French Learning 0003 · The vowel sounds

I've always believed that the first step in learning any language is getting to grips with its sound system. And, ah, French! Elegance itself! I want its sounds to be clear in my head before anything else. It is hard, though, because so many of them sound alike (I'm sure some of you are with me on this one). But, hey, let me start small.

When it comes to sounds, I don't think the key is imitation. Just trying to copy a sound only gets you so far. What gets you further is finding the right shape and position for each sound, and then holding them with the right muscles. That's all there is to it. Open your mouth, shape your lips, move your tongue up and down, back and forth, until you hit the sweet spot. Then say it, and hold it there.

That's how I learnt English pronunciation. Now, French, it's your turn.

First, vowels. (Honestly, I thought they'd be the easy part. Boy, was I wrong. How did anyone come up with all these sounds in the first place?)

1. /a/ & /ɑ/

Open your mouth and relax. Let your tongue rest behind your lower teeth. Start from the "u" in "rush", open your jaw a little wider, and hold the sound. That's /a/.

Pull your tongue back a little, and you get /ɑ/.

To me, the second one clearly sounds deeper and darker. It reminds me of a bass or contralto singing bel canto.

2. /ə/

/ə/. The schwa. English speakers use it all the time, so this one shouldn't be hard. It's the "a" in "ago". The French schwa is a little more rounded, closer to /ø/, but the English one is a good place to start.

The word "schwa" comes from German, and before that from the Hebrew shva. It has to do with emptiness, the void. So you could think of it as a soft sound that fills the gaps between consonants.

Shva also sounds a lot like Shiva, the Hindu god who destroys so that something new can begin. The two words aren't actually related, but I like the picture anyway. Clear the space, and a sound fills it.

3. /ɛ/ & /e/

I'd start with /ɛ/. It's the "e" in "pet" and "bed". Relax your tongue, drop your jaw, spread your lips a little, and there it is.

After that, /e/ should come more easily. The trick is to raise your tongue a bit higher than for /ɛ/. Remember to raise your jaw a little, too.

You'll hear something close to the "ay" in "tray", /eɪ/. But keep one thing in mind: English /eɪ/ is a diphthong. You start at /e/ and glide towards /ɪ/, so your tongue moves upwards as you say it. French /e/ is different. It's a steady sound. Once your tongue finds its spot, it stays there.

4. /œ/ & /ø/

Next, imagine you want to say /ɛ/, but your lips have other ideas. They want an "o". Start with /ɛ/, keep it going, and round your lips a little. That's /œ/.

Now raise your tongue and jaw a little, just as you did going from /ɛ/ to /e/, and keep your lips rounded. There's /ø/.

You can even slide from /œ/ to /ø/ and back, again and again. That's what helped me hear the subtle difference between them.

5. /i/ & /j/

Start with the vowel in "heat", /iː/. The "smiling" sound.

But that one's long.

Shorten it. Keep the front of your tongue close to the roof of your mouth, and keep it still. No sliding around. That's /i/.

/j/ is actually a semi-vowel, a glide. But hey, it's just the "y" in "yes". Where /i/ is a vowel in its own right, /j/ leads straight into the next vowel.

6. /y/ & /u/

Start with /i/. Your tongue is at the front, and your lips are spread.

Keep your tongue where it is. Slowly round your lips and push them forward, and you get /y/.

As if you're sipping through a straw.

Now pull your tongue back, and you get /u/. Keep it apart from the "ew" in English "brew". For French /u/, your lips are rounder and pushed further forward, and your tongue sits further back.

7. /ɔ/ & /o/

Great. You've come a long way.

/ɔ/ is close to the "o" in "hot", but the English one is more open. For /ɔ/, close your jaw slightly and round your lips a bit more. Think of the "o" in French porte.

It can also help to start from /ɛ/. Hold /ɛ/ and slowly round your lips (that's /œ/, remember?), then pull your tongue back. Keep your jaw relaxed.

Now make your lip rounding smaller and raise the back of your tongue a little. There you go, /o/. You can also start from /e/ and do the same as you did with /ɛ/.

You might notice that your lips look much the same for these two as for /œ/ and /ø/. The difference is in your tongue. For /œ/ and /ø/, it stays at the front, so you still get something like "em". For /ɔ/ and /o/, it moves back, and you get something like "oh".

8. /w/ & /ɥ/

Besides /j/, French has two more semi-vowels.

Remember how you got /j/ by moving quickly off /i/? Do the same with /y/ and /u/.

Start with /y/ and move quickly into another vowel, such as /i/. That gives you /ɥ/, as in huit.

Do the same with /u/, moving into /a/ or /i/. That gives you /w/, as in oui.

9. /ɑ̃/, /ɔ̃/, /ɛ̃/, & /œ̃/

These four are… kind of hard to make.

Still, let's build up to them from vowels we already know. They're basically those vowels with your nose joining in.

First, say /ɑ/ and hold it. Lower your soft palate (the soft part at the back of the roof of your mouth) so that some air flows out through your nose. That's /ɑ̃/.

Do the same with /ɔ/ and /ɛ/, and you get /ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/.

And the same again with /œ/ gives you /œ̃/.