Basics & Pronunciation

French sounds fluent and melodic — but the pronunciation differs greatly from the written form. A few basic rules help enormously:

Pronunciation Rules

• Final letters are usually not pronounced: "Paris" = Pa-ri (not "Paris"), "petit" = pö-ti, "beaucoup" = bo-ku. Exception: c, r, f, l (mnemonic: "CaReFuL")
• -tion = -sjõ (as in "Nation" = na-sjõ)
• -oi = wa (trois = trwa, croissant = krwa-ssã)
• -eau / -au = o (château = scha-to, beau = bo)
• -ou = u (tout = tu, beaucoup = bo-ku)
• -u = ü (rue = rü, menu = mö-nü)
• -in / -ain / -ein = ä̃ (nasal ä, vin = wä̃, pain = pä̃)
• -on = õ (nasal o, bon = bõ, bonjour = bõ-schur)
• -an / -en = ã (nasal a, France = Frãss, vent = wã)
• -gn = nj (like ñ, champagne = schã-panj)
• r = rolled/grated in the throat (not at the front like in German)
• j = voiced sh (jour = schur, je = schö)

Liaison

In French, words are often spoken together: "les enfants" becomes "le-sã-fã," "un ami" becomes "ö-na-mi." This makes it initially difficult to recognize individual words in spoken French — don't worry, it comes with practice.