Distinguishing between each subtle sound of French isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. Let’s face it, to many of us, whole groups of French speech sounds (phonemes) seem the same.
Spell and Sound Charts purposely group similar sounds to help beginners enjoy their speaking journey by giving them a place to start. If you’re a French teacher you might find our information about grouped phonemes as a tool for teachers interesting.
Seven different sounds are split into three groups to aid the English speaker.
Two groups of Nasal Vowels
Four nasal vowels become 2 groups of similar sounds, in fact one group of nasal vowels is so similar that many French text books render one sound obsolete!
Test your ability to identify the different French Nasal vowels by following the link to our detailed tutorial.
Letters e, eu and œ
The picture is an extract of the Spell and Sound French Chart with Examples, showing the “Fur” sound box. As you can see from the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols contained within the square brackets like this [ ], there are three different French sounds represented by the English vowel sound found in the word fur.
The French Schwa [ə]
A schwa is an un-emphasised vowel within a language. The schwa vowel is said to have the same sound in each language. So the schwa found in teacher in English, should sound the same as the schwa in bitte in German and demander in French.
What we’ve found however, is that the schwa vowel in English and German sounds the same but the European French version of the schwa vowel, doesn’t.
I consulted numerous European French speakers about this and they all informed me that the sound found in demander (for example) does not resemble the schwa found in English.
What does it all mean?
Well, if you want to sound European French, pronounce your schwa vowel as a shortened version of the “ur” in fur.
If you want to be text-book correct, you’ll need to pronounce the schwa like the “er” in teacher or the “a” in above.
Silent or Muet E
The letter E can often take a silent form in French words. Knowing when to pronounce the schwa E or not pronounce it at all (silent E) comes with practice. Listen to as much French as you can to get the hang of the silent E.
Some words containing the silent E are;
sable, acheter, seulement, quatre, homme, doucement, samedi, maintenant.
Letters eu [ø] and œ [œ]
Here are a couple of tips to help you make each sound.
[ø]
Make your mouth the same shape it takes when you sound [o] as in fork and without changing the shape of your mouth, move your tongue into the position to make the sound [e] as in eight.
[œ]
Make your mouth the same shape it takes when you sound [ɔ] as in fox and without changing the shape of your mouth, move your tongue into the position to make the sound [ɛ] as in bed.
TIP: Usually eu and œu are pronounced when followed by a voiced consonant like cœur.
If you find that grouping French sounds together doesn’t help your French, you can still find all the French vowels and consonants in pure International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) format, within our IPA French Charts.
IPA French Charts contain all 37 separate phonemes and French word examples in our unique, alphabetised phonics chart.
Feeling Daring!
Try recording your own French sounds and compare them to those of our French Consultant in our French Audio Lounge.
Try it!
Have a go at making the sounds yourself and then compare them to ours.
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