French Workbook

Hear the Difference Before You Say It

Clear French pronunciation starts with two jobs: hearing the sound accurately and shaping your mouth to copy it. French vowels often stay steady instead of sliding, and several consonants are made farther forward in the mouth than their English partners. You don’t need a perfect accent on day one. You do need a repeatable way to listen, speak, and check your result.

Use a mirror, your phone recorder, and one sound at a time. French pronunciation practice works best in small sets: listen three times, repeat five times, then compare. Focus on the sound’s shape rather than spelling alone. For example, the French u in tu is not the same as the oo in English too. Say “ee,” keep your tongue in that position, and round your lips. That mouth position creates a useful starting point.

The main sound steps are:

1. Listen: Notice whether the sound is oral, nasal, open, closed, voiced, or unvoiced.

2. Shape: Check your tongue, lips, and jaw in a mirror.

3. Repeat: Say the sound slowly, then place it in a word.

4. Record: Compare your version with the model.

5. Score: Mark whether the sound was clear, almost clear, or unclear.

Key takeaway: Clear French sounds come from careful listening plus a steady mouth position, not from speaking faster.

French has several vowel pairs worth practicing. The vowel in beau is a rounded “oh” sound. The vowel in peu is made with rounded lips while the tongue stays forward. The vowel in tu uses the “ee” tongue position with rounded lips. Nasal vowels, as in sans and bon, let air pass through the nose. Don’t add a strong English “n” or “m” at the end.

Consonants need attention, too. French r is made near the back of the mouth, not with an English tongue curl. French j, as in jour, is voiced, like the middle sound in “measure.” French ch, as in chat, is unvoiced, like “sh.” Final consonants are often silent, though not always. Treat each word as a sound pattern, not a spelling puzzle.

Mirror, Listen, Repeat: A Six-Sound Practice Set

Materials needed: a mirror, a phone voice recorder, headphones, and a pronunciation model. Use a dictionary with audio, such as the audio button in a learner’s French dictionary.

Time required: 15 minutes.

Expected outcome: You will complete five repetitions for each of six target sounds and record a final score for every sound.

Choose these six targets:

• u as in tu
• ou as in tout
• eu as in peu
• nasal an as in sans
• French r as in rue
• j as in jour

1. Open the audio pronunciation for each sample word. Listen to tu, tout, peu, sans, rue, and jour three times. Don’t repeat yet. On your worksheet, write one detail you hear for each word, such as “lips rounded” or “air seems to pass through the nose.”

2. Practice the two rounded vowels together. Say ee, then keep your tongue in place and round your lips for u. Repeat tu five times. Next, say oo for ou and repeat tout five times. Keep the two sounds separate.

3. Practice eu. Round your lips as if saying “oh,” but keep your tongue forward. Repeat peu five times. Record the fifth repetition.

4. Practice the nasal vowel in sans. Keep the final s silent. Let some air move through your nose, but don’t pronounce a separate “n” sound. Repeat sans five times. Record the fifth repetition.

5. Practice French r. Start with a gentle gargling feeling at the back of your mouth. Avoid tapping or curling your tongue. Repeat rue five times. Keep the sound light; forcing it usually makes it less clear.

6. Practice j in jour. Keep your vocal cords working, as you do in the middle of “measure.” Repeat jour five times. Then contrast it with chat, which begins with an unvoiced “sh” sound.

7. Listen to your recordings through headphones. For each target, mark one result:

• 2 - clear: sounds close to the model
• 1 - almost clear: the sound is recognizable but needs adjustment
• 0 - unclear: the sound changes into a different sound

8. Repeat only the sounds scored 0 or 1. Make three more attempts for each one. Change one physical detail at a time: lip shape, tongue position, airflow, or voice.

Your Turn

Complete the table in your workbook or copy it onto a page:

Target	First score	Physical adjustment	Final score
tu	___	____	___
tout	___	____	___
peu	___	____	___
sans	___	____	___
rue	___	____	___
jour	___	____	___

Completed example

> Target: tu

> First score: 1

> Physical adjustment: Kept my tongue in the “ee” position and rounded my lips more.

> Final score: 2

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