1. French 1001 Introduction to French Pronunciation
Dr. Chesnut

2. Four Vowels that differ greatly from Their English Counterparts
In general, remember that French vowels are produced with more muscular tension in the mouth, that they tend to be shorter than English vowels, and that they are not diphthongized.
By diphthongized, we mean that in the production of the vowel, the mouth changes position during the production of the vowel.
In French the mouth does not change positions during production of the vowel. The mouth (opening, tongue, etc) getS set and does not change as air passes through to produce the vowel. There is no diphthong. The vowel produced in French is a “pure vowel.”
Click to hear accompanying sound file
Phonetic symbol Written letters Examples
/i/ i, î, y il, île, stylo
/a/ a nation, papa, nationalité
/y/ u tu, nature, sur
/u/ ou tous, vous

3. Three Sets of Open & Closed Vowels
There are three vowels that have open and closed variants. All that means is that in the production of the closed vowel, our mouth is more closed than in the production of the open vowel, where the mouth is more open.
Often, the increased opening of the mouth is because a consonant follows the vowel. The consonant ends the syllable, and in pronouncing the consonant, we open our mouth a bit more, producing the open vowel sound.
Click here to hear explanation and pronunciation.
Phonetic Written letters Examples
Symbol
Closed / e / é, -er, -ez, es café, parler, parlez, des
Open / ε / è, ê, ai, ei, e + consonant to end syllable crème, tête, faire, peine, bel
Closed / o / au, eau, ô, o with no ending consonant, 0 + /z/ autant, peau, côte, pot, rose Open / ɔ / o + consonant t end the syllable botte, sotte, brosser
Closed / ø / eu, oeu with no consonant to end syllable deux, peu, noeu
Open / œ / eu, oeu with consonant to end syllable deuil, peur, soeur

4. Mute e /ə / Click here to hear the explanation.
There is a third “e” sound, the “e muet” or “mute e”, whose phonetic symbol is /ə/.
It is represented in writing by an “e” and never has an accent on it. Sometimes it truly is “mute”, not pronounced. Other times it is pronounced, and when so, the sound is similar to the English “uhhhh”.
When is it pronounced and when not pronounced? It depends on whether it is needed to support the pronunciation of consonants around it. For example, in the word “appartement,” we can not pronounce “rtm” together, so we keep the “e muet” sound to support the pronunciation: / a par tə ma /. Whenever we have two consonants, the “e”, and then a third consonant (as in appartement), we pronoune the mute e.
The “mute e” remains silent when we don’t need it. It just drops out, as in the words, “mademoiselle” and “bracelet”. We say /mad moi sεl/, not /ma də moi sεl/, for example.

5. Four Nasals Vowels
There are four nasal vowels in French. This means that some of the air is pushed up through the nose to give the vowel a nasal sound.
Click here to hear the explanation.
Phonetic Written letters Examples
Symbol
Nasal e / ɛ̃ / in im ain ein pin, simple, syndicat
yn ym aim eim
Nasal a / ɑ̃ / an en danse, lampe, vendent
am em
Nasal o / ɔ̃ / on bon, mon, tombe om
Nasal œ / œ̃ / un un, parfum um

6. Fin