Sound French in 3 Steps

How to Use your French Chart

Spell and Sound Charts are an educational tool, so every time you use it you are reinforcing your knowledge of how French is pronounced and spelled. You’ll find that after a while you won’t need it any more. This “how to use” information is based on the Spell and Sound with Examples Chart that you can download for free.

What’s in my French Chart?

Spell and Sound French Charts are simple tables with French letter combinations and sounds. Each French sound is represented by an International Phonetic Alphabet symbol in brackets[ ] and an English word that has a red background. This English word contains a sound that is similar or the same as the French sound in that particular sound box. The sound is highlighted by yellow print and is underlined. If you are using the French chart with examples the French examples are after the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol.

There is a consonants page and a vowels page to your double-sided chart.

The picture below describes the different elements contained within a sound box on your Spell and Sound French Chart. This particular sound box is from the Vowels section of the chart. Notice the large yellow box on the left, this helps you find the vowel letter you are looking for.

French phonics chart sound box explaination

The consonants page is slightly different in that the sound boxes are arranged so that the letter you are looking for is at the top of each box with a yellow background. The English word with the highlighted sound and the red background is below the letter. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol is followed by examples or spelling choices depending on the chart you are using.

You will find all 37 French sounds or phonemes in your French Chart including the three semi-consonants and their French spellings.

Take a look at our video to see the chart in action…

I read a French word but don’t know how to say it

If you’re learning French in a country that doesn’t speak French, then these three steps are for you.

Many of us read much more French than we hear and speak and after these short steps you will be able to confidently pronounce written French words, even those you haven’t seen before.

step 1 for documents Break down your French word into sections. There might be consonants and vowels in a section or consonants alone or vowels alone. Here is an example;

The French word attention can be broken down into different letter combinations

a – tt – en – ti – on
a – tt – en – t – ion
a – tt – e – n – t – io – n

In fact there could be a number of letter combinations you could use, so a little trial and error might be needed in the beginning.

step 2 for documents Select the letter combinations you are going to use and find the starting letter of each group in your chart. It has a yellow background.

For example, if I was looking for the letter group “en” I would start on the vowels page of my chart because “e” is a vowel. Each vowel letter has it’s own large box with a yellow background on the left hand side of the chart. From here I can scan along this E line and find the letter combination in a yellow box containing “en”. When I have found this combination I look up to the top of this sound box where there is an English word with a red background and I sound out the highlighted letters. But, you may have noticed that some letter combinations have two or more sounds.

Two or more sound choices for letters

You might find two or more sound choices for each letter. Lets take the “a” in attention as an example. If you look up the letter “a” on the vowels section of your chart you will see it can make the “a” sound as in father or the “a” sound as in bat. How do you know which one to use?

Trial and error! The best way to learn is to figure things out and when you are trying to pronounce a word you haven’t heard before, you might need a number of letter combinations and sounds before you get it right. It also helps if you have an on-line French Pronunciation dictionary or an app handy so you can hear the correct pronunciation if you can’t find the word your looking for in our sound files.

Remember that hearing the word doesn’t always mean you can replicate the sounds in that word, so it’s best to use a combination of technology and your Spell and Sound French Chart to pronounce French words

step 3 for documents Put all the sounds together! Say each sound in it’s correct order and pronounce your French word. Try this with the word “attention”. Does it sound how you expected? Here is the answer key so you can try it out for yourself.

father = a

tent = tt

song = en

see = ti

song = on

If your someone who likes a visual aid, the simple diagram below summarises how to use your Spell and Sound Chart when you have a written French word and you want to pronounce it.

I heard a French word but don’t know how to spell it

step 1 for documents Break the word into individual sounds. How many sounds can you hear? Don’t forget to include consonant sounds, counting syllables will not reveal all the sounds.

step 2 for documents Look up the sound in your French Chart by referring to the words with the red background. Scan down the potential letter combinations for your sound. There might more than one. For new words you have never seen or heard before, you might need to employ a little trial and error.

Your French chart with examples is the best to use when looking up sounds and finding letter combinations. The examples can help show you which letters to use for particular sounds within French words.

step 3 for documents Put the letters together. Does it look right? Try different letter groups for your sounds. You can always look it up in a bilingual dictionary. Some on-line varieties have a pronunciation tool and there is always the French sounds on this website you can use as a reference.

Anything you have to figure out yourself is learned more effectively than if you just looked it up!

learn French pronunciation by working it out

With a little perseverance, you’ll be sounding like a natural.

If your someone who likes a visual aid, the simple diagram below summarises how to use your Spell and Sound Chart when you have a heard French word and you want to spell it.