Grammar
French pronunciation: silent letters, liaison and nasal vowels
French is not read the way it is written, and that is good news: the rules are few and very regular. Three of them explain most of the gap.
Final consonants
A word's final consonant is usually silent. The exceptions fit into four letters, c, r, f and l, which spell the English word careful without its vowels.
Paris
Sounds like pa-REE, the final s is silent.
bonjour
The final r is pronounced.
Liaison
When a word ends in a silent consonant and the next one begins with a vowel, the consonant comes back and links across to it.
vous avez
You hear vou-z-avez.
les amis
You hear leh-z-ami.
Nasal vowels
A vowel followed by n or m in the same syllable becomes nasal, and the n is not pronounced separately. Three nasal vowels cover ordinary speech.
un bon vin blanc
Four nasal vowels in a row, the classic drill.
pain
Not the English word pain, but a nasal vowel.