How to pronounce French nasal vowels
Perfecting French Pronunciation: A Beginner's Handbook: How to pronounce French nasal vowels
French nasal vowels are pronounced by allowing air to flow through both the mouth and the nose, which is different from oral vowels where air flows only through the mouth. There are three main nasal vowels used in French, often represented phonetically as:
- /ɑ̃/ (nasal “a”): spelled as an, am, en, em (examples: blanc, ambiance, paon)
- /ɛ̃/ (nasal “i”): spelled as in, im, ain, aim, ein, eim, un, um, yn, ym (examples: pain, faim, vin, un)
- /ɔ̃/ (nasal “o”): spelled as on, om (examples: bon, ombre)
There is also a fourth nasal vowel /œ̃/ in some dialects, but it is less common and often merges with /ɛ̃/ in modern French.
To pronounce the nasal vowels:
- The velum (soft part of the roof of the mouth) is lowered so air escapes through both the nose and mouth.
- For /ɑ̃/, the tongue is positioned slightly back, lips slightly rounded, and mouth open.
- For /ɛ̃/, the tongue is raised more forward, the lips are spread as if smiling.
- For /ɔ̃/, the lips are rounded with a smaller mouth opening.
- The “n” or “m” in spelling is not pronounced as a consonant; it signals the nasalization of the vowel.
One useful way to practice is to exaggerate jaw dropping for /ɑ̃/ vowels or smile slightly for /ɛ̃/. Nasal vowels do not appear before a vowel sound in a word — if a vowel is followed immediately by another vowel, it’s not nasalized.
Example phrase to remember all nasal vowels: “Un bon vin blanc” ([œ̃ bõ vɛ̃ blɑ̃]).