PRACTICE 1 – LISTEN AND MEMORIZE THE FOLLOWING SOUNDS

Alphabet

French uses the 26 letters of the alphabet plus a few “add-ons”: accents on vowels (è, é, etc…) or cedilla (ç).

When spelling your name -during a call for example- you will have to know how letters are said in French:

A	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	X	Y
Z

Final consonant

Remember this before going further: Most of the time, do not pronounce final d, s, t or x in French words.

As an example, red letters are not pronounced in the following words:

• un rebond (a bounce)
• français (French)
• un saut (a jump)
• heureux (happy)

 

[é] sound

You will hear “é” in the following examples.

Note that “-er” or “-ez” at the end of a word is pronounced the same way as “é“.

Many French verbs in the infinitive end with -er.

French	English
l’éducation	education
révéler	to reveal
Hervé Foucher	my name!
aimer	to love

[on] sound

You will hear “on” in the following examples.

French	English
une maison	a house
un garçon	a boy
comprendre (*)	to understand
un combat (*)	a fight

note (*) that “on” before “p” or “b” is written “om“.

However, there is one particular case: un bonbon (a candy/sweet).

[ou] sound

You will hear “ou” in the following examples.

Hint: Pronouce “ou” like “oo“.

French	English
la tour Eiffel	the Eiffel tower
mourir	to die
un mouvement	a movement
vous	you

 

[oi] sound

You will hear “oi” in the following examples.

French	English
une fois	once
un toit	a roof
un poisson	a fish
croire	to believe

[oin] sound

You will hear “oin” in the following examples.

French	English
moins	minus (-)
un point	a point
loin	far away
un soin	a care

[ai] sound

You will hear “ai” in the following examples. [è  — il est — tu es ]

French	English
une maison	a house
un balai	a broom
une caisse	a cash register
une naissance	a birth

[en] sound

You will hear “en” in the following examples.

Note that “en” and “an” are pronounced the same way.

French	English
encore	again
comprendre	to understand
les parents	the parents
un camembert (*)	a camembert (=a French cheese)

note (*) that “en” before “p” or “b” is written “em“.

French	English
un enfant	a child
un croissant	a croissant (French speciality)
le gagnant	the winner
un tambour (**)	a drum

note (**) that “an” before “p” or “b” is written “am“.

[eu] sound

You will hear “eu” in the following examples.

French	English
l’heure	the time
la peur	the fear
une fleur	a flower
un auto-stoppeur	a hitchhiker

N.B. The past participle of the verb avoir (to have) is written eu and is prononced like the letter U .

[in] sound

You will hear “in” in the following examples. Note that “in“, “ain” and “ein” are pronounced the same way.

French	English
un magasin	a shop
Tintin	Tintin (comics hero)
malin	clever
un timbre (*)	a stamp

note (*) that “in” before “p” or “b” is written “im“.

French	English
un pain	a bread
un copain	a friend
un train	a train
demain	tomorrow

 

French	English
la peinture	the paint
la ceinture	the belt
un frein	a brake
plein	full

PRACTICE 2 – PRONOUNCE AND RECORD THE FOLLOWING WORDS

1. BON
2. JOUR
3. BIEN
4. VA
5. VAIS
6. SOIR
7. ENCORE
8. VOUS
9. TU

You can use the following recorder from this page and save the audio file.