Free French for Beginners by Getaway Guides Page B

vowel. This means that the letter ‘e’ on both syllables would be pronounced as /ε/ like in the English words ‘help’ and ‘get’.
    As opposed to open syllables where the pronunciation puts a stress on the ending vowel of a syllable, there are also several French words that end in consonants but are treated as open syllables because the last consonant letter is omitted. Most of these words are plural masculine forms and have the letters ‘e' and ‘s' at the end.
    Examples are:
les (pronounced as /le/) - the plural form of the word le (pronounced as / lə /)
ces (pronounced as /se/) – the plural form of the word ce (pronounced as / sə /)
    People who are trying to learn how to speak French wouldn’t have too much difficulty in learning the accent if they keep in mind that the word stress on all French words is always on the last syllable and if they understand how open syllables are treated in everyday usage.
     

Chapter 3: Pronunciation
     
    The different sounds you can hear in spoken French can nearly be heard in the English language, too, except for a few exceptions such as the deep-in-the-throat “r”, nasal vowels and the quaint “u” sound; but do not let these French sounds intimidate you.  While learning the language, it can be quite effective to simply mimic the French accent you have heard from movies and TV shows.
    Vowel Sounds
    In general, the sounds of French vowels are short and do not glide into other vowels.  For instance, the word “café” is both included in the English and French vocabulary but their pronunciations slightly differ.  The “ay” in the French “café” sounds sharper and shorter.
    French vowels are also divided into soft vowels (the letters e and i) that are pronounced with a soft intonation, and hard vowels (the letters a,o, and u) that are pronounced with hard intonations. One thing to take note of about the vowel letters of the French language is that these are often pronounced in their purest forms. This is in contrast to the way that vowels are often pronounced by English-speakers with a ‘y' or a ‘w' sound at the end. For instance, in English, the letter o is often pronounced as ‘oh' or ‘ow', but in French it would just be pronounced as a short, sharp ‘o'.
    There are also two different ways of writing, and therefore pronouncing, the letter ‘u'. When it is written as a single vowel right after a consonant, it should be pronounced with a short and sharp u sound similar to the English words ‘do', ‘who', and ‘shoes'. Some examples of French words with a short sharp u sound are:
    •                      fut
    •                      jus
    •                      tu
    •                      vue
     
    A native English-speaker might pronounce these words with a ‘y' sound before the ‘u' so that the word vue would be pronounced as ‘view’. In order to avoid this mistake, the speaker would have to make sure that the tongue is in the right position. Specifically, it should be bending slightly upward at the front portion of the mouth. The tip of the tongue should be reaching upward towards the alveolar ridge though it should not make contact with the ridge completely. The lips should be puckered in an o-looking position.
     
    On the other hand, the letter u is also often written with a letter ‘o' before it. Some examples of words with a combined o and u are:
    •                      fou
    •                      tout
    •                      vous
    •                      bourreau
    The combined o and u vowels is pronounced in much the same way English-speakers would pronounce the word ‘soup’ albeit with a slight sound of the tongue sticking to the roof of the mouth. When pronouncing ‘ou', the tongue is positioned in much the same way as pronouncing the single ‘u' though this time