My name is David Issokson and I have been teaching French online since late-2013. One of the trickiest aspects to learning French is the pronunciation. This is because French is not phonetic. The secret to pronouncing French properly is mastering the reading rules. This is a topic that nobody wants to talk about.
I have taught hundreds of students how to apply these rules over the years. The process takes just one our two hours. Please contact me if you’re interested in getting these rules down and mastering French pronunciation.
Speed up your learning with an app
Many of our students have greatly enhanced their learning by using an app. On these pages we've examined the top-30 apps for learning French. On this pages we've written comprehensive reviews for Pimsleur (great for people struggling with pronunciation), Rosetta Stone and FrenchPod101 (both great for visual learners).
| FRENCH PRONUNCIATION CHART | EXAMPLE WORDS |
| 1) 'en’ is always nasal | enfant, pendant, lent, entre, encore, enfin, endroit, ensemble, Coréen, Tunisien |
| 2) 'an’ is always nsaal | enfant, pendant, ancien, anglais, naissance, musulman, pantoufle, occupant |
| 3) 'in’ is always nasal | inviter, Martin, installer, inconnu, indépendant, ingénieur, injuste |
| 4) ain - sounds like nasal 'in' sound | américain, certain, terrain, écrivain |
| 5) 'on’ is nasal | oncle, ongle, onduler, ongle, non, bon, bonjour, Simon |
| 6) If a word ends in two consonants, ignore the last consonant. | Robert, Albert, concert, rochefort, roquefort, transport, vêtement, restaurant, élégant |
| 7) é (e accent aigu) sounds like ‘ay’ as in play. | café, Céline, parlé, été, André, éléphant, élégant, école, étudie |
| 8) words ending in -ai sound like -é | parlerai, mangerai, finirai, vendrai |
| 9) l'accent grave è = eh as in get | mère, père, frère, préfère |
| 10 ) Words ending in the following sound like ‘ay’ or -é: -er, -ez, -ais, -ait | parler, parlez, danser, voyagez, mais, fait |
| 11) 'oi’ sounds like ‘wah” | moi, toi, quoi, soi, voit, doigt, boire, mademoiselle, framboise, toilette, emploi |
| 12) If a word ends in vowel + consonant, ignore the last consonant | petit, Louis, François, Denis, Nicolas, Thomas |
| 13) If a word ends in vowel + consonant + E, OR vowel + 2 consonants + E, that final E forces the last consonant to get pronounced | petite, Louise, Françoise, cerise, fraise, verte, couverte, différente |
| 14) single -i sounds like ee as feet | petit, île, lit, vite, livre, formidable |
| 15) single S = z | Isabelle, désert, ciseaux, lisent |
| 16) double SS = -s as in Sam | dessert, chaussette, message |
| 17) ç (la cédille) = S as in Sam | français, ça, prononçons |
| 18) CaReFuL: If a word ends in CRFL you must pronounce them. | neuf, cerf, Daniel, Marc, Éric, Frédéric |
| 19) ou = oo as in food | vous, fou (crazy), loup (wolf), joue (play), beaucoup |
| 20 ) single u in French "pointed U" | tu, bu (drank), lu, su, pu, vu, vendu, défendu |
| 21) LL: sometimes a LL sounds like Y | la fille, la famille, Guillaume |
| 22) other times you must say the LLs like English! | la ville, le village, mille, |
| 23) ‘au’ = "oh” as in Oh my gosh! | aussi (also), Australie, Autriche (Austria), aujourd'hui, Paul, Laurent |
| 24) ci/ce -> Soft C as in Sam | Céline, cerise, certain, cinéma, ciel, cible |
| 25) c + any other letter is hard c like a K | croire, crêpe, créer, classe, clé |
| 26) gi/ge -> soft G | Géralde, gérer, gens, gîte, génial, girafe |
| 27) Rule: -gr is hard -g | grand, grippe (flu), gros (fat), glacier, glace |
| 28) When a word starts with an H, Don't say it! If a word has TH, skip the H | Thomas, Mathieu, sympathique, homme, hôtel, hommard |
| 29) Showed "O" rule: let the listener ‘see’ your -O. | opinion, opportunité, orange, Olivier |
| 30) When you see 'eu', make it rhyme with je. | deux, feu (fire), je veux (I want), peux |
| 31) ch = sh | changer, choix, chez, choisir, chemin |
| 32) eil = ay-ye | conseil, Marseil, orteil, pareil, soleil |
| 33) euil - nightmare sound, very difficult (listen to audio above table) | écureuil, fauteuil, accueil |
| 34) ouille - another very difficult sound; listen to audio above table | grenouille, citrouille, débrouille |
| 35) ail = I (as in me!) | travail, épouvantail |
| 36) qu = k | question, quoi, quand, que |
related lessons
- French alphabet
- 3 Hardest Sounds To Pronounce In French
- AY Sound
- Final Consonant Deletion
- GN Sound
- O Sound
- l’accent aigu
- l’accent grave
- la tréma
- la cédille
- le circonflexe
If you've found this post useful you might want to considering looking at our post covering the best apps for learning French. We've looked a total 33 apps and have written comprehensive reviews of Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur and FrenchPod101.
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Bonjour! My name is David Issokson. I'm based in Victor, Idaho (near Jackson, Wyoming) and have helped hundreds of students to learn French online since 2013.
