Pronunciation / la prononciation try to the French Phonetics tutorial.

For a more in-depth look at French pronunciation,

French Vowels IPA Phonetic spelling Sample words vie, midi, lit, riz rue, jus, tissu, usine bl, nez, cahier, pied jeu, yeux, queue, bleu lait, aile, balai, reine sur, uf, fleur, beurre chat, ami, papa, salade General spellings i, y u , et, final er and ez eu e, , , ai, ei, ais u, eu a, , a,

[i] ee ee [y] rounded [e] ay [] ay rounded

[] eh [] eh rounded

[a] ah

bas, ne, grce, [] ah longer chteau [u] oo [o] oh [] aw [] uh

loup, cou, caillou, ou outil eau, dos, escargot, o, htel sol, pomme, cloche, horloge fentre, genou, cheval, cerise o e

[] is disappearing in modern French, being replaced by [a]. Vowels that do not exist in English are marked in blue.

French semi-vowels IPA [w] Phonetic spelling w Sample words fois, oui, Louis General spelling oi, ou

[] [j]

ew-ee yuh

lui, suisse oreille, Mireille

ui ill, y

IPA [ ] [] [ ] [ ]

Phonetic spelling awn ahn uhn ohn

Sample words gant, banc, dent pain, vin, linge brun, lundi, parfum rond, ongle, front

French nasal vowels General spelling en, em, an, am, aon, aen in, im, yn, ym, ain, aim, ein, eim, un, um, en, eng, oin, oing, oint, ien, yen, en un on, om

[ ] is being replaced with [] in modern French In words beginning with in-, a nasal is only used if the next letter is a consonant. Otherwise, the in- prefix is pronounce een before a vowel. French Consonants egz examen, exercice eks sh k see s k zh g t zh k silent z z s exceptionnel, expression architecte, archives orchestre, archologie dmocratie, nation cent, ceinture, maon caillou, car, cube genou, gingembre gomme, ganglion maths, thme, thym jambe, jus, jeune que, quoi, grecque haricot, herbe, hasard rose, falaise, casino six ans, beaux arts six, dix, soixante (these 3 only!)

ex + vowel ex + consonant ch (Latin origin) ch (Greek origin) ti + vowel (except ) c + e, i, y; or c + a, o, u g + e, i, y g + a, o, u th j qu, final q h vowel + s + vowel x + vowel final x

There are a lot of silent letters in French, and you usually do not pronounce the final consonant, unless that final consonant is C, R, F or L (except verbs that end in -r).

Liaison: French slurs most words together in a sentence, so if a word ends in a consonant that is not pronounced and the next word starts with a vowel or silent h, slur the two together as if it were one word. S and x are pronounced as z; d as t; and f as v in these liaisons. Liaison is always made in the following cases:

after a determiner: un ami, des amis before or after a pronoun: vous avez, je les ai after a preceding adjective: bon ami, petits enfants after one syllable prepositions: en avion, dans un livre after some one-syllable adverbs (trs, plus, bien) after est

It is optional after pas, trop fort, and the forms of tre, but it is never made after et. Silent e: Sometimes the e is dropped in words and phrases, shortening the syllables and slurring more words.

rapid(e)ment, lent(e)ment, sauv(e)tage /apidm / / m / / o a / sous l(e) bureau, chez l(e) docteur / ul byo/ /el dk o/ il y a d(e)... , pas d(e)... , plus d(e)... /yad/ /pad/ / plyd/ je n(e), de n(e) / n/ /dn/ j(e) te, c(e) que / / / k/ (no e he change of he pronuncia ion of he j as well)

Stress & Intonation: Stress on syllables is not as heavily pronounced as in English and it generally falls on the last syllable of the word. Intonation usually only rises for yes/no questions, and all other times, it goes down at the end of the sentence. Pure Vowels Vowels in French are pure vowels, i.e. they are not diphthongs as in American English. Americans pronounce a and e with an extra yuh sound at the end, and o and u with an extra wuh sound at the end. You must not do this in French! The distinction between long and short vowels exi in French, bu a few American hor owel do no exi ([] a in did and [] a in put) so make sure to never pronounce these vowels when speaking French. Also notice that the [] sound in cat does not exist in French either. Vowels in Contrast

Long Vowels Short Vowels Similar English not - nut [a] [] ---sheep [i] wait - wet [e] [] coat - caught [o] [] ---moon [u]

