language, there are tons of accents to contend with. One distinctive thing you might hear is the ‘r’ being rolled, more like a Spanish accent. And while the ‘h’ in French is usually silent, African speakers sound it out.

Here’s UFC Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who hails from Cameroon, doing an interview in French.

French Guiana pronunciation

This is a really interesting one. Similarly to many Caribbean islands, speakers here use a Creole form of French — which comes with some extra groovy rules. ‘Q’ and ‘X’ are replaced by ‘K’ and ‘Z’, and some phrases are pushed together to become one word. For example, ‘s’il vous plait’ is ‘souplé’.

Detroit — French pronunciation?

What a curveball, right? Not a French language, but an interesting story nonetheless. The city of Detroit, in Michigan USA, was founded by a Frenchman in 1701. He named it after the French word for ‘strait’, but over time the pronunciation has changed from sounding like ‘de-twa’ to ‘de-troyt’

Ready to start learning French? Discover our French Course.

After learning so much about French pronunciation, you must be excited to learn the beautiful French language! 

Lucky for you, we’re a language learning app.

Memrise teaches you French  in the most authentic way, making it easy to start speaking straight away. Signing up is free, and you’ll join millions of people who are already learning languages for free on the Memrise app in no time! 

Our courses are designed by native speakers to teach you practical phrases. You’ll learn with an immersive approach by watching and listening to thousands of video and audio examples of language used in real life, so you feel like you’re right there with the locals.

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Anyone with the great good fortune of having studied in Paris at the Cours de Civilisation Francaise at the Sorbonne, one of the world’s great universities, remembers the cours‘s famed phonetics class. Since this program is affiliated with a national university, the school’s mission is to «uphold French culture around the world» by teaching French as a foreign language and French civilization (literature, history, art and more). Unsurprisingly, the study of phonetics is an important part of the program.

Phonetics is, in everyday parlance, the system and study of sounds uttered in speaking a language: in short, the way a language is pronounced. In French, pronunciation is a big deal, a very big deal. 

Pronounce words correctly and you’ll be understood. You might even be accepted into French society as a person who speaks French like the French. That is a high compliment in a country that prizes the correctness and poetry of its language. 

About 7,000 students go through the cours annually, mostly from Germany, the US, the UK, Brazil, China, Sweden, Korea, Spain, Japan, Poland and Russia.

Open Your Mouth

The preponderance of students come from Germany, the US and the UK, who speak Germanic languages that require them to show little physical evidence of actually speaking. These students learn a hard lesson their first day: To express French correctly, you must open your mouth.

For this reason, students are drilled in pursing their lips generously to form an O when they are speaking a French O (oooo), stretching their lips wide when they say a hard French I (eeee), dropping the lower jaw decisively when they say a soft French A (ahahahah), making sure the sides of the tongue hit the roof of the mouth and the lips are tightly pursed when they pronounce the curvy French U (a bit like the U in pure).

Learn the Pronunciation Rules

In French, there are rules governing pronunciation, which involves intricacies such as silent letters, accent marks, contractions, liaisons, musicality and plenty of exceptions. It’s essential to learn some basic pronunciation rules, then start speaking and keep on speaking. You’ll need a lot of practice to figure out how to say things correctly. Below are some basic rules governing French pronunciation with links to sound files, examples and even more information on each point.

Basic Rules of French Phonetics

The French R

It’s difficult for English speakers to wrap their tongues around the French R. Granted, it can be tricky. The good news is that it is possible for a non-native speaker to learn how to pronounce it well. If you follow instructions and practice a lot, you’ll get it.

The French U

The French U is another tricky sound, at least for English speakers, for two reasons: It’s hard to say and it’s sometimes difficult for untrained ears to distinguish it from the French OU. But with practice, you can definitely learn how to hear and say it.

Nasal Vowels

Nasal vowels are those that make the language sound like the speaker’s nose is stuffed up. In fact, nasal vowel sounds are created by pushing air through the nose and mouth, rather than just the mouth as you do for regular vowels. It’s not so difficult once you get the hang of it. Listen, practice and you will learn. 

