A Pictorial Guide to Pronouncing French Nasal Vowel Sounds

We worked a little bit on prononciation of the French nasal vowel sounds today in our French class. A good thing, too, because I have an embarrassingly bad American accent when I attempt to speak (read: mangle) the French language. Anyways, the teach actually drew some diagrams regarding how you’re supposed to form your mouth with each of the major vowel sounds. I have thus painstakingly created this visual guide. Enjoy!

First, we have the sound “un”—the masculine indefinite article. (for example = Est-ce que tu as un stylo? = Do you have a pen?). The “un” sound, which I find one of the toughest to master, is pronounced while smiling, with the teeth closed. Try it at home!

Next, we have the sound “an” and “en”. An example would be “durant" (during) and “engraisser” (to fatten up). This sound is pronounced with the mouth wide open, as much like a square as possible, according to the teach.

Finally, we have the sound “on”, probably the easiest of the bunch. The mouth is shaped like a little “o”, like the word “tampon” (buffer) or “bon” (good).

As an exercise, you can practice repeating the phrase “un jambon” (a ham), which contains all three nasal vowel sounds. Yes, at one point during today’s class, an entire class of adults was incessantly repeating the French word for “a ham”. If aliens are watching our every move from outer space, they are very confused.