Four little sounds that live in your nose, not your mouth — and why on/an/in/un trip up every beginner.
French has a set of vowels that resonate through the nose rather than the mouth. English doesn’t really have them, so the ear has to be trained from scratch.
The four to know
on, an, in, and un are the usual suspects. The trick is that the n
itself is not pronounced as a consonant — it just colours the vowel.
Say “bon” and let the sound hum at the back of your nose. If your tongue
touches the roof of your mouth to finish an n, you’ve gone too far.
Why it matters
Nasal vowels carry meaning. beau (handsome) and bon (good) are a whole
world apart, and the difference is almost entirely in the nose.