Learn all about the nineteen French vowels sounds you'll need to know to sound like a pro French speaker
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Virginie: Bonjour à tous! Hello everyone. |
| Eric: Eric here. French Vowels. Thanks for being with us here for this lesson. Today our focus will be on the pronunciation of French vowels. |
| Virginie: “Ou”, “u”, “a”, “en”, “in”. |
| Eric: Wow! Virginie is raring to go, sounds very French. |
| Virginie: The sound of elegance. |
| Eric: Absolutely. |
| Virginie: Now some vowels are really difficult to pronounce in French. |
| Eric: Okay so what we are going to be doing is to help you guys master your French vowels. |
| Virginie: Right and then you will pronounce your French sounds properly. |
| Eric: Yes because in French, a single sound can modify the meaning of a word. |
| Virginie: For example “pain” and “pont”. |
| Eric: Did you guys hear the difference? |
| Virginie: One word has the sound “in” and the other the sound “on”. |
| Eric: But first word means “bread” and the second word means “bridge”. |
| Virginie: Completely different words. |
| Eric: Now, today we are not going to be looking at all the sounds in French, only few of the tricky vowel sounds. |
| Virginie: Oh by the way, in this lesson, we are going to refer to sounds as vowels. So whenever we say vowel, think sound, don’t think letter. |
| Eric: Okay let’s go. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Virginie: C’est parti. First of all, pronouncing French is only hard if you refuse to open your mouth. |
| Eric: Exactly. That’s something you are going to want to keep in mind. |
| Virginie: It really makes it easier for you if you put your mouth to work. |
| Eric: Don’t hesitate to exaggerate the width of your mouth. |
| Virginie: Like this “aaa…..” |
| Eric: Now you maybe in the line of the bakery or driving in your Convertible, but we don’t care, please repeat after Virginie. |
| Virginie: “a”, “o”, “ou”, “é”, “i”. These should be easy to pronounce and now that your mouth is stretched... |
| Eric: Well wait, by the way, I wanted to ask a question. How many vowels are there in French? |
| Virginie: 19. Now most of them are easily accessible to pretty much everyone. |
| Eric: But today we are going to be looking at those that are difficult. |
| Virginie: Yes. |
| Eric: Are there a lot of similarities between sounds in English and French? |
| Virginie: Well the main difference is that French vowels tend to be pronounced forward in the mouth as opposed to English vowels that tend to come from the back of the mouth. |
| Eric: Okay that helps. So French vowels are divided into three categories which are the vowels: |
| Virginie: The nasal vowels. |
| Eric: And the semi-vowels. |
| Virginie: And today we are going to practice all the nasal and semi-vowels. They are quite tricky. |
| Eric: Okay. So let’s go for the nasal vowels first. |
| Virginie: There are three nasal vowels in French. Here they are: “on” as in “long”. |
| Eric: Long. |
| Virginie: Bonbon. |
| Eric: Candy. |
| Virginie: “an” as in “vent”. |
| Eric: Wind. |
| Virginie: Maman. |
| Eric: Mother. |
| Virginie: And “in” as in “pain”. |
| Eric: Bread |
| Virginie: Vin. |
| Eric: Wine. It’s difficult to hear the difference at first when we are not familiar with the language but this is going to get easier. |
| Virginie: Eric, any tips to master those sounds since you studied those at some point right? |
| Eric: The best thing is just to hear them a lot. So if you want to watch some French movies, listen to French music. |
| Virginie: Thank you. Well get ready out there. |
| Eric: Okay so a few mouth exercises to start out. First, keep your mouth shut and say “mmmmmmm” just as if you were meditating. |
| Virginie: Now if you touch your nose, you will feel vibrations. |
| Eric: Okay then open your mouth just a little bit into the shape of an O. |
| Virginie: A very small O. You guys probably have heard it all in our all about series. |
| Eric: With your nose vibrating and your mouth open to pronounce “on”. |
| Virginie: On. Excellent, isn’t it fun. |
| Eric: Can we hear it one more time Virginie. |
