French Consonants
The pronunciation of French consonants is fairly close to how we pronounce English consonants. However, some of these sounds have a lot of different spellings! In this article, you will learn all the French consonant sounds and the various ways in which they can be spelled.
Questions This Article Answers
How are French consonants pronounced?
What does the French R sound like?
Are there double consonants in French?
The Consonants
The pronunciation of French and English consonants is very similar. In the table below, each consonant is presented in the following way: First, the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) column gives you the phonetic symbol that represents the consonant sound. Then, you'll see all the different ways in which this consonant sound can appear in a French word! Finally, you'll see a French word that illustrates each of the different ways the sound can be spelled in French. C'est parti !(Let's go!)
How to Pronounce Consonants in French
What's the IPA?
The IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet, is a phonetic alphabet used around the world to show how words are pronounced. It uses specific symbols to represent all of the sounds used in human language. Learn how to pronounce sounds in French in this article: French Pronunciation for Speakers of English.
A Few Tips
1. Double Consonants in French
In other languages you may know, single consonants and double consonants are pronounced differently. Not in French! For example, there is no difference between the first and the second /m/sounds in mammifère(mammal).
2. How to Pronounce the Letter S in French
The letter S is pronounced /s/ when it's the first letter of the word, as in saumon(salmon), when it's in the middle of the word, as in personnel(personal), and—in some cases—when it's the last letter of the word, as in sens(meaning). However, the letter S is pronounced /z/ when it comes between two vowels, as in poison(poison).
#3. B and D in French Can Sound Like P and T
The letter B is sometimes pronounced like a P; we can see this in a word like absent(absent), which is pronounced "apsent". Similarly, the letter D is sometimes pronounced like a T, as in médecin(doctor) (pronounced "métcin").
How to Pronounce Bonjour in French
Before we talk about how to pronounce bonjour, we need to look at how we pronounce a J in French. For example, the first consonant in justifier(to justify) does not sound exactly the same as in the English justify. In English, there's an additional /d/ sound inserted just before the /ʒ/ sound, and justify in English sounds more like "djustify." To pronounce justifier correctly in French, drop the /d/ you would normally add in English! The sound /ʒ/ with no /d/ exists in English in words like treasure, which is phonetically transcribed using the IPA as [tɹɛʒɚ].
Same thing goes for bonjour(hello). If you want to pass for a native during your Paris trip, do not say "Bondjour !"
Learn all about French letters and French pronunciation with these articles!
