A GUIDE TO FRENCH PRONUNCIATION

To accompany the audio tape “French Sounds”

By Michele H. Jones, Ph.D.

Foreword:

This guide and its accompanying exercises on audio tape (found under “Ressources sur la Toile: Audio file) are intended for the beginning or intermediate anglophone student of French to review the various sounds found in the French language. With the help of this guide he or she will learn how to distinguish French sounds and how to differenciate them from corresponding English sounds. The student will also learn how to reproduce them acurately, correcting faulty pronunciation, bringing speaking skills closer to a native quality and enhancing communication skills in the process.

In the first part we shall examine the various sounds which correspond to all French vowels.

In the second part we shall go over the consonants which differ from their English counterparts in their pronunciation.

Finally in a third section, we shall review the vowel combinations as well as vowel-consonant combinations which correspond to specific French sounds.

One tip before starting the tape: French sounds, particularly French vowels, are clearer and stronger than English sounds. To achieve this clearness of sound you will have to tighten your lips and tense the muscles around your mouth more than when speaking English. Proper lip placement and tension are a key ingredient to pronouncing French correctly and understandably.

FRENCH VOWELS: A E I O U plus two extra sounds É and È

VOWEL A: two sounds correspond to this vowel depending on its position in the word.

The first one is a closed A [ɑ] in the phonetic alphabet, pronounced somewhat like the English A in “calm” with jaws dropped, mouth open, tongue down. The sound comes from the middle of the palate. It is found when it is the last sound in a word (with or without unpronounced final consonants) or just before a [z] sound

i.e. chat, rat, plat, repas, réséda, gaz, phrase

It is also found when A is topped with a circumflex accent, Â, or an accent grave, À

i.e. se fâcher, tâche, grâce, voilà, là-bas. Il va là-bas.

The second A is open [a] in the phonetic alphabet, and sounded like the English vowel in “cat” with lips pulled to the sides and the sound coming from the front of the mouth. It is found at the beginning or in the middle or a multi-syllabic word, or when placed just before a last consonant which is sounded. It is also found in grammar words, such as the definite article la, or the possessive adjectives ma, ta, sa.

i.e. chatte, ratte, plate, appartement, tomate, salade, caravane, sac, bac, car. Il a mal lancé la balle.

Exercise: Learn to differentiate the two sounds [ɑ ] and [a] by pronouncing the following pairs;

Le chat et la chatte; le rat et la ratte; plat et plate; gras et gratte, tâche et tache, pâte et patte, Bâle et balle, là et la.

VOWEL E:

E without an accent:

E Mute: This vowel is always mute at the end of a word . All you hear is the preceding consonant. i.e. lave, gare, calme, troupe, article, sucre, intelligente

E pronounced: [ə] in the phonetic alphabet]. It is pronounced when found at the beginning or in a middle of a word when followed by a single consonant and also when found in a grammar word such as an article, a preposition, a negation or a pronoun (i.e. le, de, je, te, se, ne etc.). The sound is somewhat like the vowel sound in the English article “the” with lips pursed into an O shape, tongue down and back of the tongue slightly raised. It comes from the middle of the mouth. i.e. le petit chemin; je me repose

However, it is very often skipped in pronunciation when located at the end of the second or third syllable of a long word: i.e. tirelire [tirlir], casserole [casrol], évènement [évènmen]

E with an accent

É (E + accent aigu): [e] this sound is pronounced as in the first part of the vowel in the English word “cave” without the final [i] sound. To produce it, pull your lips to the sides, flatten your tongue and narrow the passage between tongue and palate. It should come from the front of the mouth. The same sound is also found with the following spelling:

-ER, -ET and -EZ at the end of a word, as well as with –AI for endings of the first person of the future and passé simple.

i.e. dé, été, poupée, café, école, déjeuner, diner, pommier, carnet, nez, rez de chaussée, ave, j’ai, je serai, j’allai. Mets ton gilet et ton bonnet et va te promener. Profitez de votre été, sautez, chantez, riez et dansez. Entrez sans frapper.

È (E accent grave): [є] similar to the vowel sound in the English words “air” or “there”. Drop your jaws slightly and relax your lips: the sound comes from the middle of the mouth.

i.e. père, mère, frère, manière

Ê (E accent circonflexe): [є] this is the same sound as the previous one with a different spelling. i.e. tête, fête, rêve, guêpe

E + double consonant: the same [є] sound is also found when unaccented E is followed by a double consonant such as double L, double N, double R, double S, double T, or a combination of those.

i.e. elle, belle, selle, pelle, jette, fourchette, assiette, terre, verre, ivresse, renne, ferme, perle, revers, vert

Spelling AI or EI: again, the [є] sound is found with the following spelling: AI, and EI. This sound is the one used for endings of the imparfait.

i.e. mais, maison, paraitre, lait, palais, plaine, j’avais, je parlais Je ne vais jamais à Calais; treize, seize, pleine. La reine Madeleine a de la peine.