Words in Contrast

[a] - [] [e] - [] [e] - [] [o] - []

rapporter des mains pr paume

reporter demain prs pomme

On the other hand, French has three front rounded vowels that do not exist in English, which may take a while to get used to since English only has back rounded vowels. However, they are the rounded counterpart of vowels that do exist in English, so you simply need to round your lips when pronouncing these vowels. Vowels in Contrast

Unrounded [i] [e] []

Rounded [y] [] []

Many English speakers tend to say [u] instead of [y] and [] instead of [] or []. Personally, I still find it very hard to hear the difference between [] and [] in fast speech, but I can distinguish them if they are isolated vowels. Words in Contrast

[u] - [y] sous su ceux [] - [] ce [] - [] jene jeune

Here is a review of the vowels in French, with phonetic spellings for American English speakers (forget the diphthongs though!), sample words in French and the general spelling for these vowels in French orthography.

Pure Vowels

IPA Phonetic spelling Sample words [i] ee [y] ee rounded [e] ay [] ay rounded [] eh [] eh rounded [a] ah [] ah longer [u] oo [o] oh [] aw [] uh vie, midi, lit, riz rue, jus, tissu, usine bl, nez, cahier, pied jeu, yeux, queue, bleu lait, aile, balai, reine sur, uf, fleur, beurre chat, ami, papa, salade bas, ne, grce, chteau loup, cou, caillou, outil eau, dos, escargot, htel

General spellings i, y u , et, final er and ez eu e, , , ai, ei, ais u, eu a, , a, ou o,

sol, pomme, cloche, horloge o fentre, genou, cheval, cerise e

[] is disappearing in modern French, being replaced by [a]. Vowels that do not exist in English are marked in blue.

Other rules to remember about pure vowels in French:

Vowels are pronounced slightly longer when they are in the final closed syllable (a consonant follows the vowels in the same syllable). For example, the vowel [i] in tir is longer than the vowel [i] in tirer because tir is a closed syllable, while ti is an open syllable (and rer is a closed syllable). This is represented with a colon in IPA: long [i] = [i:] The vowel [e] can only occur in open syllables (no consonant follows it in the same syllable) in French. In closed syllables, [] is used; however, [] can also be found in open syllables. (This is a major difference with English as [] can never be found in open syllables at the end of a word.) In stressed open syllables, only [] is possible. In stressed, closed syllables, only [] is possible, unless the syllable ends in [t], [tR], or [z] - in which case, [] can occur. In unstressed syllables, whether open or closed, either vowel can occur. Generally, [o] always occurs in stressed open syllables, and [] occurs in stressed closed syllables. Nevertheless, [o] can also occur in stressed closed syllables, depending on the spelling of the word: when the letter o is followed by [m], [n], [z]; when the letters au are not followed by [R]; and by the letter .

 Semi-Vowels Semi-vowels can also be called glides or approximants. Semi-Vowels

IPA Phonetic spelling Sample words [w] w [] ew-ee [j] yuh lui, suisse

General spelling ui

fois, oui, Louis oi, ou oreille, Mireille ill, y

Some words ending in -ille(r) pronounce the l, however: ville, mille, tranquille, distiller, osciller, etc.

Words in Contrast

[wa] - [a] [] - [y] [ej] - [e] [aj] - [a]

loi lui pareil bail

la Lu par bas

Notice that words ending in -eil or -eille are pronounced [ej], while words ending in -ail or -aille are pronounced [aj].

Nasal Vowels Nasal vowels can be a bit tricky to understand in everyday speech, but learning how to pronounce them correctly isn't too difficult. Nasal Vowels

IPA Phonetic spelling Sample words [ ] awn [] ahn gant, banc, dent pain, vin, linge

General spelling en, em, an, am, aon, aen in, im, yn, ym, ain, aim, ein, eim, un, um,

en, eng, oin, oing, oint, ien, yen, en [] uhn [ ] ohn brun, lundi, parfum un rond, ongle, front on, om

[] is being replaced with [] in European French; though this distinction is kept in Belgian and Quebecois French Words in Contrast

