French pronunciation
How to pronounce French nasal vowels
A French nasal vowel is a vowel said with air flowing through your nose as well as your mouth, with no N at the end. The three that PronounceFit trains are told apart by the shape of your mouth: vent (wind) is open, vont (they go) has rounded lips, and vin (wine) is spread.
How to say French nasal vowels
Say the vowel and let the sound flow gently through your nose. Don’t tack an N on the end.
For the nasal in vent, banc and temps: mouth open, jaw low, lips relaxed.
For the nasal in vont, bon and pont: round your lips, as for “oh”.
For the nasal in vin, bain and pain: lips spread a little, mouth less open.
Keep the tip of your tongue down until the sound ends. If it rises to touch behind your teeth, an N sneaks in.
Why it’s hard
English and Spanish have no nasal vowels of this kind, only N and M sounds, so learners say bon as a vowel followed by an N. That N is the giveaway: a French listener hears an extra sound instead of the vowel. Learners also tend to merge the three, because so much of the sound goes through the nose that the mouth shape is easy to miss.
The opposite slip happens too: dropping the nasal entirely, so banc comes out as bas and grand as gras.
Words to practise
PronounceFit trains the three nasal vowels against each other, and the nasal against the plain vowel.
Three nasal vowels
- vent / vont / vin
- banc / bon / bain
- lent / long / lin
- sans / son / sain
- paon / pont / pain
- temps / ton / teint
Nasal vs plain vowel
- banc / bas
- temps / tas
- dans / das
- sang / sa
- grand / gras
Common mistakes, and how to catch them
Adding an N
son ends in a vowel, not an N. To catch it, watch your tongue tip in a mirror: it should stay down behind your bottom teeth to the very end of the word.
Merging the three
With the mouth shape unchanged, lent, long and lin blur into one. To catch it, say them in front of a mirror; you should see three different shapes: open, rounded, spread.
Losing the nasal
If no air goes through your nose, sang becomes sa. To catch it, pinch your nose briefly during each vowel: sang should change much more than sa.
How PronounceFit trains French nasal vowels
Ear training plays vent, vont and vin and asks which one you heard. To a new ear all three can sound alike; this is where they start to separate.
Then say each group and see every word scored, and practise the nasal against the plain vowel with banc / bas and temps / tas. In real French texts, a nasal that slipped is marked on the word; tap it to hear the reference voice next to your take and retry until it turns green.
Read more about each step:
FAQ
Questions about French nasal vowels
Which French nasal vowels should I learn first?
The three in vent, vont and vin. They tell everyday words apart — banc / bon / bain, sans / son / sain — and they are the ones PronounceFit drills.
Do you pronounce the N in French nasal vowels?
No. In bon or vin the N is only in the spelling: it tells you the vowel is nasal. Say the vowel through your nose and stop there.
How do I tell vent and vont apart?
By your lips. vent is said with an open mouth and relaxed lips, vont with rounded lips. A mirror is the quickest check.
More French sound guides
- U vs OUVu or vous: the rounded “ee” that learners often turn into OU.
- French RThe usual French R: made at the back of your throat, not with the tip of your tongue.
French pronunciationEvery hard French sound, with the real word pairs the app drills.- All languagesEvery pronunciation guide, one language at a time.
Vent, vont, vin — three words.
Read one French sentence aloud and see which nasal vowels slipped — privately, on your device.