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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. | ||
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. | ||
v | The French 'v' sound is pronounced in a similar way to English 'v'. | ||
w | This is a sound a little like an English "w", where you glide rapidly between a French 'ou' vowel and another vowel. When a French 'ou' vowel is followed by another vowel, the 'ou' usually automatically turns into this glide. | ||
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. | ||
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". | ||
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. | ||
ʒ | This sound is the sound represented by the 'g' in "beige", or the 's' in the English word "leisure". |