French Nasal Vowels: How to Pronounce an, in, on, un Correctly
Vietnamese has no nasal vowels, so the natural instinct is to pronounce "an" as "ang," "on" as "ong" — close, but native speakers still notice right away that it's not a true nasal vowel. The difference: a nasal vowel has no clear final consonant sound — the air flows out through the nose while the mouth stays open, instead of closing off like the Vietnamese "ng" sound.
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Four nasal vowels to tell apart
French has four main nasal vowels, each with one or a few spellings. Confusing these is a common mistake that changes a word's meaning entirely — for example "vin" (wine) and "vent" (wind) differ only in the nasal vowel.
Correct pronunciation starts with the ear, not the mouth
If your ear can't yet tell the nasal vowels apart, your mouth will struggle to produce them correctly — training your ear to distinguish each pair before practicing speaking speeds up the whole correction process. See how to record and compare your own voice to check whether you're actually nailing the nasal vowels.
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