Contents
French Pronunciation
Numbers, Calendar, and Time
Meeting People
Getting Around
Accommodation
Food and Drink
Services and Transactions
Health
Culture and Entertainment
Shopping
Learn more with these titles from Barnes & Noble
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- Master basic French pronunciation, greetings, and pleasantries
- Read menus, road signs, and other simple printed phrases
- Talk to waiters, ticket agents, doctors, bank tellers, concierges, and more
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French Pronunciation
Vowels
a, à, â |
like o in modify
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e |
like ea in yearn; silent when at the end of a word, as in France (pronounced frahns, not frahn-suh) |
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é |
like ay in play
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è |
like a in air
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eu, eû, oeu |
like u in urban, but pronounced as if trying to make an oo sound with puckered lips |
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ê |
like e in egg
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ô, au, eau, ot |
like o in wrote
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o |
like o in hot
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oi |
like wa in wad
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oo |
like oo in fool
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i, î |
like ee in see
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u and û |
pronounced by trying to make an ee sound with puckered lips; sounds closest to the English sound oo in words such as dew and knew
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Consonants
Most French consonants are pronounced just like their equivalents in English. Here are some exceptions.
c |
before i or e, like s in seem; before all other letters (except h), like k in kid
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ch |
like sh in wash
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ç |
like s in since
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g |
like g in gas, except when followed by e, i, or n
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gi, ge, j |
like s in measure
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gn |
like ny in canyon
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h |
always silent (hôtel = oh-tel) |
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l |
like l in live; at the end of a word, like l in motel
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ll |
like y in yolk |
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qu |
like k in kid
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t, th |
like t in top (the French word thé = tay, not thay) |
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tion |
see-OHN, but prounced as one syllable, indicated as syon in this chart (the French word station = stah-syon) |
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