Transcript:

Bonjour and welcome to this French Sounds for Beginners Audio Guide!

If you’re just starting to learn French — or you’ve been learning for a while but still feel unsure how to pronounce French words — this guide is for you.

Many beginners feel nervous speaking French out loud. And for most, pronunciation becomes the number one struggle.

But here’s what most don’t realise, yet:

👉 Pronunciation starts with the sounds.

The reason so many learners feel stuck? They skip that first step.

They dive straight into grammar or vocabulary — but without a clear understanding of how French actually sounds, everything feels confusing and frustrating.

If you’ve just come across my little corner of the internet — enchantée, I’m Mathilde, a native French teacher and host of the French Made Easy podcast (with over 6 million downloads). I help beginners speak French more clearly and confidently, step by step.

In this guide, I’ll show you:

• Why pronunciation often feels tricky at the start

• What the main French sounds are

• And how to take your first steps to get them right

Let’s get started!

❌ Why Most Beginners Skip Pronunciation

Let’s be honest — most beginners don’t start with pronunciation.

Not because they don’t care, but because they assume it will just come later. So they focus on grammar or vocab first.

And yes — grammar and vocab are important! But pronunciation often gets pushed aside (especially in classrooms) because there’s not enough time to teach it properly.

Here’s the problem:

👉 When pronunciation is skipped, it doesn’t magically improve on its own.

You might know the word on paper…

But saying it out loud — or recognising it when a French speaker says it — becomes much harder.

Why?

Because in French, what you see isn’t always what you hear.

Spelling and pronunciation don’t always match.

So if you're not familiar with the sounds of French, it's easy to feel unsure or even afraid to speak.

That’s why I always recommend starting with the sounds — it’s the foundation.

🧩 The First Piece of the Pronunciation Puzzle: French Sounds

French words are built from individual sounds — and some of them don’t exist in English.

If you can’t hear or pronounce those sounds clearly, it becomes harder to:

• say words correctly

• understand spoken French

• and feel confident when you’re speaking

So — before anything else — you need to get familiar with the main sounds of French.

There are 4 types:

• Vowels → like /i/ or /e/

• Nasal vowels → like /ɑ̃/ or /ɔ̃/

• Consonants → like /t/ or /ʃ/

• Semi-vowels → like /j/ or /ɥ/

Each sound usually has:

• a symbol (called IPA — International Phonetic Alphabet)

  → it’s just a system of symbols that shows you how a sound is pronounced — no matter how it’s spelled.

• a few common spellings (how it’s written in words)

No need to memorise anything now — just start getting familiar.

How to Practise the Sounds (Step by Step)

Here’s a simple 4-step method you can follow — even if you’ve never said a French word out loud before:

To begin, you’ll need a French IPA chart — one that includes:

• Audio for each sound (so you can hear how it’s pronounced)

• Example words (so you can connect the sound to spelling)

Then, follow this process:

• Pick one sound to start with. Let’s use the sound [u] — like in tout.

• Listen to the sound on your chart a few times. Repeat out loud.

• Then listen to the example word (tout), and repeat it out loud. Don’t worry about getting the pronunciation of the sound perfect. For now, the goal is just to hear and repeat. We’ll worry about pronunciation mechanics later.

• Now, while you’re hearing the example word, I also want you to notice the spelling. For [u], it’s often written as “ou” in French. For example, “tout”.

• Repeat the sound and the word a few more times until it starts to feel natural.

By doing this, you're starting to connect:

→ the sound

→ the spelling

→ the pronunciation

Once you’re more comfortable with a sound on its own and in words, let’s move on to practicing it in simple sentences.

Let’s stick with the sound [u].

Here’s a simple sentence in French

→ Bonjour, quelle est la soupe du jour, s’il vous plaît ?

You’ll hear the [u] sound in: bonjour, soupe, jour and vous.

Ok so first, listen to the sentence while reading it at the same time.

Then say it slowly, repeat it a few times and try to match the natural rhythm and flow.

This helps you practise each sound and its pronunciation in context.

Now it’s time to take it one step further — and record yourself. Not many people do it, but I highly, highly recommend doing it, and it might feel strange and confronting at first to hear your voice, but it’s one of the best ways to improve.

Here’s how to do it:

• Choose a sentence you’ve been practising

• Record yourself saying it (your phone is perfect for this)

• Listen back and compare with the original pronunciation

You’ll start to notice:

• Which parts sound clear

• Which sounds you’re still unsure about

This makes you more aware of your own pronunciation — and helps you adjust more quickly.

Now, once you’ve identified a few tricky sounds, it’s time to learn how to actually produce these sounds.

Let’s take the [u] sound again (like in tout, vous, bonjour).

To pronounce [u] correctly:

• Round your lips tightly (as if blowing out a candle)

• Push your lips forward

• Keep your tongue pulled toward the back of your mouth

Try it in front of a mirror — then say:
→ vous
→ bonjour
→ soupe

🎯 Tiny physical adjustments like this can make a big difference in how clearly you’re understood.

👉 And remember: no need to study every sound. Focus on the ones you struggle with. That’s where the biggest improvements happen.

Now, a bonus step for you. You might as well be aware of all the most common mispronunciations that beginners make, so you don’t make them yourself. In French, some sounds are really close to each other — and very easy to mix up.

One common pair for example, that I briefly touched upon before, is the [u] vs [y] sounds.

You’ll find the sound [u] in words like in tout, vous, bonjour.

You’ll find the sound [y] in words like in tu, lune, musique.

For the sound [u], your lips are rounded as if you’re whistling, and your tongue up and is NOT touching your teeth.

For the sound [y], your lips are still rounded as if you’re whistling, but your tongue is this time touching your bottom teeth.

Try to practice with me… So see how a very small difference in the position of the tongue can completely change a sound.

And that small pronunciation difference, can change the whole meaning of a word, so that also affects what your delivery.

For example, tu = you and tout = everything. 2 different words, very similar pronunciation!

Now, small note, if you can’t hear the difference right away — don’t worry! That’s totally normal. Your ear will improve with time and practice. This happens a lot.

And yes, there are a lot of other pair like [y] and [u], for example: [e] vs [ε], [ø] vs [œ], [œ] vs [ɔ] sol. In my experience, after 6 years of teaching and giving pronunciation feedback to my students, there are 16 pairs of sounds that I very commonly hear, I teach them in one of my products, the French Sounds Starter Kit, that I will to to you about in a few moments.

A Quick Mindset Reminder

Now, I want to finish on a few things, and just remind you that even though this is my job and my goal to teach you all the skills improve your French pronunciation, I want you to remember that you dont need a PERFECT pronunciation. I want everyone to really remember that I’m not there to teach you to speak like a native speaker, and that I dont subscribe to that idea at all.

What you need though, is clarity. You need to speak clearly enough to be understood by French speakers — and to feel good doing it.

Learning and improving your French pronunciation takes time, repetition, and curiosity. It doesn’t happen overnight.

But if you practice consistently — even 5 minutes a day, an hour a week — I promise that you’ll start to:

• Hear the sounds more clearly

• Say words with more ease

• And feel more confident when you speak

So please be patient with yourself — you’ve already taken the most important first step. 🤍

What to Do Next

So now you know that studying French sounds is priority number 1 when it comes to learning and improve your French pronunciation. You’re already one step ahead.

And if you'd like help implementing everything that we’ve learned today — without wasting time searching online for resources — I’ve created a toolkit to guide you, so you’ve got everything you need to get started on your pronunciation journey.

Let me introduce you to… ⬇️⬇️⬇️