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l | ![]() | The French 'l' is similar to the 'l' in English "with Lee". The tongue tip usually touches the back of the upper teeth. It is also a so-called "clear" l: in other words, you don't raise the back of your tongue as you pronounce the French 'l', as occurs in some cases in English. | |
a | ![]() | The French 'a' vowel is pronounced with the tongue far forward in the mouth and the mouth quite wide open, but not quite as open as for a typical English 'a' vowel. | |
v | ![]() | The French 'v' sound is pronounced in a similar way to English 'v'. | |
j | ![]() | This is a sound a little like an English "y" as in "yes". To pronounce it, you "glide" rapidly between a French 'i' vowel and the following vowel. (And on the end of a word, you pronounce it by going rapidly from the previous vowel to a French 'i' vowel.) Note the phonetic symbol [j] doesn't mean the sound at the start of "je" or "jean". | You might have expected this sound to be a normal i vowel here. However, whenever i is followed by another vowel in French, the two vowels generally "merge" together (technically speaking, they form a diphthong). In other words, you start in the position for a normal i vowel, but then "glide" into the second vowel, which is what you hear in this case. |
ɑ̃ | ![]() | This vowel is pronounced with the mouth relatively wide open and the tongue quite far towards the back of the mouth (similar to many English speakers' pronunciation of the word "are"). The vowel is nasalized: air escapes through the nose as well as the mouth. | |
n | ![]() | The French 'n' sound is similar to the 'n' of English "tenth", i.e. pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth. | |
d | ![]() | A French 'd' sound is pronounced like an English 'd' after a 'th' sound (as in "with Dave"): the tongue touches the back of the teeth. An addition, as with French 'b' and 'g', make your vocal cords vibrate right through the 'd' sound by "trying to force some extra air out" even though your tongue is blocking it. | |
ə | ![]() | The 'schwa' or 'neutral e' is pronounced with the tongue in a "central, relaxed" position and the mouth also in a 'half open, relaxed' position. Note that many French speakers actually tend to pronounce this vowel as a 'close eu' vowel (as occurs at the end of words ending in -euse), or at least with some rounding of the lips. | Even though the word ends in -e in the spelling, notice how in the pronunciation, this vowel isn't "fully" pronounced. Instead, the syllable before it receives the stress. |