Accent Marks

Accents in French are physical markings on letters that guide pronunciation. They are very important because they not only modify pronunciation; they also change meaning. Therefore, it’s crucial to know which accents do what, as well as how to type them. Accents can be typed on any English-language computer, either by copying them from a library of symbols in your computer software and inserting them into your French text, or by using shortcut keys to directly insert them into French text.

Silent Letters

Many French letters are silent, and a lot of them are found at the end of words. However, not all final letters are silent. Read over the following lessons to get a general idea of which letters are silent in French.

Silent H (‘H Muet’) or Aspirated H (‘H Aspiré’)

Whether it’s an H muet or an H aspiré, the French H is always silent, yet it has the strange ability to act as both a consonant and a vowel. That is, the H aspiré, although silent, functions like a consonant and does not allow contractions or liaisons to occur in front of it. But the H muet functions like a vowel, which means that contractions and liaisons are required in front of it. Just take the time to memorize the types of H used in very common words, and you’ll understand.

‘Liaisons’ and ‘Enchaînement’

French words are pronounced so that they seem to flow one into the next thanks to the French practice of linking sounds, known as liaisons and enchaînement; this is done for ease of pronunciation. These sound linkages can cause problems not only in speaking, but also in listening comprehension. The more you know about liaisons and enchaînement, the better you’ll be able to speak and to understand what’s being said.

Contractions

In French, contractions are required. Whenever a short word like je, me, le, la, or ne is followed by a word that begins with a vowel or silent (muet) H, the short word drops the final vowel, adds an apostrophe, and attaches itself to the following word. This is not optional, as it is in English; French contractions are required. Thus, you should never say je aime or le ami. It is always j’aime and l’ami. Contractions never occur in front of a French consonant (except for the H muet).

Euphony

It may seem odd that French has specific rules for «euphony,» or the production of harmonious sounds. But that’s the case, and this and the language’s musicality are two big reasons why non-native speakers fall in love with this language. Familiarize yourself with the various French euphonic techniques to use them.

Rhythm

Have you ever heard anyone say that French is very musical? That’s partly because there are no stress marks on French words: All syllables are pronounced with the same intensity, or volume. Instead of stressed syllables on words, French has rhythmic groups of related words within each sentence. It may seem a little complicated, but read the following lesson and you’ll grasp what you need to work on.

Now Listen and Speak!

After you’ve learned basic rules, listen to good spoken French. Begin your French phonetics journey with a a beginner’s audio guide to pronouncing individual letters and combinations of letters. Then use the links in the French Audio Guide below to learn how to pronounce full words and expressions. Follow up by searching YouTube for French movie trailers, music videos and French television talk shows to see dialogues in action. Anything that shows a real-time dialogue will give you an idea of the inflections used in statements, questions, exclamations and more. 

Of course, nothing can top going to France for a few weeks or months of immersion in the language. If you are serious about learning to speak French, one day you must go. Find French language classes that suit you. Stay with a French family. Who knows? You might even want to enroll in the university-level Cours de Civilisation Francaise de la Sorbonne (CCFS). Speak with your university at home before you go, and you might be able to negotiate credit for some or all of your CCFS classes if you pass the cours‘s final exam. 

As for the French Audio Guide below, it contains more than 2,500 alphabetical entries. Click on the links and you’ll be sent to the entry pages, each with French words and expressions, sound files, English translations and links to additional or related information. The terms have been culled from their original homes in assorted vocabulary and pronunciation lessons, which gives this a useful range of vocabulary. Any vocabulary you don’t find here, you’ll find in the highly regarded Larousse French-English dictionary, which has clear French audiofiles with native speakers.

• Words beginning with A, B, and C
• Words beginning with D, E, and F
• Words beginning with G, H, I, and J
• Words beginning with K, L, M, and N
• Words beginning with O, P, Q, and R
• W ords beginning with the letters T through Z

Key to Abbreviationsin The French Audio Guide