if you're starting french you've probably noticed that learning how to pronounce this language isn't as easy as it seems we've got silent letters special vowel combinations a special pronunciation for verbs and of course the very famous liaison which means that one word is linked through pronunciation to the next word however learning how to pronounce french isn't that complicated if you take it step by step how to tackle french pronunciation this is what i'm going to explain in today's video with the 10 keys to tackle french pronunciation hi everyone and welcome to expat lying the youtube channel dedicated to those of you who are learning french in order to settle in france my name is jean-baptiste and i'm a french teacher key number one french has six vowels a e i o u and y are the basic vowels of the french alphabet when you meet a i and u in a word they generally always have the same pronunciation have special pronunciation rules and i'm going to explain you about this in the coming videos key number two french vowels can wear accents there are four possible accents on french vowels aksantigu aksankrav aksan circonflex and trema accents only change the pronunciation of one letter the letter e for example when you find an accent on other letters the pronunciation doesn't change most of the time accents are used to distinguish the meaning between two words to have the same pronunciation for example ah and with an accent that means at or to and without the accent which is the verb to have key number three when two or more vowels follow each other in a word they form a cluster when two or more vowels follow each other in a word their pronunciation generally changes generally these letters should not be pronounced separately but as one as in the following examples a i e i or a i e are pronounced e a u or e a u are pronounced o oh you is pronounced are pronounced is pronounced wah we will learn how to recognize these vowel clusters in the coming videos key number four a vowel followed by the letter n or the letter m is generally nasal a nasal vowel is a vowel that is pronounced partially or totally through the nose such as in these vowels part of the air comes through my mouth and the other part through my nose we generally distinguish three nasal sounds in french however you're likely to encounter more depending on the regions you're traveling to a very simple way to distinguish a nasal vowel is to try the following exercise place your finger under your nose and say ah you don't feel any air coming from your nose on your finger now shut your mouth and say place your finger under your nose you can now feel the warm air coming out of your nose this is a nasal vowel key number five the letter e is generally silent this isn't true in all regions of france but it tends to become more and more frequent the letter e in the middle of a word or at the end of the word is generally not pronounced for example pulong jury which means bakery is generally pronounced boulangerie you don't hear the e in the middle then you don't hear the letter e at the end of the word but which means small for a woman key number six there are 19 consonants and two semi-consonants in french b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x y and z french consonants generally follow regular pronunciation for example the letter b b in all these cases the letter b is pronounced however c g s t x and y follow special pronunciation of rules that we'll see in the coming videos key number seven french has silent letters and a phenomenon of the word link la liesel most french consonants and the letter e are not pronounced at the end of a word for example lusha in this example we don't pronounce the final letter t we just say however in many cases the last letter must be pronounced at the end of a word if the following word starts with a vowel this phenomenon is called for example in this first example the first word is pronounced ill let's now have a look at another case in this second example the s at the end of the word il is pronounced because the following word starts with a vowel in this case the letter a now listen to the difference be careful this is a rule of thumb and there are exceptions for both liaison and final silent letters you should always check the pronunciation before you actually pronounce the word key number eight there are consonant clusters in french there are a few consonants which when pronounced together have a special pronunciation for example ph is pronounced f as in pharmacy a chemistry and then i double l e is pronounced as in a girl key number nine french sentences are pronounced as one word when you pronounce a french sentence all words flow one into the other and you shouldn't pause until the end of the sentence meaning they're still at work this sentence is pronounced in one blow as if it were one word don't stop until you've reached the end for example you paused before ankar verbs have special pronunciation rules the keys that we have just mentioned apply to most french words however french verbs follow special logic as fast pronunciation is concerned here again i'll be posting videos in the coming weeks to explain exactly how it works in the different situations you now know the 10 keys to start tackling french pronunciation but this is only the beginning of a long series of videos i'll be meeting you next week to start working in details on french pronunciation and until then salutus and good luck with french busy learners