Chanel, Louboutin, Ladurée… the French are world renowned for their fashion and food! But how do you pronounce these names if you aren’t French?

In this video, I show you how a dozen of the most famous French brands are pronounced so whether you go shopping in Paris, France or Paris, Texas you’ll get them right!

I put all of these in this playlist, and I am adding to it all the time. Which ones would you like me to do next?

1. Dior

This one is simple, you only need to know that I before another vowel sounds like “y”.

There is also the French R which might require practice. The other letters are similar to English. Dior has only one syllable but most French words have more than one.

Remember that we will always stress the last syllable in a French word or phrase, for example:

2. Chanel

Ch in French sounds a bit different than in English, it sounds like “sh”

Also the -el at the end will be pronounced “el” even if there’s no accent on the e. This is standard in French words such as “nouvel” or “bel”.

3. Christian Louboutin

Ch in French sounds like ‘sh’, except when it doesn’t. A few words just ignore the h entirely and you just have to learn them.

It’s not the only difficulty Christian Louboutin has in store for us, it also has 3different digrams:

“O-u” which sounds like “ou” in French,
“A -N” which is the nasal an, and
“I-N” which is the nasal “in”.

Watch my mouth to learn the difference “an”/“in”.

4. évian

Even though it’s often spelled without the accent, it’s helpful to have it, so we know how the first sound is pronounced.

Next we have I before another vowel sound, which makes it sound like y.

Finally we have the nasal an. To pronounce it properly you have to shape your mouth like the letter a and make a nasal sound.

5. Ladurée

Two hard things here: the French R of course, and the sound U. Watch to see how I shape my mouth.

Also remember that the last e is silent, and the previous e has the accent aigu so it’s é.

6. Cartier

Two Rs but two very different sounds.

When a word ends with ER, it makes the sound “é”. That’s often found in verbs but not only.

Also we have the I before a vowel which sounds like y.

7. Hermès

Very important in French, the H is always silent, unless it’s part of a digram.

The first e is pronounced è, even though it doesn’t have an accent. We know it’s è because it is followed by an r and another consonant.

The second e has an “accent grave”, which lets us know that it is to be pronounced “è”, otherwise that e would be totally silent, and so would the final S.

6. Yves Saint Laurent

This one a festival of silent letters, digrams and trigrams.

Ts at the end of words are almost always silent, and it is the case here.

Also -es as an ending is always silent when there’s no accent on the e.

Next we have two nasals, in Saint here spelled “ain” as a trigram although it’s more often pronounced as a digram “in”, and we also have the digram “an” in Laurent.

There’s also the digram “au” which sounds like o

Finally, y is always pronounced I.

7. Fauchon

Ch is slightly different than in English, it’s “sh”.

Au is one of the many ways we spell the sound “o”

And “on” is a nasal sound. Make the “o” shape with your mouth to achieve it.

8. Dom Pérignon

This one is fun because it rhymes, although the sound “on” is spelled differently in both words. The “om” spelling is very rare though.

Listen for how I pronounce the “é” and the digram gn.

Also prepare to make your best French R!

9. Louis Vuitton

Here you have two rare French sounds that are semi-vowels:

The w in Louis, and the u in Vuitton.

Also the s in Louis is silent like almost all consonants at the end of French words, and you have the nasal “on” at the end of Vuitton.

10. Le Creuset

This famous cookware brand helps us illustrate 3 more rules of French pronunciation.

First the digram “eu” makes the sound “eu.”

‘“Et” at the end makes the sound “è” - yes we do have many ways to spell that sound.

S between two vowels sound like “z”.

And of course the French R is here, so get ready for practice... Le Creuset.

Your next steps

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How To Pronounce French Brand Names