Nasal Vowel franc brun indien bon

Nasal Consonant franche brune indienne bonne

A phrase with all nasal vowels is: un bon vin blanc

Consonants Many of the consonants in French are very similar to the consonants in English. A few differences include: 1. [p], [t] and [k] are NOT aspirated in French so try not to let that extra puff of air escape from your lips. 2. Consonants that are alveolar in English are generally dental in French. Try to rest your tongue just behind your teeth instead of on the alveolar ridge for [t], [d], [s], [z], [l] and [n]. 3. The letter h is never pronounced, but you need to remember to distinguish the h nonaspir from the h aspir. Most words belong to the first group, but for the words that have an h aspir, there are two characteristics that make them different: the definite article does not reduce to l' (called elision) but remains le or la and word boundaries are maintained so that sounds do not link (absence of liaison - see below). Most words with an h aspir are of Germanic origin.

h non-aspir h aspir

l'habitude l'herbe l'heure l'histoire l'homme l'honneur l'huile

la hache le hall le haricot le hasard le hibou le homard le hockey

4. [R] is articulated further back in the throat (with the back of the tongue) and is usually the hardest French consonant for English speakers to pronounce correctly. It is a voiced uvular fricative sound and does not have an effect on preceding vowels the way that American English r does. It must remain consistent in all positions, regardless of the other vowels and consonants that may be adjacent to it.

Initial rus rang rose

After Before Intervocalic consonant consonant droit gris trou arrt courir pleurer partout merle corde

Final mer pire sourd

5. In the majority of words with the grapheme ch, the pronunciation is [], but it is also pronounced [k] in words of Greek origin. It is silent, however, in the word almanach.

ch = [] chercher chrubin

ch = [k] archologie chrtien

rchauffer chaos architecte cho catchisme orchestre Achille chur

6. The graphemes gu and qu can be pronounced three different ways: [g], [gw], [g] and [k], [kw], [k], respectively. The majority of words are pronounced with simply [g] and [k], but the spelling will not tell you which sound to pronounce, so you'll just have to learn them individually.

[g] anguille fatigue gurilla distinguer

[gw] jaguar iguane lingual Guadeloupe

[g] aiguille ambigut linguiste

[k] question qualit quivalent quartier

[kw] adquat aquarium square quateur

[k] quiescent quilatral ubiquit quidistant

7. Even though most final consonants are not pronounced in French (see below), there are a few exceptions, especially with words ending in -s. In words ending in a consonant + s or -es, the s is silent. However, if a word ends in -as, -s, -is, -os, or -us, then the s is sometimes pronounced.

s = silent s = pronounced cadenas atlas dbarras pancras accs exprs logis clos confus dehors alos palmars oasis vis sinus ours

dessous albatros

Silent Letters French, like English, is not written phonetically. Vowels can be represented by several different letter combinations and many letters are actually not pronounced. (You can thank early "linguists" who changed the spelling of many French words, with complete disregard to pronunciation, so that it was closer to Latin orthography.)

The final consonant of many words is silent. Sometimes a final c, f, l or r are pronounced though. Final c, f, l, r silent

blanc clf franc cerf tabac nerf estomac

outil sourcil gentil persil

parler chercher habiter fermer

Final c, f, l, r pronounced bouc lac avec donc uf sauf veuf actif fil avril civil col car mer pour hiver

Similar to English, the final -e in most words is not pronounced. For feminine adjectives and nouns, this generally means that the final consonant of the masculine form will now be pronounced.

Masculine vert grand canadien boulanger chat

Feminine verte grande canadienne boulangre chatte

As mentioned above, a few silent letters were placed in French orthography for the prestige of being more similar to Latin. Other letters are now silent for other historical reasons (i.e. perhaps the pronunciation changed, but the spelling did not.) The following words all have silent letters:

sept rompt

rang sang

fils pouls

trop camp

aspect instinct pied nid

il fauteuil ail drap

saoul cul Renault sirop

chocolat crdit riz nez

A few plural nouns change their pronunciations to include silent letters, whereas these consonants are pronounced in the singular form: un uf un buf un os de ufs de bufs des os

e caduc La loi des trois consonnes a e ha [] may be omi ed in pronuncia ion a long a i would no cause three consonants to be together. Of course there are exceptions to this rule, and some dialects of French do not delete it anyway (such as in the south of France.) However, this is extremely common in everyday French and English speakers need to be able to comprehend words with dropped syllables. Phrase-final e is always dropped, except in -le in the imperative. It is also dropped at the end of nouns, articles and verbs. One exception to the three consonant rule is in the case of consonant clusters, such as br, fr, gr, pr, tr, etc. If the e precedes these clusters, and the e itself is preceded by a consonant, then it can be dropped: un refrain = un r'frain

Disappearing e

Careful Speech

Normal Speech

samedi / lentement / sauvetage sam'di / lent'ment / sauv'tage sous le bureau / chez le docteur sous l'bureau / chez l'docteur il y a de / pas de / plus de je ne / de ne / tu ne je te / ce que / ce qui il y a d' / pas d' / plus d' je n' / de n' / tu n' j'te / c'que / c'qui

Notice that dropping e in je al o re ul in [ ] o become [] whene er i i found before oicele consonants, such as [p], [t], [k], etc.