Finally [є] occurs in the following words which are exceptions to the letter combination ending –ER being pronounced as [é]: hier, ver, mer, amer, hiver, cuiller.

Let’s recapitulate those three sounds: E É È

É: = -ER = -ET = -EZ È = Ê = AI = EI = E + double consonant

Practice exercises to differenciate the three sounds:

[ə] and [e]: je/j’ai, de/dé, ne/nez, te/thé, ne/né

[ə] and [є]: ce/ces, que/quel, je/jais, le/les, jeter/jette

[e] and [є]: et/ est, mangez/mangeais, été/était, année/Annette

Le père et la mère restent à la ferme. Le bébé rêve. Le dé est jeté. Didier et Estelle ont mangé le poulet. J’ai compté treize personnes dans le café. Vous devez manger avec votre fourchette.

VOWEL I: [i] this vowel when not combined with another vowel, is always sounded “ee” as in the English “see” with lips pulled to the sides.

i.e. lit, livre, nid, parti. Le film est fini. Il a une jolie bicyclette.

It is also found with the spelling Y, mostly in words of Greek origin such as gynécologue, psychologie, or kyste.

VOWEL O: like the vowel A, this vowel corresponds to two sounds depending on its spelling and on its position in the word.

The first O is a closed O [o] produced by pursing your lips in an almost closed circle and flattening your tongue down as in the English vowel in “floor”. It should come from the front of the mouth. It is found at the end of a word or when the final consonant is mute. It is also found with the spelling –AU or -EAU, or with the circumflex accent, ô. It is also found in the middle of a word when followed by a [z] sound, such as occurs with an S placed between 2 vowels.

i.e. piano, gros, dos, coquelicot, rôti, , bientôt, nôtre, vôtre, auto, château, automne, rose, repose.

The second O is an open O [ɔ] sounded as in the British “not” and obtained by pursing the lips in a more open and relaxed circle. The sound comes from the middle of the mouth. It is found at the beginning or in the middle of a word when followed by other sounds.

i.e. opéra, corps, bord, fort. La cloche sonne. Donne-moi un bol de chocolat. Charlotte porte une robe propre et une broche en or.

Practice exercises to differentiate the two sounds [ɔ] and [o]:

Fort et faux, bord et beau, sotte et saute, nord et nos, port et peau, cote et côte, roc et rauque, ode et Aude.

Robert a vu un beau château fort au bord de l’eau. Donne aux chevaux une carotte. Au repas on nous a offert des hors d’oeuvre, du rôti aux haricots et un sorbet au chocolat.

VOWEL U [y]. This sound has come to French from German and has no equivalent in the English language. Practice will be necessary to reproduce it correctly. It is obtained by tensing and pursing your lips outward in a closed circle as if to kiss someone while the tip of your tongue is placed against your bottom front teeth. The sound comes from the back of the mouth, towards the uvula.

i.e. rue, lune, plu, salut, battu, brume, plume, têtu Tu fumes dans la rue. Lulu a vu une voiture. Le musée a plu à Ursule.

SPECIFIC FRENCH CONSONANTS

There are fewer differences between French and English consonants than between French and English vowels. Most are sounded the same with the exception of the following:

CONSONANT R: this is a specifically French sound, with no equivalent in English. Learn to produce it by pursing your lips in an O, placing the tip of your tongue behind your lower teeth while the back of your tongue rubs against the uvula with a vibrating sound, almost as in gargling. i.e. France, français, robe, aurore, derrière, Robert. Elle a renversé de l’encre sur sa robe rouge.

