French Pronunciation Reference Guide for Beginners

14 min read

Build a strong foundation in French pronunciation with this reference guide. Learn the rules and practise the sounds.

Download the French Pronunciation Reference Guide PDF · Listen to the companion audio

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French Pronunciation Guide: Learn how to pronounce French words the right way1. The Stress (and why you shouldn’t stress it out)2. How to Pronounce French Vowels3. All About French Consonant Sounds4. What Are French Nasal Sounds?5. The French Variations6. Those Flowing, Connected Sounds and How It’s Done7. Accent Marks (and the difference it makes)8: French and English Similarities in Pronunciation9: The French Alphabet SoundsSome Videos to Improve your French PronunciationOther resourcesHere are some FAQs about French Pronunciation

French Pronunciation Guide: Learn how to pronounce French words the right way

There’s that charming sound to the spoken French language that everyone seems to find delightful. How French words seem to melt together to form pleasant sounds; it can be both enchanting and intimidating at the same time.

No need to get intimidated though. You’re on the right track because this French pronunciation guide is solely focused on learning proper French pronunciation.

Whether you are beginning to learn the language or you only need to brush up on the rules, this is the perfect guide for you to refer to every once in a while.

Before we proceed to the meat of the lesson, here’s an important tip I would like to share with you.

Remember, you don’t need to memorize these rules by heart, but by just referring to this page every once in a while, you’ll get there in no time. So bookmark this page and study the guide as often as you’d like. It will be ingrained in your system before you know it.

So are you ready?

Here we go!

1. The Stress (and why you shouldn’t stress it out)

Compared with English, French does not normally give individual words a fixed stressed syllable. The main stress falls on the last pronounced syllable of a rhythmic group, which can contain several words. French intonation still rises and falls with meaning.

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? Easy enough, right?

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. But the truth is, it’s not actually that complicated at all.

Here’s a nifty guide for you to use so you could easily distinguish the pronunciation between the letters and all its mind-boggling accents or diacritical marks (or simply put, those little thingies on top of the letters).

Now we move to the consonants.

3. All About French Consonant Sounds

Some French consonants are close to their English counterparts, while others differ. Here are useful patterns to make pronunciation easier.

Here’s an important thing for you to note:

Many final consonants are silent. c, f, l and r are often pronounced, which makes CFLR a useful memory aid, but they also have exceptions, such as tabac, fusil and infinitives ending in -er. Take the silent final letters in these examples:

passepor(t) and Pari(s)

On the other hand, l and r are pronounced such as in the following:

hotel and professeur

Just remember the letters using this mnemonic or memory aid: Clear French Language Recall or CFLR. (See, told you this is easy!)

4. What Are French Nasal Sounds?

Ask any non-French speaker and they’ll usually describe the French language as being a bit nasal. These nasal sounds are quite distinctive of the French language and are characterized by the following:

1. French nasal vowels are made with air passing through both the mouth and the nose. The mouth is not closed off as it is for a nasal consonant such as m or n.
2. These sounds are ‘voiced’ which means the vocal cords vibrate to create the sound.

Sounds difficult? Not actually. In fact, the English language has three nasal sounds too, namely the m sound, the n sound, and the ng sound. And we are using these to speak flawlessly (or not!) everyday.

Try saying the words sing, sang, song and sung and notice the following:

• the letters ng normally represent one nasal consonant /ŋ/, without a separate g sound, and
• as you pronounce the words, air is blocked when the back of your tongue presses against the soft palate.

French traditionally distinguishes four nasal vowels; many speakers merge the vowels of un and in. The English words below are rough memory aids: do not pronounce their final n or ng sound when using them to approximate French nasal vowels.

These are the following:

There are five spelling rows because ien combines a y-like glide with the nasal vowel of in; it is not a fifth nasal vowel. Many speakers also pronounce un and in alike.

5. The French Variations

Now read up carefully because this here is where non-French speakers often get in trouble. Listed below are some pronunciations for syllables that, when spoken, differ quite a bit from how it is spoken in English.

6. Those Flowing, Connected Sounds and How It’s Done

We are all quite aware that the French language sounds flowing and continuous, or to put it jokingly, like speaking in cursive. This lends it a lot of charm and that very noticeable melodic sound that foreigners simply love.

To get this delightfully melodious sound in intonation, here’s a simple rule for you to remember:

An already pronounced final consonant can link to a following vowel or h muet: this is enchaînement. A normally silent final consonant may also appear in a liaison, but only in particular grammatical contexts. An h aspiré blocks liaison even though the h itself is silent.

