French pronunciation practice: the sounds, the rules and a routine

French pronunciation practice is time spent hearing French sounds and saying them back, aloud. This page sets out the sounds and rules the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) describes in its Banque de dépannage linguistique, with its examples copied as printed, and a routine for home. For speaking beyond single sounds, read French speaking practice. For word and sound differences across the Atlantic, see Québec French vs France French, and for the varieties spoken here, Canadian French.

How many sounds does French pronunciation have?

French has 16 vowel sounds, according to the OQLF, and each has its own symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) [1]. Only six vowel letters write them: a, e, i, o, u and y [1]. The OQLF’s example is eau: three letters, one sound, [o] [1]. French also has three semi-vowels, [j], [w] and [ɥ] [1]. Eight of the 16 vowels, with the OQLF’s example words:

Which French sounds are hardest for English speakers?

No page opened for this guide ranks French sounds by difficulty for English speakers. Three features stand out in the OQLF’s own description, and they make a sensible starting list.

Front rounded vowels. In languages in general, the OQLF says, vowels made at the front of the mouth tend to be unrounded and those at the back tend to be rounded [2]. French also has a series of front rounded vowels: [y], [ø] and [œ] [2]. For [i], as in riz, the lips are drawn back to the sides. For [y], as in rue, they push forward [2].

Nasal vowels. Standard French has four nasal vowels, as in fin, brun, front and grand [2]. For a nasal vowel, the soft palate lowers so that air also flows through the nose [2]. The OQLF’s pair is mode, with an oral vowel, and monde, with a nasal one [2].

The r. The OQLF says that in neutral or formal speech today, the letter r is usually the fricative r [3]. You make it by raising the back of the tongue toward the uvula and letting the air flow through without a break [3].

Where does the stress fall in French words?

On the last syllable. When a word is said on its own, the OQLF says the stress falls on its last syllable, as in télévision [televizjɔ̃] [4]. In a sentence, the main stress falls on the last syllable of each group of words that belong together, as in la télévision de ma voisine [4]. French stress is fixed, so it cannot tell two words apart, and the stressed syllable is longer and louder than the others [4].

What is liaison in French?

Liaison is saying a word’s normally silent final consonant together with the first vowel sound of the next word, as one syllable [5]. The OQLF says the rules are complex and vary with the level of language: formal speech has more liaisons than everyday speech [5]. Some liaisons are required in every context, some are never made, and the rest are optional [5].

Liaison happens before a silent h (h muet), which has no sound, but not before an aspirated h (h aspiré) [5].

When is the French e muet silent?

Often. The OQLF says the e muet, also called e caduc, is generally not pronounced at the end of a word or after a vowel [8].

It is usually pronounced in four cases: to avoid three consonant sounds in a row, when it carries the stress, when it is the only sound that tells two words apart, and in the question word que [8]. The OQLF’s pair is pelage [pəlaʒ] and plage [plaʒ] [8]. It adds that people tend to pronounce it more in formal speech, and that its use varies from person to person and with context [8].

How do you practise French pronunciation on your own?

You can practise French pronunciation on your own with a few habits: shadowing a recording, recording yourself, working through word pairs and marking a text before you read it aloud.

Shadowing. You play a short recording and repeat it right behind the speaker. A 2017 study in the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation had 16 participants shadow short dialogues on iPods for eight weeks [9]. They practised at least four times a week for at least 10 minutes each time [9]. Twenty-two speakers of English rated their speech, and the abstract reports that participants improved significantly on all speaking measures apart from accentedness [9]. The abstract does not mention French, and the result is for those 16 people, not a promise for you.

Recording yourself. The same participants recorded themselves while shadowing [9]. Play your recording next to the model and listen for one sound at a time: a nasal vowel, the [y], a liaison.

Word pairs. Use pairs the OQLF prints. Pelage and plage differ only by the e muet [8]. Brin and brun differ only in their nasal vowel, [ẽ] or [œ̃]; the OQLF says many speakers in Europe pronounce them the same, while in Québec the distinction is kept [2].

Marked reading. Before you read a sentence aloud, mark the liaisons from the table above and the last syllable of each word group [4][6].

For beginners, the Government of Québec lists a free online service at francais-enligne.quebec, which asks you to create an account with an email address and a password [10]. The page says it includes exercises to practise pronunciation, with feedback [10].

Does Québec French sound different?

Yes, in several features that the OQLF’s pages describe.

• t and d before [i] and [y]. In French spoken in Québec, these are generally affricated, pronounced [ts] and [dz], as in tulipe [tsylip] and lundi [lœ̃dzi] [11]. Before other vowels and consonants they are normally [t] and [d] [11].
• Looser i, ou and u. Québec has more open, shorter and less tense variants of these vowels, most often in a syllable that ends in a consonant other than [ʁ], [z], [v] or [ʒ]: lisse [lɪs], soupe [sʊp], lutte [lʏt] [12]. The OQLF notes that English has such vowels too, in sit [sɪt] and full [fʊl] [12].
• More vowel contrasts. In Québec the tendency is to keep vowel distinctions, such as faite [fɛt] and fête [fɛ:t], which are pronounced the same elsewhere [2]. The nasals in an and in are generally [ã] and [ẽ] in Québec and [ɑ̃] and [ɛ̃] in Europe [1][2].
• The r. The fricative r is now considered standard in Québec and elsewhere in the French-speaking world [3]. The rolled r made with the tip of the tongue is now generally considered dated, or tied to certain parts of the French-speaking world [3].

Common mistakes

• Trusting the spelling. Three letters in eau make one sound [1].
• Making every liaison. Some are never made, for example before an aspirated h or after selon [7].
• Pronouncing every e. The e muet is generally silent at the end of a word [8].
• Stressing an early syllable. In a word said alone, French stress falls on the last syllable [4].
• Reading a study as a promise. The shadowing study reports results for its own 16 participants and does not mention French [9].
• Trusting a guide, including this one. The OQLF updates its pages. Compare what they say now with the date at the top of this page.

See also: how to speak with a French accent.

Sources