French Phonology

French is a heavily inflected language, where words are stressed on the ultimate, penultimate, or antepenultimate syllables, but this happens within the phrasal blocs that are more commonly used.

The letter at the end of a word is rarely pronounced. It is only pronounced if it is a "c" (eg. donc), or if the first sound of the next word is a vowel (eg. mes amis-mez ami).

The oral vowels are pronounced in three groups, with five levels of openness. The first group is non-rounded, pronounced in the anterior position:
 

Openness	French Vowel	IPA letter	English equivalent
closed	qui, riz	i	deed, plead
semi-closed	école	e	day
semi-open	derrière français*		debt
open	la, maman	a	a friend

* the difference between [], in the -ais form, and [e] is not often remarked in France, but is very pronounced in Quebec.

The second group is rounded, pronounced in the anterior/central positions. Sound equivalents rarely if ever occur in English words for these vowels.
 

Openness	French Vowel	IPA letter
closed	du, rue	y
semi-closed	feu, veut	ø
middle	oeuf
semi-open	le, de	œ

The third group is pronounced in the posterior position, and rounded, except for the last:
 

Openness	French Vowel	IPA letter	English equivalent
closed	ouvre, souper	u	pool
semi-closed	l'eau, peau	o	open
semi-open	bol, voler		aw
open	à, là		maw

There is also a group of nasal vowels. The first two are pronounced in the anterior position, the second two in the posterior position.
 

non-rounded	semi-open		nasal pronunciation of group 1, #3
rounded	semi-open		nasal pronunciation of group 2 #4
non-rounded	open		nasal pronunciation of group 3 #4
rounded	semi-open		nasal pronunciation of group 3 #3

the letter i before a vowel, becoming [j], eg: bien [bji]

the letter u before an i, becoming [ ], eg: huit [ it]

the letters oi in combination, creating [w], eg: loi [lwa]

With French ESL learners, these situations should be adressed because they are treated differently in different situations in English. (e.g. fiat, fiend)

Many of the consonant sounds are very similar to English, the major exception being the "r" sound, which is pronounced in the back of the mouth. The letters "k" and "w" are not used in words of French origin, but only those taken from foreign languages.
 

Letter	French pronunciation in a word	Letter	French pronunciation in a word
b	b	n	n
c	k	mn	n
ç	s	p	p, not aspirated at the beginning of a word
ch	sh before an e; k before other vowels	qu	k
d	d	r	rolled at back of tongue
f	f	s	s, z as the last letter of a word, in front of a vowel
g	hard g before a, i, o; zh before e	t	t, not aspirated at the beginning of a word
gn	nasal "ñ" []	th	d, or t
h	not pronounced	v	v
j	zh	w	w (not often used)
k	k, not aspirated at the beginning of a word	x	sh
l	l	y	ee
m	m	z	z

For more information, in English, consult: Orbus Latinus

In French, consult: Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie de l'Université Laval à Québec