| Virginie: On. |
| Eric: Okay. Now the last stop is to shorten out into the word “pont”. |
| Virginie: Okay everyone. I am going to say a series of words and I will leave a silence between each word. |
| Eric: And your job is going to be to repeat them after Virginie. |
| Virginie: Ready? Go! Pont. |
| Eric: Bridge. |
| Virginie: Son. |
| Eric: Which means “sound”. |
| Virginie: Mon. |
| Eric: Which means “my”. |
| Virginie: Long. |
| Eric: Which means long. For the sound “an” it will be pretty much the same process except that your mouth will be wide open. |
| Virginie: Okay mouth shut everyone and with me “mmmmmm”. |
| Eric: Feel the vibration of your nose and then open your mouth. An. |
| Virginie: An. |
| Eric: Okay so what are some words with “an”. |
| Virginie: Okay again you guys, you repeat after me and a little silence after each word. Let’s go. vent. |
| Eric: And that means wind. |
| Virginie: Lent. |
| Eric: Which means slowly. Our last nasal vowel is “in”. |
| Virginie: And same thing, shut your mouth, make your nose vibrate and this time open your mouth and smile. |
| Eric: Right and stretch your lips towards the back. |
| Virginie: I hope you guys are following. It’s quite a workout! In. Here are some words to repeat after me again. Vin. |
| Eric: Which means wine. |
| Virginie: Pain. |
| Eric: Which means bread. Is this going to be as physical for the semi-vowels? |
| Virginie: No the nasal vowels are really the toughest sounds in French. |
| Eric: Okay. So how many semi-vowels are there in French? |
| Virginie: Same as for the nasal vowels, just three. So at the end of this lesson, you will have in your bank six vowels to practice. |
| Eric: And here are the three semi-vowels! |
| Virginie: “iy” as in “adieu”, “u” as in “nuit” and “wa” as in “boire”. |
| Eric: And those words mean “adieu” goodbye forever, “nuit” night “boire” to drink. These words are just certainly more accessible to us as English speakers. |
| Virginie: Yeah they are pretty easy. The trickiest one might be “u” as in “nuit” because of the sound “u” in it. |
| Eric: Yeah and it is also a tough one for Spanish speakers. |
| Virginie: Yes and the best way to train is to stretch your lips forward as if you were about to kiss someone. |
| Eric: Wow! So you are doing like a cartoon kiss here. It’s sort of an exaggerated kiss. |
| Virginie: Yes. We are asking you to exaggerate, remember? So put your lips forward. |
| Eric: The way you would do when you are whistling. |
| Virginie: And then try to say “u”. Some of you will tend to say “ou” instead and that’s perfectly normal. A brand new sound is very hard to produce. |
| Eric: It’s sometimes hard to hear it even. For example, can you share the difference between: |
| Virginie: “mu” and “mou” |
| Eric: Can you hear it? Let’s try it one more time Virginie. |
| Virginie: “mu” and “mou” |
| Eric: Great. |
| Virginie: Here is a list of words that have the sound “u”. Try to repeat each one after me and I will leave a silence after each of them. Lutte. |
| Eric: Struggle. |
| Virginie: Jus. |
| Eric: Which means “juice”. |
| Virginie: Du. |
| Eric: Which means “of”. |
| Virginie: Plus. |
| Eric: Which means plus. Wow, we have a whole list of new sounds today, right Virginie. |
| Virginie: Yes there you go. A quick recap “on”, “en”, “in” and “iy”,“u” and “wa”. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay well that just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to drastically improve your pronunciation. |
| Virginie: The voice recording tool. |
| Eric: Yes the voice recording tool on the premium learning center. |
| Virginie: Record your voice with a click of a button. |
| Eric: And then play it back just as easily. |
| Virginie: So you record your voice and then listen to it. |
| Eric: Compare it to native speakers. |
| Virginie: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Eric: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. Thank you very much for listening. |
| Virginie: Merci et au revoir. |
| Eric: Bye. |
| Virginie: Bye. |
Comments
HideWhich vowel sound is the most foreign to you ?
