Words French speakers mispronounce

French and English have different pronunciation rules. If you're a native French speaker, you might struggle with pronouncing these words. Practice them to sound more like a native speaker.

Words with H sounds at the beginning

In English, we usually have to pronounce the H at the beginning of words. When you say history, push out air from your throat to emphasize the H.

• History — hiss ter ee

• Hollow — hall ow

• Horizon — her i zun

• Helix — heelix

English words with long O sounds

The letter O can make many different sounds in English (in the previous example, notice how the O in "history" actually sounds like an E). One way to figure out the correct O sound is to look for spelling patterns. Here are some examples:

Words with TH sounds

You can hear the English TH sound in words like this, think, and cloth. This is a tricky sound for French speakers. You might replace it with an S sound or a Z.

To pronounce the TH sound, touch the tip of your tongue to the bottom of your upper teeth and breathe out. Alternatively, place the tip of your tongue lightly between your teeth and breathe out. Watch this demonstration:

You can practice with these vocabulary words for ESL students:

• Wrath — raath

• Healthy — hel thee

• Weather — weh thur

• Breathe — breeth

• Brother — bruh thur

Words with OUGH sounds

This is one of the most confusing spelling patterns in English. The letters OUGH can make many different sounds depending on the word. Let's practice the most common examples:

• Thorough — ther oe

• Cough — cawf

• Bought — bawt

• Rough — ruf

• Thought — thawt

• Although — all thoe

English is weird

English has weird pronunciation rules. And sometimes, we break the rules!

Don't worry if you're confused. You don't have to memorize all these pronunciation rules. Instead, you can learn them naturally through Comprehensible Input.

To practice your pronunciation skills naturally, watch English content with English subtitles. This will let you read the words and hear the correct pronunciation at the same time.