Read it like a native · French
Eau is “o.”
French looks hard to read because it keeps letters it stopped saying centuries ago. Fluent readers see teams of letters, not single ones. Learn about thirty patterns and most words read themselves.
Video lesson in preparation.
Vowel letters that team up
French often spells one sound with two or three letters. Learn the teams and whole words open up.
eau · au
Sounds like: “o,” as in go, without the glide
eau, beau, beauté, nouveau, château, chaud
ai · ei
Sounds like: “è,” as in bed
lait, maison, neige, j’aimais
ou
Sounds like: “oo,” as in food
vous, nous, rouge, toujours
oi
Sounds like: “wa”
moi, toi, voilà, le roi
u
Sounds like: say “ee” with your lips rounded for “oo”
tu, lune, rue
Not “oo”: that is ou.
eu · œu
Sounds like: a rounded “uh”
deux, peu, cœur, sœur
Nasal vowels
A vowel before n or m, with no vowel after, usually goes through the nose and the n is not pronounced.
an · en · am · em
Sounds like: nasal “ah”
enfant, temps, chambre
on · om
Sounds like: nasal “oh”
bon, nom, maison
in · ain · ein · im
Sounds like: nasal “a” as in bat
vin, pain, plein, important
Endings
French spelling keeps letters the voice has dropped, most of them at the end of words.
final consonants
Sounds like: usually silent
petit, grand, trop, Paris
Rule of thumb, CaReFuL: c, r, f, l are often said: avec, sur, neuf, sel.
-er · -ez · -et
Sounds like: “é,” as in café
parler, chez, et
Infinitives in -er drop the r sound.
-ent on verbs
Sounds like: silent
ils parlent, elles chantent
But not on nouns: le vent, le temps (nasal).
final -e
Sounds like: silent, but it wakes the consonant before it
petit (no t) / petite (t said)
Consonant combinations
gn
Sounds like: “ny,” as in canyon
montagne, champagne, Espagne
ill after a vowel
Sounds like: “y”
fille, travailler, soleil
Exceptions to learn: ville, mille, tranquille keep the l.
ch
Sounds like: “sh”
chat, chocolat
qu
Sounds like: “k”
qui, quatre, que
ç · c before e, i
Sounds like: “s”
ça, garçon, ici
g before e, i
Sounds like: “zh,” as in measure
rouge, gîte, manger
h · th
Sounds like: h is silent; th is “t”
homme, hôtel, thé
What the spelling remembers
It works the other way too. Spelling keeps traces of older sounds, older words and the people who wrote them down, so it can tell you a word’s meaning, family and history.
The circumflex: ê, â, ô, î
Often marks an s that French stopped saying. English, which borrowed the words earlier, kept it.
forêt → forest · hôpital → hospital · fête → feast · île → isle
-eau from Latin -ellus
A Latin ending that softened over centuries.
château ← castellum · beau ← bellus · nouveau ← novellus
Château shares its root with English castle and with -chester and -cester in English place names.
Silent letters keep the family together
A letter you do not hear often shows up in a related word.
grand → grandeur · petit → petite · long → longueur
Letters added by scholars
Some letters were put back to show a word’s Latin origin, never spoken.
doigt (finger) ← digitus · vingt (twenty) ← viginti
Recordings in preparation: every example read aloud, slowly and then at speed.
Play it
Read this aloud three times: once slowly, sounding out the teams; once at speaking speed; once as a café waiter calling an order across the room.
Au château, nous buvons de l’eau et du lait chaud, puis nous mangeons un gâteau au chocolat avec mes amis.
At the castle, we drink water and hot milk, then eat a chocolate cake with my friends.
Check yourself
1. How do you say the eau in beau?
2. In ils parlent, the -ent is…
3. Which word keeps its final consonant sound?
4. Montagne has which sound in the middle?
Keep it
Add these patterns to your review cards.
Next: Spanish, where almost every letter is said (in preparation). Spot an error? hello@agbalumolove.com.