8 Online French Pronunciation Tools

How eez your French accent?

French is a notoriously difficult language for newbies to pronounce.

We’re here to help you fine-tune your accent and build strong pronunciation skills, no matter what French proficiency level you’re at.

Check out these eight online French pronunciation resources, with exercises for perfect pronunciation practice anytime, anywhere.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

In order to make yourself understood by real life French speakers across the francophone world, pronunciation is key. Indeed, incorrect pronunciation of a word—when you put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable, for example—can entirely confuse the other person (or provide them with a hearty, deep belly laugh!).

This list of online resources will help you perfect your French pronunciation. Before you know it, your French speech will be as smooth as butter and as sweet as honey. If you are in doubt, refresh yourself with these French pronunciation pointers. And when you’re ready to score some more A+ material, explore this blog post for apps that hone in on mastering French pronunciation.

When your phonetics are on point, you’ll feel confident and ready to strut your French stuff. 

You with me? Let’s go!

1. The Mimic Method

This thorough and innovative site created by Idahosa Ness (who, by the way, has learned six languages!) offers a way to speak French with a good accent. His approach prioritizes mimicry, which means you’ll hear and pronounce words first. Your ears, mouth and brain will be physically prepared to learn French quickly and naturally.

The Mimic Method uses musical techniques so that you’ll learn by ear rather than by sight. The mimic method takes seriously the idea that language is rooted in sound so there’s less of a focus on writing and more of a focus on learning words by hearing them. You’ll internalize grammar rules and patterns by habituating your ear to them, and refine your communication chops through conversation (and getting used to the sound of your voice in French).

Basically, this is how children learn languages. While it’s useful for anyone, this approach is great for younger beginners because it allows you to achieve conversational fluency before learning to read or write in the language.

Neat, right? Check out the detailed explanation of how it works here.

2. FluentU

FluentU is an immersive language program that strives to help you improve your pronunciation by exposing you to authentic French videos like movie clips and music videos.

As you’re watching, you can hover your mouse over any word in the captions to see an in-context definition, a memorable picture and brief grammar information. Or, click on it to see an audio pronunciation and further examples of this word used in sentences and other videos.

From here, you can add the word to your flashcard deck to study later through personalized quizzes. These exercises include audio pronunciations as well as speaking questions, where you can speak your answer to practice your pronunciation.

3. Decode French

This interactive site allows you to work on your French accent at your own pace with its wide array of exercises. It focuses on very specific French sounds and syllables so you can build your skills from the ground up.

There’s even a feature to compare your pronunciation to native speakers using a voice recording application.

There are many voices in the French-speaking world, so another awesome thing about this site is that it lets you hear the variations in different francophone accents. This makes it a great site for those who are interested in traveling to parts of the francophone world beyond l’hexagone (the hexagon, the nickname for mainland France).

4. Le Point du FLE

This site contains thousands of links for teaching and learning French. Suitable for adults and young children alike, this is a comprehensive site for those starting from scratch.

You’ll find a whole section dedicated to pronunciation and phonetics, with guides to specific sounds, interactive exercises and more.

There’s also a vast array of audio dialogue recordings. They’re in the standard Parisian French accent, which is usually what those beginning their French learning adventure start with.

5. (How to) Pronounce

I love a good app. With this app for iOS you can easily check the pronunciation of a word or phrase and memorize it.

All you have to do is type in a word or phrase of your choosing and you’ll hear how a French native speaker would say the word. You can adjust the speed of the audio for intensive listening.

This app is especially a keeper thanks to the feature that allows you to make a list of important or difficult words. 

6. FrenchPod101

FrenchPod101 is a popular language program with hundreds of audio and video lessons. It’s great for busy people who want to squeeze in some French practice on-the-go.

The hosts are language experts whose mission is to make French learning interesting and culturally relevant. So don’t expect dry, textbook-style lessons here.

You’ll get to hear and imitate French native speakers throughout the program, but there are also lots of lessons designed to improve your pronunciation of specific sounds.

Plus, there are vocabulary flashcards, PDF notes and even an online community where you can meet other language learners.

7. Forvo

On Forvo, people can share pronunciations of words in their native language and listen to words pronounced by other speakers of other languages. Its mission is to improve spoken communication across cultures.

Today, Forvo touts itself as the largest pronunciation guide in the world, the place where you’ll find tons of words pronounced in French (as well as several other languages!) arranged by category. You can also easily search for specific words you’re having trouble with.

The site also contains an impressive compilation of travel phrases. It’s a great site for French learners of all levels, especially those who are learning on their own or those who don’t have access to native French speakers with whom to verify pronunciation quandaries.

8. Français interactif

Here’s an incredible free stockpile of French language learning material. There are hundreds of videos, online lessons and exercises with answers, among many other tools.

For the purpose of pronunciation practice, there are interviews with French native speakers as well as scenes of day-to-day interactions in France. The course material is based on the real experiences of University of Texas students who participated in the UT Summer Program in Lyon, France. So this is a great way to habituate your ear to the Lyonnaise accent.

This is an especially great site for high school and university students, especially those who are preparing to study abroad or participate in a language exchange.

 

If you want to knock the socks off a native French speaker, (pronunciation) practice makes perfect!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)