Liaison A loss of word boundaries in French makes it difficult to comprehend the spoken language for beginning learners. All of the words seem to be linked together without any clear divisions because the syllable boundaries do not correspond to the word boundaries. In many cases, the last consonant from one syllable (which is usually silent) will become the first consonant of the next syllable (therefore, it is no longer silent). This linking between syllables is called liaison, and it may or may not be required and the pronunciation of the consonant may or may not change. Liaison leads to many homonymous phrases, which can hinder comprehension. You must pay attention to the liaisons in verb conjugations as well or you may mistake one verb for another. The consonants involved in liaison generally include d, s, and x. However, their pronunciation is changed so that they become [t], [z] and [z], respectively. The letter n that is written after nasal vowels becomes the nasal consonant [n]. Peculiarly, the f of neuf is pronounced [v] only before ans and heures and in all other cases, it remains [f]. And remember that h aspir prevents liaison from happening, i.e. there is no [z] sound between des and haricots.

Examples of Liaison

elles arrivent ils ont vieux arbres dix heures attend-il ? grand ami

mon amour les ours dans un sac trs aimable plus ouvert il est all

There are a few instances when you should always use liaison (liaison obligatoire): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. after determiners: un, les, des, ces, mon, ton, quels, etc. before or after pronouns: nous, vous, ils, elles, les, etc. after preceding adjectives: bon, mauvais, petit, grand, gros, etc. after monosyllabic prepositions: chez, dans, sous, en, etc. after some monosyllabic adverbs: trs, plus, bien, etc. (optional after pas, trop, fort) after est (optional after all other forms of tre)

 Stress French is a syllable-timed language, so equal emphasis is given to each syllable. This is quite unlike English, which is a stress-timed language, and which gives emphasis to one syllable in each word - the stressed syllable - and reduces the vowels in the rest of the syllables (usually to [] or [].) All owel in French mu be pronounced fully, and each yllable mu be pronounced with equal stress, though the final syllable of each word is generally considered the "stressed syllable." Listen to these words in English and French and see if you can hear the difference in stress. Stressed syllables in English are marked in bold.

photography - photographie authority - autorit nationality - nationalit passion - passion education - ducation regiment - rgiment monument - monument melodramatic - mlodramatique

Intonation Intonation in French is slightly different from English. In general, the intonation rises only for a yes/no question, and the rest of the time, the intonation falls. French intonation starts at a higher pitch and falls continuously throughout the sentence, whereas in English, the stressed syllable has a higher pitch that what precedes and follows it. Listen to these sentences in English and French and see if you can hear the difference in intonation. Bold marks the higher pitch. Notice that even if the intonation pattern seems similar, the syllables with higher pitches are often in different locations. The numbers below refer to the pitch: 1) low, 2) medium, 3) high, 4) extra high.

English Intonation vs. French Intonation

Sentence Type Yes/No Question

English Are you leaving? Where are you Information Question going? Imperative Do it. / Don't do it. Exclamation What a surprise!

Intonation French 2-3 Est-ce que vous partez ? O est-ce que vous allez 2-3-1 ? (2) - 3 - 1 Fais-le. / Ne le fais pas. 2-3-1 Quelle surprise !

Intonation 2-3 4-2-1 4-2-1 4-2-1

Declarative

I bought a dress.

2-3-1

J'ai achet une robe.

3-2-1

Informal Reductions In everyday speech, there are other reductions in addition to e caduc. Many of these reductions are made for ease of pronunciation and are considered informal. The most common ones are reducing tu to t' before a vowel and omitting the final syllable of words ending in -re. Listen to these reductions in careful speech and everyday speech:

Informal Reductions in Spoken French

Careful Speech Everyday Speech tu es tu as tu tais tu avais mettre notre autre il il y a ils + vowel elle elles + vowel parce que quelque puis t'es t'as t'tais t'avais mett' not' aut' y ya y'z 'z pasq' quq' pis