Bonjour LB,
I'm sorry to hear you've had a hard time locating the pronunciation lessons.
Our lessons are easily accessible through the search bar on top of your screen. Just type a keyword, and all related lessons will appear.
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
First time trying this site. I had to dig around to find anything about pronunciation, and now I find out you actively cover up this info unless you "upgrade". Worthless site. False advertising. I'll tell my friends not to bother here.
Bonjour Rosana,
The voice recording tool is in the MyTeacher window. On the bottom right corner, there's a pin icon between the two arrows and the flag. Click on it, then on "Record audio".
Hope this helps! 😄
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Are you taking to whom?
Hello there, I cannot find the voice recording tool. Thanks!
Hi Jesse,
Thank you for posting.
Please check out our special Ultimate French Pronunciation Guide video series:
https://www.frenchpod101.com/category/ultimate-french-pronunciation-guide/
Hope you enjoy it :)
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cristiane
Team FrenchPod101.com
could you guys add videos of people talking in french too
i think you guys should have pictures
Bonjour Maciej
I'm sorry you don't like our lessons !
Have you tried these 2 other lessons about vowels ?
https://www.frenchpod101.com/2014/10/24/ultimate-french-pronunciation-guide-3-french-vowels-part-1/
https://www.frenchpod101.com/2014/11/07/ultimate-french-pronunciation-guide-4-french-vowels-part-2/
Maybe you'll like it better ?
Merci pour votre commentaire et à bientôt !
Marie Alice
Team FrenchPod101.com
I am sorry, but in my opinion this lesson is methodologically rather poorly prepared. As for the nasal vowels, it is really confusing which one is which one (text vs. transcript) - which is supposed to be the absolutely crucial thing. I understand that the phonix characters can't be transmitted in the recording, but then why are the examples different in the recorder lesson and in text? If they were the same it would allow for matching: the way it is done now does not help.
Merci beaucoup pour leçon et c'est génial !
Bonjoure!
I am slightly confused - is there a mistake in vocabulary list for words "pan" and "pin"? I hear in lesson audio that sound in "pin" is between "a" and "o", and for word "pan" it sounds like stressed open "A".
Hi Anne Adams,
Thank you for posting!
We will consider your suggestion about adding the transcript to this series.
About the video lessons, we do have French Pronunciation Video lessons for you to enjoy :thumbsup:
Here is the link:
https://www.frenchpod101.com/2014/09/26/ultimate-french-pronunciation-guide-1-introduction-to-perfect-french-pronunciation/
Let us know if you have questions.
Cheers,
Laura
Team FrenchPod101.com
Salut,
It would be most helpful to have a transcript. The lesson notes are very good, but without a transcript hard to follow.
Video of this lesson would be good to in order to see the lips move.
Love the site and learning french
Thanks
Anne
Hi wela,
Thank you for posting.
Depending on your subscription type is the material that you can have access to.
Please, for more information check the following link: https://www.frenchpod101.com/member/member_upnewapi.php
If you need more information, or if you already have a subscription that includes the PDF documents, send us an email to: contactus@FrenchPod101.com
Sincerely,
Laura
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonjour ,
I really like this web site and it's one the most helpful sites to learn french .. Keep going :thumbsup: :wink:
But i face problem .. All the pfd folders refuse to open with me on the internet and ur app ,, it was open with me for time and suddenly it stopped !
What should I do , and dry for this disturbance : )
Bonjour Mary,
Continuez comme ça ! N'abandonnez pas ! :grin:
(Keep going ! Don't give up !)
Thank you for your comment,
Cheers,
Marie Alice
Team FrenchPod101.com
:smile:just can't get it to stop looping...when I want to go forward with the lesson materials. I will keep trying.
Hello Bity,
Thank you for your nice comment :smile:
Have a nice day,
Marie Alice
Team FrenchPod101.com
Thanks it is very Helful :innocent::heart::heart::thumbsup::thumbsup: