Pronunciation

One of the main difficulties that students have when they are trying to learn French is the pronunciation of French letters, sounds and words. There are a few words that sound similar to their reciprocals in English, but most of them are pronounced with slight differences. After practice, the pronunciation will come more easily and you will sound like you know what you're doing! In this lesson you will be reading phonetic sounds in English to help you say the words correctly in French. In order for this to work properly you need to say and sound out exactly what you are reading.

The French alphabet contains the same 26 letters that the English one has, but they are pronounced very differently. Here is a list of all the different pronunciations of the French alphabet

a-ah

b-bay

c-say

d-day

e-uh

f-eff

g-zheh

h-ahsh

i-ee

j-zhee

k-kah

l-ell

m-em

n-en

o-oh

p-peh

q-koo

r-air

s-ess

t-teh

u-ooh

v-veh

w-doo-blah-veh

x-eeks

y-ee-grek

z-zed

Knowing how to pronounce the alphabet is helpful but, as in English, words themselves and specific groups of letters have different sounds and are pronounced differently.

These 2 pronunciation guides tell you phonetically how to pronounce a wide variety of French words, which contain sounds that can be applied to many other words. Go through the list pronouncing each of the word and making note of how certain groups of letters sound. You should make a copy of the guides so you can practice pronouncing them and transfer your knowledge to other words.

Now you have a good idea of how certain words and groups of letters are pronounced. You can now transfer this knowledge to unknown words that you have never seen before, and be able to pronounce them perfectly.