You can speak excellent French with your American accent – that’s perfectly fine and part of who you are.
But there are 5 difficult sounds in particular, that can make you harder to understand. Let’s see how you can pronounce them more clearly, so French speakers understand you every time.
1) The French R
- English “R” : the tip of your tongue goes up (try it: “a red French car.”)
- French “R” : it’s the back of your tongue that goes up to the roof of your mouth.
- Try it: “Une voiture rouge française”
Listen and repeat in the video:
- Paris. Merci. Au revoir. Bonjour.
- Robert part. (= Robert is leaving.)
- Trois gros rats rouges (= three big red rats)
- Tongue twister: “Trois gros rats rouges regardent trois gros grains de riz.” (= Three big red rats look at three big grains of rice)
2) French U vs. OU
When learning French, students often have trouble hearing the difference between “ou” and “u.” Which might lead to misunderstanding and funny confusion!
Pronouncing “u” :
- Your tongue is placed just like when saying (the English) “ee” (like “feel”)
- Your lips are pursed just like saying (the English) “oo” (like “cool”)
Practice with me:
- Start by saying “ee” and then round your lips: “ee” → [“u”]
- Or start by saying “oo” and then push your tongue forward: “oo” → [“u”]
- “Tu as bu tout ton jus ?” (= ?, “u” and “ou” sounds)
Can you hear the difference?
- “Tu” (you) vs. “Tout” (all)
“Dessus” (above) vs. “Dessous” (below) - “Jus” (juice) vs. “Joue” (cheek/play)
- “Rue” (the street) vs. “Roue” (wheel)
3) Nasal Vowels
Nasal sounds can be scary! They don’t exist in English.
You need to differentiate between the different French nasal vowels:
- On [ɔ̃] → also spelled “om” (before a “b” or “p”)
- An [ɑ̃] → also spelled “en”, “em”, “am”…
- In [ɛ̃] → also spelled “un”, “im”, “ein”, “ain”, “eim”…
Pronouncing them:
- The back of your tongue should shut the back of your mouth, so some of the air has to go through your nose. Then you try saying “a”, “o”, or “i”.
- “Oh” → [“On”]
- “Ah” → [“An”]
- “Ee” (French “i”) → [“In”]
There’s no “n” or “m” sound in these nasal sounds (except when there’s “la liaison”…)
Repeat after me in the video:
- Un jambon (= a ham, with all three nasal sounds)
- Mon nom (= my name, two “on” sounds)
- Un nain (= a garden gnome, a dwarf, a little person; two “in” sounds)
- L’an lent (= the slow year – not something we’d really say, but there are two “an” sounds)
- Un bon vin blanc (= a good white wine, with all three nasal sounds)
- Un bon vin blanc dans un grand ballon (= a good white wine in a tall wine glass)
4) French “EU”
- It’s not “u” or “ou” or “iou” or “iu”… There’s only one sound, no diphtongue here.
- Between the “uh” in “cup” and the “i” and “bird” → then you purse your lips just a little bit further.
Listen and repeat after me in the video:
- Deux (= two), Bleu (= blue), un peu (= a little bit)
- Un pou un peu vieux (= “a lice that’s a bit old”)
- Le feu (= fire, with “eu” sound), le fou (= crazy man, with “ou” sound)
- Elle a deux yeux bleus. (= She has two blue eyes)
- Il veut être heureux. (= He wants to be happy)
5) La Liaison
La liaison (= “the link”) is not a single sound, but an important feature of spoken French pronunciation. It’s a “link” between two words so they can flow better and faster, instead of chopping the flow in the middle of a grammatical unit.
→ La liaison: when a silent letter at the end of a words gets pronounced, before the vowel at the beginning of the next word.
For example: Un petit enfant. (= a small child). The “t” is usually silent, but here before the vowel at the beginning of “enfant”, that silent letter gets pronounced.
Some liaison are mandatory, some are simply possible, some are forbidden. French people won’t hold it against you if you mess that up!
Click here to learn more about the rules: La Liaison (Comme une Français lesson)
Today, let’s cover only what you really need: practice it, so you can understand when French people use it.
- Un petit enfant. (= a small child)
- Un petit-enfant (with a small dash, same liaison) (= a grandchild)
- Un petit gâteau (= a biscuit, a small cake) → No liaison because “gâteau” doesn’t start with a vowel. Silent “t” in “petit” as usual.
- Les petits enfants. (= small children) → Now, liaison with the (usually silent) “s” at the end of “petits” in the plural.
→ With la liaison, silent “s” (and also silent “x” by the way) sound like “z.”
Sometimes, you’ll hear a new letter appear in a sentence where you don’t expect it. If you don’t understand the words, you can check if it’s a case of la liaison, and see if it makes more sense this way.
Grammar rule because you can’t escape some grammar rules: Mandatory liaison
- Les enfants. (= The children) → After “les”, “un” and other determiners.
- Ils ont des enfants. (= They have kids.) → After “ils”, “on”, “nous” and other pronouns.
- Elles ont des petits-enfants. (= They have grandkids.) → With an adjective before a noun
- Deux enfants sont dans un train. (= Two kids are on a train.) → After “dans”, “en” and other short prepositions
- C’est un enfant très intelligent. (= He’s really smart kid) → After “très”
Notice that:
- La liaison after “C’est” (“t” sound) is possible but not mandatory.
- La liaison can bring back the “n” sound in nasal vowels, like “un enfant.”
Your turn now! Find the liaisons in:
Les autres petits-enfants ont attendu dans une ambiance très animée.
(= The other grandkids waited in a really noisy and fun atmosphere.)
Pronounce that sentence out loud, placing the “liaison” where you think it should be. Then check your answer with my pronunciation in the video!
6) Your 2-minute Daily Practice Routine
That’s a lot to practice, but don’t worry, you can squeeze that into a 2-minute daily practice routine. That consistency will help you improve your French a lot, with only two minutes per day. What does it look like? Well, for instance, it could be:
- Starting your morning exercise in front of a mirror, by repeating each sound 5 times:
- R R R R R
- U U U U U
- OU OU OU OU OU
- ON ON ON ON ON
- AN AN AN AN AN
- IN IN IN IN IN
- EU EU EU EU EU
- Then you can repeat a tongue-twister. You can reuse the ones we’ve seen for each sound above in the lesson!
- Record yourself with your smartphone while you’re doing this exercise. Then play it back to you, and listen to where you could improve. You can record me as a reference point if you want!
Improvement can happen very quickly! In 2 or 3 weeks of practice only, you’ll already be much more confident with your French pronunciation. You can even hear your progress in your daily recordings!
For better practice, you might want a clear structure to guide you toward speaking French with confidence. What should you be practicing next? What’s the easiest way to get to the next level, for you specifically?
With my free Weekly Practice Plan, you get an immediate level check, tailored daily tasks, and clear progress tracking.
Join more than 30 000 learners—click the link to begin structured practice today.
Click here to download my free Weekly Practice Plan.
À très vite !
See you in the next lesson!
Merci beaucoup for making these exercises fun and clear!
Merci beaucoup. Super !