How to pronounce French names

French names are difficult for the same reason French is difficult to read aloud: the spelling was fixed centuries ago and a lot of it is no longer said. The biggest single rule is that most final consonants are silent — the s on Yves, the t on Renault, the d on Gérard. If you see a consonant at the end of a French name, your first guess should be that it is not pronounced.

The second rule is that stress goes on the last syllable. English tends to push stress left; French pushes it right. Marie is mah-REE, Pierre is pee-YAIR, Anatole is ah-nah-TOL. Every French word behaves like this, so the pattern is easier than English stress: find the end and put the emphasis there.

A handful of spellings are doing most of the misleading work, and once you know them most names read themselves.

eau and au are oh. Renault ends in -oh, even though it looks like it should rhyme with “fault”. oi is wah. François and Antoine both carry it. ois is wah with a silent s, which is why François is fron-SWAH, not “fron-KWAA”.

g before e or i is zh, the sound of the s in “measure”. Gérard begins with it, and so does the brand Givenchy. ç is an s — the cedilla exists only to tell you the c is soft even before a, o or u.

Nasal vowels. When n or m follows a vowel at the end of a syllable, the vowel is said through the nose and the n is not fully sounded: Jean ends in a nasal “ahn”, Antoine rhymes roughly with “twan”. This is unfamiliar to English ears but it is regular — there is no guessing involved.

Three French sounds have no English equivalent, and they are the difference between a passable and a convincing attempt. The uvular r — in Renault, Gérard, Pierre — is made in the throat, not with the tongue tip; if your tongue tip stays down, you are roughly right. The rounded u in Vuitton and Lucas is pronounced with the lips pushed forward, like saying “ee” while whistling. And the nasal vowels are exactly what they sound like: air through the nose, as in Jean and Bonaparte.

None of these will stop you being understood if you approximate them — an English r and an “oo” instead of the rounded u are perfectly intelligible. Aim for the approximation first, then refine.

How to pronounce names — the general method for any name, in any language. Name pronunciation hub — every name guide in one place. Silent letters in English — English plays the same final-consonant trick on itself.

Read slowly first. Pronounce each syllable deliberately before trying to blend them at full speed. Rushing hides the vowel and consonant shapes your ear needs to learn.

Record yourself. Most phones have a voice memo app — record a word, then compare it to the playback here. Hearing the gap between your version and the model accent makes targeted practice far easier.

Focus on one accent. Jumping between American, British and Australian in the same session creates confusion. Pick the accent you encounter most and stick with it until the patterns feel natural.

Every word above is a button. Set the accent and voice you want on the main screen, then come back — the guides use whatever you chose. To hear two accents against each other, use Compare; to test whether you can actually hear a contrast, use the listening quiz.