Introduction to French Pronunciation

ç) soften the c [s] in front of the vowels a and o; 
it is seldom used with the vowel u. 
For example: Word IPA 
ça (that, this) [sa] 
leçon (lesson) [l\sø~~] 
reçu (receipt) [ë\sy] 
c is soft [s] in front of the 
vowels e and i— including 
é, è, ê and y. 
For example: 
Word IPA 
ceci (this) [s\si] 
cédille (cedilla) [sedij] 
cèdre (cedar) [s´dë] 
cidre (cider) [sidë] 
cyan (cyan) [sjå~~] 
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c is hard [k] in front of the vowels a, o, and u. 
For example: Word IPA 
cabaret (music hall) [kabaë´] 
code (code) [kød] 
cube (cube) [kyb] 
Hard 
Think of the words soft pie 
to help you remember 
that i and e soften the c. 
Misc. pronunciations 
g is soft [Ω] in front of the vowels e and i, including é, è, ê, y. 
For example: Word IPA 
gel (frost) [Ω´l] 
girafe (giraffe) [Ωiëaf] 
générique (generic) [Ωeneëik] 
gêne (embarrassment) [Ω´n] 
Égypte (Egypt) [eΩipt] 
The vowel e can be use to soften the g [Ω] in front of the vowels a and o. 
For example: Word IPA 
geai (jay) [Ω´] 
Georges (George) [ΩøëΩ] 
Soft 
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Think of the words soft pie 
to help you remember 
that i and e soften the g. 
Word IPA 
longue (long (fem.)) [lø~g] 
guide (guide) [gid] 
guépard (cheetah) [gepaë] 
Guy (proper name) [gi] 
The vowel u can be use to 
harden the g [g] when u is 
followed by e and i, 
including é, è, ê and y. 
For example: 
g is hard [g] in front of the 
vowels a, o, and u. 
For example: 
Word IPA 
gare (train station) [gaë] 
golfe (golf) [gølf] 
légume (vegetable) [l\gym] 
Hard 
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An s between two vowels is 
pronounced z. For example: 
Word IPA 
maison (house) [m´zø~] 
oiseau (bird) [wazo] 
chaise (chair) [ß´z] 
between 2 vowels is pronounced 
In French, nouns (name of things) have a gender, for example the 
word house (maison) is feminine. There is no rule to determine if a 
noun is masculine or feminine. You’ll have to learn them as you go, 
but there is something you can do to help remember the gender. 
When you learn a new word, look it up in the dictionary; depending 
on your dictionary it will say feminine noun (or masculine noun), or 
it might be abbreviated like this: n. f. or n. m. 
As you learn a new noun, also learn its gender; memorize it with the 
appropriate definite article (the). The in French translates into le for a masculine 
noun and la for a feminine noun. 
When a word start with a vowel, you use l’ instead of le or la (see Elision). For 
example, the word armoire (cupboard) is feminine and you say l’armoire (the 
cupboard), but l’ does not indicate the gender. So when you have established the 
word’s gender, learn the word with an adjective (a quality) between the definite 
article and the noun, for example: la belle armoire. 
Try the following exercise: 
Feminine or masculine? 
Noun Translation F or M le or la (adjective) ... 
house maison f la maison 
boat 
chair 
school 
Look up the 
following nouns in 
your dictionary, note 
the translation and 
the gender; write 
the translated word 
again with le or la. 
By learning a new noun with its appropriate definite article, le or la (and if necessary 
with an adjective), you’ll never have to guess its gender. 
???
French Alphabet 
Letter IPA Sounds As in English 
a [a] a as in pat 
b [be] \bay\ 
c [se] \say\ 
d [de] \day\ 
e [\] \uh\ 
f [´f] \ef\ 
g [Ωe] \jay\ (without the d sound*) 
h [aß] \ash\ 
i [i] \e\ 
j [Ωi] \gee\ (without the d sound*) 
k [kå] \ka\ 
l [´l] \el\ (the Spanish word) 
m [´m] \em\ 
n [´n] \en\ 
o [o] same as in English 
p [pe] \pay\ 
q [ky] 
r [´ë] \air\ 
s [´s] same as in English 
t [te] \tay\ 
u [y] 
v [ve] \vay\ 
w [dubl\ve] \dublevay\ 
x [iks] \eeks\ 
y [igë´k] \egrek\ 
z [z´d] \zed\ 
The name of each letter in French, as opposed to it’s sound. 
* When you 
pronounce 
g or j in English 
there is a d sound 
right at the begin-
ning; the d sound is 
achieved when your 
tongue touches the 
back of your upper 
teeth—don’t do it. 
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Elision 
In French, elision usually happens when a final vowel becomes silent in front of a 
word starting with a vowel. Think of elision as removing a vowel. In French 
when a word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel it is awkward 
to pronounce. 
Elision can also be used in the spoken language to shorten words. 
When a vowel has become silent, it is marked in the written form by an 
apostrophe (‘). See examples below. 
