French Pronunciation guide
French pronunciation can seem daunting at first but it gets easier with practice.
In this course, we consider the following aspects of French pronunciation.
Content
The French alphabet
French consonant sounds
French vowel sounds
French letter combination
French nasal sounds
The two types of h in French
Liaison
Elision
Enchaînement
The French alphabet
The French language has 26 alphabet. Written same way as in English but with different pronunciation.
See the table below
| Letter | Sound | Letter | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | ah | n | ehnn |
| b | bay | o | ohh |
| c | cay | p | pay |
| d | day | q | koo |
| e | ehh | r | aihr |
| f | eff | s | ess |
| g | jhay | t | tay |
| h | ahsh | u | ooh |
| i | ee | v | vay |
| j | jhee | w | doo- bluh- vay |
| k | kahh | x | eex |
| l | ehll | y | ee-grek |
| m | ehmm | z | zed |
French consonant sounds.
Most French consonants are pronounced as in English. But there are a few variations. Here are some rules to remember.
The letter c
The letter c can be pronounced in different ways:
C before a, o, u
When c comes before a, o, u in a word, it is pronounced like the c in come.
Examples
D’accord (dah-kor), meaning OK
Café (kah-fay), meaning Café.
C before e, i, y
When c comes before e, i, y it's pronounced like the c in city.
Examples
Cinéma (see-nay-mah), meaning cinema.
Merci (mehr-cee), meaning thanks.
Ç
This ç known as c cédille is also pronounced like the c in city.
Examples
Français (frah-say), French.
Garçon (gahr-soh(n)), boy.
The letter g
The letter g has a soft g sound and a hard g sound.
g before e, i
When g comes before e and i it's pronounced like the s in treasure.
Example
Nager (nah-zhay), to swim.
g before a, o, u
When g comes before a, o, and u, it's pronounced like the g in get.
Examples
Gâteau (gah-toh), cake
The letter h
In French, the letter h is always silent.
Examples
L’hôtel (loh-tehl ), hotel
Habiter (ah-bee-tay**), to live.**
The letter r
r in French is pronounced at the back of the throat and somewhat dragged.
Examples
Livre (lee-vr), book
Vivre (vee-vr), to live.
The letter s
s between two vowels
When s appears between two vowels, it is pronounced like z.
Examples
le visage( lo vee-zazh), face
valise (vah-leez), suitcase.
When s begins a word
s at the beginning of a word is pronounced like s in sun.
Examples
Sel (sehl ), salt.
samedi(sahm-dee), Saturday.
When t is followed by ion.
The letter t sounds like the English t but when it's followed by ion it's pronounced like an s.
Example
Station (stah-syoh(n)),
Silent consonants
Final consonants of French words are usually silent, except when they end in c, f, l, r.
Examples
Le fruit (luh frwee), meaning fruits
Nous (nooh), meaning us
Chaud ( shoh), meaning hot.
Choix (chwa), meaning choice.
Where final consonants are pronounced
In French, final consonants that end in c, f, l, r are pronounced.
Examples
Hôtel (oh-tehl), meaning hotel.
Professeur( proh-feh-suhr), meaning teacher.
Cher(shehr), meaning dear.
Avec (ah-vehk), meaning with.
Chef (shehf), meaning chef.
French vowel sounds
While English has 5 primary vowel sounds, French has 6 namely:
a, e, I, o, u, y.
One difference between French and English vowels is that a lot of French vowels are accented. (à, â, é etc)
Accents may affect how a vowel is pronounced. It could all serve to differentiate between words.
See also
Here are French vowel sounds and examples.
| Vowel | sound | example | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| a, à â | ah like fan, | la, là ,âge | the, there, age |
| e | uh like burn | le | the |
| é | ay | like lay | étudiant |
| e ,è,ê | eh like get | belle,père,tête | beautiful.father,head |
| i,î | ee like feet. | vite | fast |
| o,ô | oh | mot , hôtel | word, hotel |
| o | ohh like love | les pommes | apples |
| u | ew | tu | you |
| y | ee like feet | pays | country |
Silent e
Except for some short words like je, le, etc, an unaccented e at the end of a word is silent.
