A. French Sounds (Les sons du français)

In French, vowels and consonants are often combined to create specific sounds. There are about 36 different sounds in French (Click here (ICI))

Examples of Letter Combinations

Letters Sound Example Pronunciation Help
ou /u/ bonjour sounds like “oo”
an / en /ɑ̃/ enfant nasal sound
on /ɔ̃/ bonjour nasal sound
ai /ɛ/ français like “eh”
au /o/ eau like “oh”

Practice – Say each word aloud twice:

bonjour

enfant

français

eau

B. Stress in French (L’accent tonique)

In French, the stress is always on the last syllable of a word and on the last word of a sentence.

Word Stress Examples

Word Stressed syllable
bonjour jour
merci ci
français çais

Sentence Stress

Bonjour, comment ça va ?

Je m’appelle Sophie.

C. Silent “e” (E muet)

Most of the time, when a word ends with the letter “e”, this letter is silent.

Attention: this is only true if the “e” has NO accent.

Examples