With the articles le and la: 
 la église (church fem.) = l’église 
 le ouvrier (worker, masc.) = l’ouvrier 
With the pronouns, je, me, te, se, le, and la: 
 je aime (I like) = j’aime 
 je me aime (I like myself) = je m’aime 
 je te aime (I like you) = je t’aime 
 ils se aiment (they like themselves) = ils s’aiment 
 je la aime (I like her) = je l’aime 
 je le aime (I like him) = je l’aime 
With the invariable words, de, ne, que, jusque, lorsque, puisque, and quoique: 
 souvenirs de enfance (childhood memories) = souvenirs d’enfance 
 je ne ai pas (I do not have) = je n’ai pas 
 ce que on a (what we have) = ce qu’on a 
 lorsque on aura (when we will have) = lorsqu’on aura 
 puisque on va (since we are going) = puisqu’on va 
 quoique il aime (although he likes) = quoiqu’il aime 
In the spoken language: 
 le p’tit bateau (the small boat) = le petit bateau 
 la p’tite fille (the little girl) = la petite fille 
d s
In the example le grand homme, homme starts with an h which we don’t 
pronounce—so the word for pronunciation purposes starts with an o— and the d in 
grand becomes a t, adding it to the word homme. 
With les petits oiseaux, normally the last two consonants of the word petits are not 
pronounced (the plural s in French is not pronounced except when liaising), so s 
becomes z and gets added to the next word, in this case oiseaux. 
VARIATION: 
Some consonants may change sound when liaison occurs. 
Word ending 
consonant 
As in... IPA 
d becomes t le grand homme (the tall man) 
[l\ gëa~ tøm] 
s becomes z les petits oiseaux (the small birds) 
[l´ p\ti zwazo] 
x becomes z les faux amis (the false friends) 
[l´ fo zami] 
Liaison 
In this example, it means that you 
pronounce the last t in petit (which you normally do not pronounce) by adding it to 
the next word; phonetically it alters the word oiseau to become toiseau. 
Liaison in French is the connection of two words when 
you speak. Words that need connecting are words that 
start with a vowel; they need to be connected to the 
ending consonant of the previous word. 
For example: 
le petit oiseau (the small bird) 
 [l\ p\ti twazo] 
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The general rule is that the n (of a nasal vowel) is denasalised 
during liaison, for example: un bon ami (a good friend) 
[œ~ bø nami] 
In this example, the n of the nasal vowel on is added to the 
word ami, and the o (staying with the b) sounds like the o of 
the word cot. 
Although h is no longer aspirated in French (i.e. never 
pronounced), some words beginning with an h retain the 
annotation h aspiré (aspirated h) only to prevent liaison 
and elision. 
The IPA uses the single quotation mark [’] in front of a word 
that has an h aspiré. For example, the word héros (heroes) 
in a dictionary that uses the IPA symbols would be represented 
this way: [’eëo]. There is no liaison with an h aspiré. Again, 
you’ll need to check the dictionary to see if you can make the 
liaison or not for a particular word starting with an h. 
Note: If you were to make the liaison between the words les 
héros, you would be saying the zeroes. 
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SOME EXCEPTIONS with the letter H 
With these words the nasal vowel is kept and an n is added 
to the following word, 
which starts with a 
vowel, for example: 
mon (n)ami [mø~ nami] 
ton (n)ami [tø~ nami] 
son (n)ami [sø~ nami] 
un (n)ami [œ~ nami] 
aucun (n)ami [okœ~ nami] 
There is an exception rule 
with the following words: 
 mon (my) 
 ton (your) 
 son (his/her) 
 un (a, one) 
 aucun (none) 
VARIATION: When the last consonant (of the 
previous word) is an n from a nasal vowel, liaison is 
treated differently. 
In French as in English, verbs (action words) are inverted in a question. 
For example: 
In inverted constructions, the consonant t is obligatorily pronounced between the 
verb and a pronoun that starts with a vowel: il (he), ils (they masculine.), elle 
(she), elles (they feminine), and on (one). 
Orthographically, the two words are joined by a hyphen, or by -t- if the verb does 
not end in t or d: 
Il vend des pommes. (He sells apples.) 
Vend-il des pommes ? (Does he sell apples?) 
* Remember, with liaison d becomes t (in speech). 
English French French Inverted Form IPA 
She sleeps. Elle dort. Dort-elle ? [doë tel?] 
He sells. Il vend. Vend-il ?* [vå~ til?] 
They speak. Ils parlent. Parlent-ils? [paël til?] 
One eats. On mange. Mange-t-on? [må~Ω tø~?] 
LIAISON with inverted verbs 
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The French Syllable 
A syllable is a sequence of 
speech sounds; a sequence of 
consonant(s) and vowel(s). 
Syllables are words’ building 
blocks and in French the basic 
structure of a syllable is: 
consonant + vowel (CV). 
For example: 
English French 
friend a-mi 
chair chai-se 
cat chat 
kids en-fants 
table ta-ble 
mouse sou-ris 
 A syllable can be a single vowel (or group of 
vowels), but only at the beginning of a word. 
 When sounding out words you need to use the 
French syllable structure, for example: a-mi, 
chai-se, chat, en-fant, ta-ble, sou-ris, etc. 
 You pronounce the silent e at the end of a word 
when sounding out words or spelling them. 
 The plural s is not pronounced when sounding 
out words, but pronounced when spelling. 
(When the plural s is not pronounced, small 
words like les, des, mes (contextual clues) 
indicate the plural and tell the listener that 
there are more than one thing or person.) 
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