🇫🇷 French Pronunciation Guide
📖 About French
French pronunciation is renowned for its nasal vowels, silent final consonants, and smooth liaison between words. Unlike English, French stresses the final syllable of word groups rather than individual words. The language features sounds like the front rounded vowels ü and eu that don't exist in English, and the guttural r sound produced at the back of the throat. Mastering French pronunciation requires attention to elision — dropping vowel sounds when words meet — and enchaînement, the linking of consonants across word boundaries.
Sound Patterns in French
- Nasal vowels: an, en, in, on, un — air flows through the nose simultaneously
- Liaison: final consonants link to next word starting with a vowel (les amis = lay-za-mee)
- Silent letters: most final consonants are not pronounced in spoken French
Popular French Words
French Names
❓ Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How do French nasal vowels work?
French nasal vowels (an, en, in, on, un) are pronounced with air flowing through both the mouth and nose simultaneously. There is no separate n or m consonant sound after the vowel — the nasality is part of the vowel itself.
Why are so many French letters silent?
French evolved from Latin through centuries of phonetic change. Final consonants gradually became silent in spoken French while remaining in spelling for grammatical and etymological reasons. This is why vous ends in a silent s.
What is liaison in French?
Liaison is the pronunciation of a normally silent final consonant when the next word starts with a vowel. For example, les amis (the friends) is pronounced lay-za-mee, linking the s of les to the a of amis.