What Are Vowels, and Why Are the French Ones So Tricky?

To put it very simply, a vowel is what happens when you’re making sound without constricting it in some way in your mouth or throat. When you constrict the airflow (by closing your tongue against your teeth, for example), you’re making a consonant.

Vowels are the base of syllables, and the way that you position your lips and tongue while making them affects how they sound.

Standard French has about 13-15 vowel sounds, depending on exactly how you count—what everyone can agree on is that this is a language with a lot of them, and they’re not necessarily easy for English speakers to master. But they’re possible.

Close vowels are referred to by some experts as high vowels, and open vowels are sometimes referred to as low vowels. This is just a matter of using different words for the same thing; I’ll use the terms “close” and “open” throughout. Close vowels mean that your tongue is higher, closing off the space inside your mouth more. Open vowels indicate the opposite.

We also talk about vowel backness and frontness, or how far to the front and back your tongue is when you’re making vowels.

And, finally, we have rounded or unrounded vowels, which refers to what you’re doing with your lips. In the land of French vowels, you’re going to round them a lot more than in English.

This post is organized by vowel sound and will use the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols, which are the letters used to indicate pronunciation in most good dictionaries with complete and helpful features. All French words given as examples are linked to pronunciations from Forvo.com; many offer pronunciations from several speakers.

The English examples are from standard American English, and may not be applicable for all accents.

Note that in English, we unconsciously make many of our vowels into diphthongs (or a combination of two vowels), , which shows the [e] and [eI].

So when pronouncing [e] in French (explained below), try to get a clean, true, single vowel sound.

The French Vowels

Close Vowels

/i/

This is known as the frontal close unrounded vowel, and it’s not too difficult for English speakers. It’s like the “ee” in the English word “knee.” Examples include ici (here) and vie (life).

/u/ 

This is similar to the vowel in “boot,” but more rounded. Try saying that vowel, but with your lips in a tight circle. The resulting sound might not seem too different to you, but if you do your /u/s this way, you’ll sound much more French. Examples include fou (crazy) and sous (under).

/y/

I’ve previously written an entire post about what a nightmare this frontal close rounded vowel is, and an in-depth guide to conquering it. To many English speakers, it sounds just like /u/ above; if this is the case for you, definitely click on that link for the dedicated article.

In terms of pronunciation, this sound is differentiated from /u/ by moving the tongue up to the front. If you have a perfect sous in the previous example, try “freezing” your mouth in that position and then moving your tongue forward. The result should be the vowel sound in su (known, past participle of savoir).

Another way to get there is to travel from another close vowel in this section, /i/. What’s the difference? Mainly, it’s the rounding of the lips, so try saying lit (bed) and then keeping your mouth the same (perhaps the tongue just a bit further back) and rounding your lips to get lu (read, past participle of lire).

Close-mid Vowels

/e/

The close-mid frontal unrounded vowel is like /i/ but a bit more open; a bit like the vowel in “play,” but be careful not to make a diphthong of it when speaking French. French examples are nez (nose) and the end of infinitives like parler (to speak).

/ø/

This is the rounded twin of the /e/ above. As was the case with /y/, we don’t have this close-mid frontal rounded vowel in American English and so we have to learn it. The easiest way is again by approaching it from the /e/ that we do know, and then rounding our lips and letting the tongue relax back just a tiny bit. Examples include nœud (knot), peu (little) and feu (fire).

/o/

This close-mid back vowel is similar to our “o,” as in “so,” but without the diphthong that we unconsciously add. The French sot (stupid), therefore, sounds the same, but shorter and cleaner.

Open-mid Vowels

/ɛ/

The open-mid front unrounded vowel is the vowel in “bed” for Americans. You use it in French when you ask for a delicious crêpe or cèpe (cep, a type of mushroom).

/œ/

The open-mid front rounded vowel is, like /ø/ and /y/, unfamiliar to American English speakers. It can be achieved by taking the /ɛ/ above and pronouncing it with rounded lips. Examples: jeune (young) and œuf (egg).

The difference between /œ/ and /ø/ is that the tongue is a little bit lower for /œ/. You’ll also notice that both vowels tend to be spelled the same way in French: eu and œu. In these cases, you should pronounce /œ/ (somewhat lower tongue) when the syllable ends in a consonant and /ø/ when it doesn’t. Try comparing peu and peur (fear).

I know, I know. You can also just switch to learning Spanish, which has five vowels.

/ə/ (schwa, or dropped e)

This is a mid-central, somewhat rounded vowel. Some consider it identical to /œ/ above, when it’s actually pronounced. It also tends to just drop out of words, such as with the pronunciation at the link by user “spl0uf” of rappeler (to remind)—he shows how /ʁapəle/ sometimes becomes /ʁaple/.

/ɔ/

This open-mid back rounded vowel is as in “thought,” but with the tongue further forward and the lips rounded. Examples are note (note) and sol (ground).

Open or Low Vowels

/a/

This is like the American English “father” but with your tongue just a bit higher and further forward. Examples include là-bas (over there) and maladie (illness).

Nasal Vowels

/ã/, /ɛ̃/, /œ̃/ and /ɔ̃/

The nasal vowels are cousins to a few of the vowels above that are pronounced by taking those vowels and putting them up your nose.