THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR FRENCH

PRONUNCIATION

How to pronounce French the right way:

1) The stress

2) How to pronounce French vowels

3) All about consonants

4) What are French nasal sounds?

5) All the French-y variations

6) Those flowing, connected sounds & how it's done

7) Accent marks (and the difference it makes)

8) French and English similarities

9) The French Alphabet

1. The Stress

The stress is mostly even except for the last syllable

which is being given a tad bit more of an emphasis.

Check out this example where we will use the word

IMPORTANT. Notice the difference in the stress

between the two:

In English:

im-POR-tant, while in French: ang-por-tahng

See the difference?

2. How to pronounce French vowels

For the newbie French learner, the difference between

a, à, and â as well as e, é, è, and ê can get head

swimmingly frustrating.

• a and à are both pronounced like ‘ah’ in English. â is

also like ‘ah’, except that it is longer.

• e when placed in the middle of a syllable is

pronounced like ‘ai’ in fair, same as è and ê.

• The rule for pronouncing e: in the middle of a syllable

— ‘ai’ as in fair; at the end of a syllable, ‘er’ as in her;

but when you see it at the end of a word, it is silent.

(example: tasse)

3. All about Consonants Consonants in French are basically pronounced the same way as in English. Here’s an important thing for you to note:

Except for these letters: c, f, l, and r, consonants are usually

not pronounced when it is the last letter of the word. Take

for example the silent last letters in the following words:

passpor(t) and Pari(s) On the other hand, l and r are pronounced such as in the following: hotel and professeur

4.What are French nasal sounds?

These nasal sounds are quite distinctive of the French language and are characterized by the following:

1. It is produced by blocking air from leaving the mouth and released instead through the nose.

2. These sounds are ‘voiced’ which means the vocal cords vibrate to create the sound.

English language has three nasal sounds too, namely the m sound, the n sound, and the ng sound. Try saying the words sing, sang, song and sung and notice the following: • the letter g is given very little value in the standard pronunciation, • as you pronounce the words, air is blocked when the back of your tongue presses

against the soft palate.

5. All the French-y variations

• er (when at the end of a word with two or more

syllables) and ez are both pronounced like ‘ay’.

• As an exception to the C,F,L,R consonants pronunciation

rule presented earlier, L when used in the

syllables ail and eil, are generally silent.

• For sure you’re quite familiar with the gn sound

already. Especially if you’re the lasagna-eating type.

6. Flowing, connected sounds & How it's done

If a word that begins with a vowel or a silent H follows a word which ends in a consonant, the consonant is linked to the beginning of the second word. Simply stated, IF: 1st word — ends in a consonant 2nd word — begins with a vowel or silent H Result: the consonant in the end of the first word is automatically linked to the beginning vowel of the second word.

To illustrate, let us make use of these examples:

1. nous avons – the 1st word ends with the consonant s while the 2nd word begins with a vowel.

Y

-

VA

RI

AT

IO

NS

7. Accent marks

French makes use of three main accents, and

these are:

• the acute accent (é) or l’accent aigu which can be found in the letter e.

• the grave accent (è) or l’accent grave which can be found in the letters a, e, and u; and

• the circumflex (ê) or l’accent circonflexe which can be found in any vowel.

8. French and English similarities

Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t really a huge gaping difference between English and French pronunciation. In fact, most syllables are pronounced as though they are a part of an English word and are each given an equal stress. • ng (italics) must never be pronounced; these letters

merely indicate that the preceding vowel has a nasal sound.

• er (r italics) do not pronounce the r; this syllable sounds like er in ‘her’.

• zh sounds like s in ‘measure’. • ü no equivalent in English; round your lips and

say ‘ee’. • o sounds like o in ‘not’. • oh sounds like o in ‘note’.

9. The French Alphabet

The French Alphabet also contains 26 letters of the ISO

basic Latin-script alphabet. It is basically similar to that of

the English alphabet except for K and W which aren’t

always used. The pronunciation is also a bit different.

Here’s a little example.

If your name is JANEY, it is spelled out as ‘zheel – ah – en – er – ee-grek’.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself when you can’t fully grasp

the pronunciation rules after a few hours of practice. It

takes time to learn how to pronounce French words

properly – months, in fact. Besides, it’s extremely rare to

see a foreigner with a 100% correct pronunciation. But

does it really matter? France is a hugely multicultural

country and the French people are quite familiar (and

accepting!) with a wide range of accent. So don’t beat

yourself to a pulp, and just keep practicing until you start

to pull off French quite nicely.” - Native French Speakers

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