Simply stated, IF:

1^st word — ends in a consonant

2^nd word — begins with a vowel or h muet

Result: the final consonant links to the next vowel if it is already pronounced, or if the grammatical context calls for or allows liaison. Liaison is not automatic at every word boundary.

To illustrate, let us make use of these examples:

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

To pronounce it: noo zah-vong (meaning, we have)

un petit enfant – petit ends with a consonant while enfant begins with a vowel.

To pronounce it: ung p’tee tahng-fahng (meaning, a small child)

A few guidelines to remember when using other letter combinations;

See also: 12 Things You Need to Remember about French Liaisons

7. Accent Marks (and the difference it makes)

Just like several other languages, French makes use of accent marks. Accents are a type of diacritic marks which are basically glyphs or small signs attached to a letter. These are commonly used in Latin-derived alphabets as well as non-Latin ones like Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic and others.

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 appear on a, e, i, o and u, but not y in standard French.

In addition, there is also the cedilla (ç) or la cédille which can be found only underneath the letter c; and the diaeresis  (ë) or le tréma which is often used to indicate that the second vowel is to be pronounced separately from the first (e.g. naïf—naive and noël — Christmas).

What are accent marks for?

Here are their uses:

1. They are used to change how a letter sounds.

Let’s take for example the letter e.

The unaccented e has several possible sounds; in le, it is roughly like er in non-rhotic ‘her’, without an r.

The  é acute sounds like ay in ‘say’

The  è grave sounds like ai in ‘fair’

For the cedilla, remember the rule discussed earlier wherein c is only pronounced as a soft s when placed before an e, i or y? The cedilla totally changes that.

Take for example the word garçon (which means boy). The c precedes an o, so without the cedilla it would be pronounced as a hard c as in ‘car’, but the cedilla softens the letter to make it sound like s as in ‘sit’.

2. Accent marks are used to differentiate between similarly spelled words which have different meanings.

Examples:

la (the) versus là (there)

ou (or) versus où (where)

sur (on) versus sûr (sure)

French accents retain their spelling value on capital letters. Although they have sometimes been omitted for technical or typographic reasons, they should be written to avoid confusion.

8: French and English Similarities in Pronunciation

The English-based spellings in this guide are rough pronunciation aids, not exact equivalents. French has sounds and rhythm that differ from English; combine these aids with listening practice.

But do take note of the following while reading the examples shown in this guide:

• 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 Sounds

The French Alphabet also contains 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin-script alphabet (or simply, the alphabet as we know it). It is basically similar to that of the English alphabet except that K and W are rarely used in native French words. The pronunciation is also a bit different.

So just in case you are planning to visit France soon, then you might want to practice spelling out your name should the French-speaking receptionist (or other people essential to your travel) require it.

Spelling it out in French would make a lot more sense to them than the English phonetics.

Here’s a little example.

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

Here is the rest of the French alphabet as well as their pronunciation:

A (ah)

B (bay)

C (say)

 D (day)

E (er)

F (ef)

G (zhay)

                 H (ahsh)

I (ee)

J (zhee)

K (kah)

L  (el)

M (em)

N (en)

O (oh)

P (pay)

Q (kü)

R(airr)

S (ess)

T (tay)

U (ü)

V (vay)

W (doobl-vay)

X (eeks)

Y (ee-grek)

Z (zed)

Some Videos to Improve your French Pronunciation

Before we end this pronunciation guide, here are a few videos for you to check out. Never mind that some of the pronunciations are not 100% French, the important thing is that you are able to listen and compare it with your recent learnings. Good luck on your journey in learning how to pronounce French words!

Learn French pronunciation – The accents

French Pronunciation Tips for Beginners

Other resources

You can also check out other related lessons here in the blog:

Q&A: How to Improve French Pronunciation and Sentences

22 Embarrassingly Awkward French Pronunciation and Translation Mistakes

We wish you the best of luck in your French studies and don’t forget to keep visiting this site for more useful information! For more information or comments, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

À bientôt !

Here are some FAQs about French Pronunciation

What is the common pronunciation of the French letter “B”?

The French letter “B” pronunciation is /be/ like bay in English.

Why is French pronunciation so different from the spelling?

The French language has a lot of silent letters and homophones. This is mainly because of history. The French language evolved from spoken (Vulgar) Latin, with influences from Gaulish and Germanic languages. Spelling was largely fixed in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when scholars respelled many words to reflect their Latin roots, while pronunciation kept evolving. That’s why the pronunciation is often different from the way words are spelled.