CONSONANT H: as in the English exceptions “heir” and “hour” this sound is always mute.

i.e. cohabitation, cohésion, adhésion, hôtel, héros

However when it starts the word it can sometimes be “aspirate” rather than mute which means that it is not sounded but prevents an elision or a liaison with the articles or pronouns placed before.

i.e. examples of mute H: l’héritier, les [z] héritiers, l’hôtel, un [n] hotel, l’héroïne, des[z] héroïnes, l’herbe, les [z] herbes; j’ hérite

examples of aspirate H: le héros, des héros, le haricot, les haricots, le homard, des homards, le hérisson, les hérissons

SOUND CH [ʃ] is always sounded as in the English consonant SH in “shoe” with a few exceptions in learned words derived from Greek such as échographie, psychiatrie, or pachyderme in which case it is sounded [k] as in English

i.e. cloche, chambre, chercher, cheminée, bâche. Va chercher ton chapeau

CONSONANTS J + any vowel or G + I or E. [З]:these sounds are pronounced as in the English word “pleasure” or “rouge”. The G sound is soft and there is no D sound heard before it as in English.

i.e. jeu, jardin, jambe, girafe, giroflée, rouge-gorge, garage. Je joue dans le jardin. J’ai jeté mes jouets dans le garage.

GUE or GUI: in this combination the U sound is not pronounced and the G sound becomes hard rather than soft as in the English “guard” or “guilt” [g]

i.e. gui, muguet, marguerite, bague, guitare. Georges guette la guêpe.

Practice exercise: distinguish between the soft [ʒ ]and the hard [g] G sound:

Germaine garde une guitare dans son garage.

Ç (C + cedilla) [s] a cedilla (une cédille) is placed under a C before an A, an O or a U to soften the sound from a [k] to an [s]. i.e français, façade, François, garçon, balançoire, perçu Françoise a reçu chez elle un petit garçon français.

C before an E or an I is always soft i.e. France, cerise, citron, acide.

QU is always pronounced as the sound [k] in “keep” before any vowel.

i.e. qui, que, quand, quel, quiconque, quelqu’un, queue, barque. Quelqu’un quitte le quai.

S between 2 vowels is always sounded [z] i.e. rose, chose, musique, désert, cousin, voisin, désir. It is also sounded [z] as a liaison sound between an article, a demonstrative adjective or a possessive adjective and a noun starting in a vowel or a mute H ie. des [z] enfants, les [z] oiseaux, ces [z] histoires, vos [z] idées

Practice exercise to differentiate the [s] sound and the [z] sound:

dessert et désert, rosse et rose, coussin et cousin, poisson et poison, lisse et Lise

W: this letter is rare in French and found mostly in words borrowed from the English language. Words which are recent borrowings retain their English [w] sound as in le week-end, le whisky, le far-west, un western. In those that have been around for a while, such as wagon, the [w] is pronounced as a [v]. The same is true if a borrowed word is turned into a French verb, such as with interviewer [interviouver]

X: is also rare in French and sounded [ks] in the middle of a word, i.e. Maximilien a fixé le saxophone. It is sounded [gz] when found as the first letter of a word, in words of foreign origin i.e. Xavier, xérès, xénophobe, or in the combination E + X + another vowel at the beginning of a word; i.e. exemple, exercice, exécuter, exercer, exiger, exact. Otherwise it is sounded as an [s] in six, dix. It is never sounded when it marks a plural in words forming their plural in an irregular pattern, such as cheval-chevaux or bocal-bocaux.

SPECIFIC FRENCH VOWEL COMBINATIONS

UI: [ɥ] is pronounced as a French U immediately followed by an I blended into it.

i.e. lui, bruit, fruit, huit, truite, nuit. De huit heures à minuit, il y a eu beaucoup de bruit.

OU: [u] always sounded as “oo” in the English “zoo”

i.e. sou, clou, four, cour, poule, jouer. Il joue sur la route toute la journée.

Differentiate sound [y] and sound [u]:

tutu et toutou, sur et sourd; pur et pour, pull et poule, bulle et boule

OI: sounded as [wa] in the English word “wasp”

i.e. moi, toi, soi, roi, toit, boite, joie. Il voit le toit du voisin.

EU or OEU: this vowel combination stands for two different sounds as with A or O. One closed and one open

Open EU or OEU [œ or ә]: is similar to the [ә] sound in the English article “the”, jaws dropped, lips open It is found at the end of multi or monosyllabic words when the last sound is a sounded consonant other than [t] or [z] mostly [r] [f] [v] or [l]. i.e. bonheur, malheur, chaleur, beurre, pleure, fleur, coeur, soeur, boeuf, oeuf, glaïeul, neuf, neuve.

