Lesson 0-2 — Vowels & consonants

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:

• Tell apart the rounded vowels [o] / [ɔ] and [ø] / [œ]
• Recognize the 6 voiceless / voiced pairs of consonants
• Read the sound [ɲ] spelled gn
• Know that most word-final consonants are silent, except c, f, l, q, r

① Voiceless & voiced

French consonants come in 6 pairs, voiceless / voiced. The position of tongue and lips is identical in each pair — the only difference is whether your vocal cords vibrate. Put your fingers on your throat and feel the difference between English p (no buzz) and b (buzz).

② Word stress

In French, stress falls on the last syllable of the word (or word group). And it's much lighter than English stress — don't expect the strong "bumps" you have in PHO-to-graph or uni-VER-si-ty. French syllables are roughly equal in length, with just a small lengthening on the last one.

• café → ca-fé (light stress on fé)
• université → u-ni-ver-si-té

③ Silent final consonants

Golden rule: most consonants at the end of a word are silent. Memorize the magic word « CaReFuL » — those are the 5 consonants that usually are pronounced at the end of a word: c · f · l · q · r.

• Silent: petit, français, trop, et, nez, peux
• Pronounced: parc, neuf, sel, cinq, pour

💡 Memo: open vs closed = closed vs open sound

Open syllable (ends in a vowel) → closed sound: [o], [ø] (mouth less open).
Closed syllable (ends in a consonant) → open sound: [ɔ], [œ] (mouth more open).

• sty-lo [stilo] — nor-mal [nɔʁmal]
• peu [pø] — peur [pœʁ]

⚠️ [ø] and [œ] don't exist in English

These are the rounded versions of [e] and [ɛ]. Trick: say "ay" (as in say), then round your lips like saying "oh" — keep the tongue where it was. That's [ø] as in peu. For [œ] in sœur, peur, it's the same trick starting from "eh". (The closest English approximation is the vowel in British bird or her — but rounder.)

💡 The sound [ɲ] is exactly the "ny" in English canyon or onion. Same sound, just spelled gn in French.

⚠️ French j is [ʒ], the "s" sound in measure or pleasure — never the English j (which would be [dʒ]). So je rhymes with the second syllable of massage, not with the English jay.