French Pronunciation Guide Best Tips for Mastering French Vowels

French Pronunciation Guide Best Tips for Mastering French Vowels Sign up successful There are four key defining “characteristics” of sound that each French vowel symbolizes: 1. L’aperature This correlates to the “height” of a speaker’s tongue. A “high” vowel is pronounced with your tongue located close to roof of your mouth, whereas a “low” vowel requires you to keep your tongue located close  to the bottom of your mouth. 2. L’antériorité This correlates to the “backness” of your tongue. A “back” vowel means your tongue is positioned close to the back of your throat versus a “front” vowel, which means your tongue is located close  to your mouth’s opening. 3. La rondissement Literally meaning “roundness,” this term signifies whether or not your lips are rounded when articulating a vowel. 4. La nasalité Some vowels are pronounced through the nasal cavity. This means that air flows  through both your mouth and through the passageway that connects your throat to your nose.  There are three nasal vowels in French. Each vowel in French contains a unique combination of the four characteristics mentioned  above. For example, the characteristics of the vowel written “u” in French can be summarized  as follows: u = (high, front, rounded, non-nasal vowel) Hearing the combination of these four characteristics is what makes a listener know, “Oh, that  speaker just used the sound [u] in that word!” Every French vowel has a combination. Using  these guidelines, you can figure out where your mouth, tongue and lips should be when you  pronounce a vowel. Here is my favorite video on French Vowel Phonetics for you if you want  more information: 2. Learn Pronunciation With Spelling Now that you understand the four characteristics of sound that French uses to create vowels,  you can then begin training your brain to read French. French is a non-phonetic language that  has complex spelling rules, which basically means that it’s not always spoken how it is written. Sometimes, three written vowels such as “eau” in French equal merely one spoken vowel, and  sometimes a vowel sound can be represented by a single vowel. You have to work to memorize  what sequences of letters create what spoken sound if you want to be able to speak, read and  write French correctly. I included a table I created of common French spellings for its vowels. This is so that you can  associate each individual pronunciation of a vowel with how it is spelled in French. For example, if  you have been pronouncing the written vowels “ou” and “u” the same, then you can use this  table to see that “ou” is pronounced with your tongue positioned at the back of your mouth,  whereas “u” is pronounced with your tongue positioned at the front of your mouth, but both  sounds are high vowels (the tongue is close to the roof of your mouth for both vowels). All  spellings within a single box represent a single vowel, and so you can see that all spellings  within a box are pronounced the same. 3. Practice Makes Perfect This is where many students of French drop the ball. You now have the tools you need to fine-tune your pronunciation, and you have the tools to figure out what spellings match up with each vowel. However, we have to tie the two together to be able to read, speak and write French correctly. There’s no way around accomplishing this task than to practice listening to each vowel, repeating that vowel, comparing your pronunciation to what you heard and physically seeing the vowel’s spelling. To keep practicing, you can watch more videos about French pronunciation on YouTube. Heres one of my favorites- If you are serious about learning French, I would practice at least three times a week. It won’t be long before you notice that you have more confidence in your speech and that you can understand how to correct your pronunciation. It takes weeks or months to become a master of French vowels, but you will be proud and feel accomplished when you realize that your efforts took your French from a beginner’s level to the advanced level. For more help with French pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, taking private lessons with French tutor is the best way to make progress fast! French tutors are available to work with you online via Skype or in-person depending on locations and availability. Search for your French tutor now! Tyler S. teaches in-person Spanish and French lessons in Minneapolis, MN. He received his Bachelors degree in German and linguistics from the University of Minnesota, and has experience working as a teaching assistant and private tutor with TakeLessons since 2008. Whats more? He can speak 7 different languages! Learn more about Tyler here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by  Luka Knezevic Strika