Closed EU, EÛ or OEU [ø]: is a sound which has no equivalent in English. Try and pronounce it starting with the former [ә] sound but but closing the sound by bringing your lips closer together, and maintaining them tight and pursed forward as if to sound a French U [y]. The sound is somewhere between a French U and an open EU and comes from the middle of the mouth rather than the front as with the open EU. It is found at the beginning of a word, or in a monosyllabic word in which this sound is the final one (alone or with an unsounded final consonant) and also before a [t] or [z] sound as well as when the U is capped with a circumflex accent: EÛ (which is rare)

i.e. europe, heureux, peureux, feu, jeu, peu, peut, deux, noeud, oeufs, boeufs, (in these last two words both the F and the S are mute), neutre, charmeuse, berceuse, jeûne.

Practice exercise to compare and contrast these two sounds:

Peur et peut, heure et eux, pleure et pleut, fleur et feu, boeuf et boeufs, oeuf et oeufs, menteur et menteuse, voleur et voleuse, jeune et jeûne.

SPECIFIC FRENCH VOWEL-CONSONANT COMBINATIONS

These sounds are also specifically French

NASAL SOUNDS: UN IN ON AN with variants ION OIN and IEN

These various nasal vowel sounds are projected into the nasal cavity in order to be produced, somewhat as in the English interjection “huh!”. The four basic nasal vowel combinations are exemplified in the phrase “un bon vin blanc”

The basic nasal vowels

UN (spelled UM before a B or a P) [œ̃] as in un, brun, humble, emprunt

ON (sometimes spelled OM particularly before a B or a P) [õ] as in non or nom, nombre, ombre, bonbon, ballon, mont, chaton, baton.

IN (sometimes spelled AIN or EIN ) [ĩ] as in matin, lapin, sapin, moulin, main, train, pain, levain, serein, teinture, peindre

AN or EN (spelled AM or EM before a B or a P) [ã] as in maman, enfant, chanson, emporter, embrasser, ambivalent. La maman chante doucement à son enfant.

Note: these nasal sounds become denasalized when followed by the vowel E or É or when the N is doubled.

Exercise to compare and contrast nasal vs. denasalized sounds:

Un et une, brun et brune, bon et bonne, an et année, italien et italienne, matin et matinée, train et traine, pain et peine

The nasal variants

The following are variations on the basic nasal combinations

-ION [iõ] pronounced by blending sound I and nasal vowel ON [õ] as in avion, lion, passion.

–TION in final position in a word is pronounced SION i.e. portion, motion, multiplication, nation, punition

-OIN is pronounced as OU + IN [u + ĩ ] : i.e. point, foin, coin, lointain, moins

-IEN is pronounced as I + IN [i + ĩ ]: i.e. mien, tien, sien, lien, gardien, chien. On n’a rien de bien

PALATALIZED SOUNDS

-ILL [ij] is followed by a mute E, or by [é], [õ] , [ã] or [u] and sounded like an I immediately followed by a Y as in “yarn” i.e. fille, famille, vanille, grille, papillon, juillet, billet, pillant, caillou. There are some notable exceptions such as ville, and village [vil, vilaʒ]

Variations on this sound:

-EUIL -EUILLE : pronounced E + Y [әj] i.e fauteuil, écureuil, chevreuil, feuille,

-AIL -AILLE: pronounced A + Y [aj] as in “fly” i.e. ail, détail, travail, bail, paille, médaille

-OUIL -OUILLE: pronounced OU + Y [uj] i.e. brouillard, fouiller, nouille, grenouille

-EIL -EILLE: pronounced È + Y [єj] i.e. soleil, réveil, pareil, abeille, corbeille

OTHER SOUNDS

GN [ɲ] pronounced “ny” as in the English word “dominion” and never as two distinct sounds as in English words like “signify’ or signature” i.e. vigne, montagne, champignon, chignon, signal, agneau, signature

PS: both letters are always sounded, unlike English usage which drops the initial P sound. The combination occurs in words of Greek origin such as psychiatrie, psychologie, pseudonyme or psaume

Y after vowels A, O or U is the equivalent of a double I

AY = AI + I [єi] as in pays, paysan, paysage, rayon, payer

OY = OI + I [waj] as in voyage, noyau, soyez, joyeux

UY = UI + I [ɥ j] as in tuyau, fuyard

The diaresis (le tréma) when placed over one vowel in a two vowel combination serves the function of restoring the original distinct vowel sounds by preventing the blending of the two vowels. Instead each vowel is pronounced separately.

AÏ = A + I [a i] and not [є] as in maïs, laïc

OË = O + [є] [ɔ є] as in Noël, Joël

OÏ= O + I [ɔ i] and not [wa] as in égoïste, héroïsme

GUË = GU [gy] and not [g] making the final E mute as in ciguë, aiguë, ambiguë