Spelling and Pronunciation of French Numbers One to Ten

Pronunciation

You’ll notice that the spellings and the pronunciation can be a little different than what you might expect.

Let’s break this down a little bit.

First, the number one. Un is a nasal sound and the ‘n’ represents this.

Next, the letter ‘x,’ in the word deux. It is often silent at the end of words, so deux is pronounced ‘duh.’ However, this is not the case for six, where it sounds like a hissed ‘s.’ In future videos, listen out for how ‘x’ is pronounced. Sometimes it is silent, other times it is not.

What is easy to remember is that ‘qu’ in French is pronounced as a ‘k,’ so four is ‘kat-re.’ Don’t forget that ‘r’ is guttural, so it is pronounced in the throat here.

Next up, is the ‘c’ in cinq. When ‘c’ is followed by ‘e’ or ‘i,’ then it is always soft – that means it is pronounced like English ‘s.’ Therefore, cinq sounds like ‘sank,’ with a nasal quality on the ‘n.’

The ‘p’ in sept is silent, so it sounds like ‘set,’ for seven.

‘H’ is also often silent in French, although when followed by a ‘u’ it makes the ‘wh’ sound, a little similar to the English ‘wheat,’ which is what we find in the word for eight. (Notice here also that the English spelling of ‘eight,’ is equally as odd.)

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