After having studied the basics of the French pronunciation, you may notice that there are some couple of letters which have a specific pronunciation of French.
Groups of vowels:
- on / om
We pronounce written “on” or “om” like this:
It’s a nasal sound. There are a few nasal sounds in French, they are all in the following sentence: Un bon vin blanc.
You can find “on” in bon (good) but also in pont (bridge); bonbon (Candy); pompier (firefighter)…
- In / en / ein / un
We pronounce these groups of letters:
We can find “in” in intérieur (inside); pin (pine)…
We can find “un” in the article un (a/an for singular masculine words)…
We can “ein” in plein (full)…
We can find “en” in bien (well)…
It’s also a nasal vowel.
- oi
We prononunce “oi” like this:
We find this phonem (=sound of a language) in oie (goose); emploi (employment), froid (cold)…
It’s an oral vowel.
- euil / ueil / oeil
We pronounce these groups of letters:
We find “euil” in écureuil (squirel), feuille (leaf); portefeuilles (wallet)…
We find “ueil” in “accueil” (reception)
We find oeil in oeil (eye)
- eu
We pronounce “eu” like this:
It’s a long sound.
We can find “eu” in eux (them); curieux (curious); il pleut (it’s raining)…
Groups of consonants:
- gn
We pronounce these two letters:
We can find “gn” in champignon (mushroom); chignon (bun); peigne (comb); signe (sign) …
- ph
We pronounce this group of letters like “f” :
phénoménal (phenomenal), phrase (sentence); photo (photo)
- ch
We pronounce “ch” like this:
cheval (horse), chevalier (knight), chapeau (hat)…
Don’t hesitate to repeat the sounds and the words with the audio. It’s by speaking that we improve our pronunciation.