How to Pronounce 'Croissant' [Effortless French Pronunciation]

 
 

In this episode, you’ll learn how to pronounce the French word ‘croissant.’ 🥐

If you’d prefer to listen on the go, listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Transcript

Bonjour et bienvenue à tous! 😊 I'm your host, Mathilde, and you're listening Effortless French Pronunciation. This is a special pronunciation series from the French Made Easy podcast, and specifically designed for French beginners wanting to perfect their pronunciation.

Today, we'll deconstruct the pronunciation of a delicious French word that has made its way into many languages: 'croissant.' I'm sure many of you know this word in English, maybe with a different pronunciation, but if you don't know it, 'croissant' refers to a crescent-shaped pastry 🥐.

Let's begin by breaking the word down into syllables: [kʀwɑ.sɑ̃]. Repeat after me: 'crois-sant.'

Now, let's deconstruct the pronunciation of this word.

  1. The letter 'c' is pronounced [k].

  2. The letter 'r' is pronounced [ʀ]. For more guidance, check out episode number 21, where we focus on the pronunciation of the French 'r.' 

  3. The letter combination 'oi' is pronounced [wa]. 

  4. The double 's' is pronounced [s].

  5. The letter combination 'an' represents the nasal sound [ɑ̃]. 

  6. Finally, very important to remember that, the letter 't' is silent. Pretend it's invisible.

Putting it all of these sounds together, we have [kʀwasɑ̃].

There you go, you've just pronounced 'croissant' the French way!

Just a quick reminder: not all letters or groups of letters are always pronounced the same way in every French word. For example, the letter 'c' is not always pronounced [k]. This is something I cover quite extensively in my French Pronunciation Made Easy course.

Now, pronouncing sounds properly is essential for clear French pronunciation. And when you have a clear French pronunciation, French speakers can understand you better. 

Studying sounds and becoming familiar with them is really your first step towards clear, effortless French pronunciation.

✨ To help you with this, I've created a FREE cheat sheet, simply called the French Sounds Cheat Sheet, where you have all the sounds of French in one spot, along with example words and, of course, accompanying audio. And it is a great tool to get you started on your French pronunciation journey. ✨

You can get that French Sounds Cheat Sheet for free, with its audio guide below:

Now that we know how to pronounce this word, let's practice with a few example sentences featuring the word croissant:

  1. Chaque matin, je prends un café et un croissant. (Every morning, I have coffee and a croissant.)

  2. La boulangerie près de chez moi vend les meilleurs croissants. (The bakery near my house sells the best croissants.)

  3. Il préfère les croissants au beurre. (He prefers butter croissants.)

So that's it for today's episode on how to pronounce the French word 'croissant.' Keep practicing, and before you know it, you'll be able to pronounce this word effortlessly.

Thank you for listening to Effortless French Pronunciation, a series from the French Made Easy podcast. À la prochaine!

Mathilde KienComment