french ou or u

As an English speaker, I struggled to find the difference between the sounds [u] as in “vous” and [y] as in “du”, especially in spoken French. With practice, the sounds eventually rang true and now that I can hear and say them, I wonder how I couldn’t before. With a few of my quick pointers on “ou” and “u”, you’ll soon wonder the same.

Listen to these sounds spoken by our French Consultant

Can you tell the difference between the two sounds…

[u]

[y]

If you couldn’t tell the difference, read our article below and try again.

Here are a few of the ways I learned to say these French sounds and some other options for you to experiment with.

Learning journeys can take many paths and I hope that one of these paths can help you find your destination.

The letter U

Luckily, this letter makes only one sound in French, the [y] sound. Rhume, tu, sûr, du all utilise the French sound [y]. We can also hear this sound in the word “eu” where the e is silent.

The next few pointers, will help you pronounce this tricky French sound.

[y] has been described as ‘the hardest French sound to make’ by many French teachers and natives. It doesn’t exist in English but sounds awfully similar to [u] as in “vous”.

I know what you’re thinking because I had the same thought…

Surely I can just use the [u] sound?

Sorry!

It would be like trying say the English word “fool” written as “fewl”. Would people understand you? They might, but the point is this;

Sounds change the meanings of words. So if you are reading to yourself the sounds aren’t so important but if you want be understood or understand spoken French, a solid understanding of how these sounds are different will reduce the number of misunderstandings you have.

Think of the potential mix-ups when using “vu” (seen) or “vous” (you) and “dessous” (under) or “dessus” (above).

Say the sound [y]

In your French Phonetic Chart, the sound [y] is represented by the closest English word; through. Other English words with the same sound are chew, new, you, shoe.

I eventually learned to make and use this sound by listening to my teacher, who was thankfully a native French speaker and by following some simple advice I’d like to share with you. Also included are some other ways you can say the French sound [y].

Described in many French linguistic and phonetic websites is this method;

Say the sound “ee” as in knee, continue to make the sound and bring your lips together in a puckered kiss position. The sound is right in the front of your mouth.

Your lips should be as close as possible whilst still making a sound, which should be just like the French [y] sound.

It might sound a little breathy on the end as you breathe through the new formed ee sound.

Practice saying the sound next to consonants such as t and d as found in tu and du. When voiced next to these consonants the [y] sound forces both t and d sounds to be formed in the very front of the mouth, right behind the front teeth.

It was when practising these sounds that I realised how far back in the mouth English is pronounced and how far forward in the mouth the French language is pronounced.

Another way to make this sound is ;

Push the lips forward and round them. Make sure the sides of the tongue are pressed against the upper gums and outwards towards the molars.

ATTENTION! The letter u next to a couple of consonants starting with n or m, like in the word “lundi” changes the sound from [y] to the nasal [ɛ̃]. Discover more in our French nasal vowel tutorials.

The letters OU

Once again, the letters “ou” tend to only make one sound in French, the [u] sound. An extract of our Spell and Sound French Chart with Examples is pictured and shows the [u] sound box with examples of how the sound is represented by the letters “ou” within various French words.

The English equivalent sound is the “oo” sound in fool.

Say the sound [u]

If you can say fool you can say [u] but if you need a few pointers here goes;

The lips are thrust forward in a rounded fashion to make a clear [u] sound.

Over emphasising the form of the lips might be helpful when making this sound, especially for English speakers whom often speak with semi-closed mouths and like to drop end’nz (I mean “endings”)

At the top of this page, you were asked if you can tell the difference between the [u] and [y] sounds. Have another go. Were there any differences?

Can you tell the difference between the two sounds…

[u]

[y]

If you couldn’t tell the difference, go over the article one more time and try again.

How did you go? Get some extra audio practice in our “Try it!” section.

Try it!

Listen to the sounds below. Can you tell by listening, which words have the [u] (ou) sound and which have the [y] (u) sound?
Watch Out! Some words have both…

Answers Hint: Hover over the underlined sound file and look at the bottom left of your screen (for most browsers) to see the name of the sound file to discover the French word it represents.