How to pronounce french in American English

IPA /frɛntʃ/ Syllables 1 · frehnch Stress 1st syllable

FREHNCH

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Americans pronounce french as FREHNCH (/frɛntʃ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "You can speak French, can't you?" or "He speaks English, Spanish, and French fluently" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "french".

1 syllable, 5 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

r/r/

Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.

eh/ɛ/

Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.

n/n/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.

ch/tʃ/

Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'sh' position. Flare your lips.

In real conversation

Hear "french" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"He speaks English, Spanish, and French fluently."

hee SPEEKS IHNG·gluhsh SPA·nuhsh and FREHNCH FLOO·uhnt·lee

"You can speak French, can't you?"

yoo kuhn SPEEK FREHNCH KANT yoo

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "french" different from British English?

American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "FREHNCH" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.