Examples
Where e is silent
Elle (ehl), she
Surprise (sewr-preez), surprise.
Where e is pronounced
Je (juh), meaning me.
Le (luh), meaning the.
De (duh), meaning of.
ce (cuh), meaning this.
French letter combination
| Letters | Sound | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ai,ei,et | eh like met | vrai, neige,secret | true,snow,secret |
| ez,er | ay like may | avez,parler | have, to speak |
| au,eau. | oh like boat | chaud, l’eau | hot,water |
| ou | ooh as in you | amour | love |
| oi | wah as in | moi | me |
| ui | wee like week | lui | him\her |
| ch | sh like sheep (when followed by a vowel) | chat | cat |
| ch | k like king (when followed by a consonant) | Chrétien. | Christian |
| ss | s. like sit. | Poisson | fish |
| ll | l | like nil | elle |
| ll(between i and e) | usually y like yes | famille | familly |
| il(last sound) | y like yes | travail | work |
French nasal sounds
Pronounce the following sounds through your nose, so they come out with a nasal quality.
| Letters | Sound | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| an,am,en,em | ah | France,encore, employ | France,again, employ |
| in,im ,ain,aim. | a(N) | matin,important,le pain,faim | morning,important, bread,hunger |
| on,om | oh(N) | maison,nom | house,name |
| un | uh(N) | un | one |
Other aspects of French that affects pronunciation are liaison, elision and enchainement.
Before we consider these terms, let's take a closer look at the letter h in French.
The two types of h in French.
French has two types of h, the h muet(mute h) and the h aspire(aspirated h).
Despite their names, neither of them is pronounced.
If so, why bother with the differences?
Knowing the difference is necessary to avoid certain grammatical errors, which we will learn about as we progress.
Examples of words with a mute h
Habiter (ah-bee-tay), to live.
L’hôtel (lo-tehl), hotel.
Examples of words with aspirated h
Les haricot (ley- ah-ree-koh), beans.
Le héro (le ay-ro), meaning hero.
Le homard (luh ohmahr), lobster.
Liaison
What is a liaison?
If a word that ends in a consonant is followed by another word that begins with a vowel or a mute h, The last consonant and the first vowel are linked and pronounced together.
This process is known as Liaison.
Example
Vous avez (voo-zah-vay), you have.
In this example, s is linked with a to give us the zah sound.
This is one process that contributes to the free flowing of French words.
Other examples
Comment allez-vous? (Commahn-tallay-voo?), how are you?
Vous avez (vooh- zah- vay), you have.
Deux homme (duh-zohm), two men.
Un enfant (uhn-nahn-fahn), a child.
When not to use a liaison.
There are instances when a liaison must not be used. As doing so would lead to being misunderstood.
After 'et'
A liaison does not occur after the word et (and)
Examples
Vingt et un (vehn-tay-uhn), meaning twenty one.
In front of an aspirated h
There is no liaison with an aspirated h.
Examples
Le hockey (luh-oh-keh), meaning hockey.
Des héros (day ay-roh), meaning heroes.
Elision
When a word ends in a vowel and the following word also begins with a vowel or a mute h, the first vowel is dropped and the remaining consonant joined to the second word with an apostrophe.
Examples.
Le + été becomes l’été (lay_tay) meaning summer.
Le + histoire becomes l’histoire (lee-stwar) meaning history.
La + eau becomes l’eau (loh), meaning water.
Enchaînement
Enchaînement occurs when you link the last consonant sound of a word to the first vowel or mute h that follows it.
Examples
Elle est (eh-leh), she is.
Il a (ee-lah), meaning he has.
Sept ans (seh-ta(n)), 7 years.
