How To Pronounce French Brand Names

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?

How to pronounce 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 (French pronunciation)

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 (French pronunciation)

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. How to pronounce Evian

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 (French pronunciation)

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 (French pronunciation)

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. How to pronounce 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 (French pronunciation)

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 (French pronunciation)

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. How to pronounce 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 (French pronunciation)

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. How to pronounce 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.

11. How to pronounce Guerlain

At the end we have a trigram for the nasal sound “ain”, you need to shape your mouth like for “iiii” and let air out through your nose. At the beginning the letter G is a bit tricky because normally it will sound like *j* if followed by i,e, y and like *g* if followed by anything else. But what if the next letter is E, yet we still want the sound *G*? Well then we add a U that won’t be heard but will cause the g to sound like G.

12. L’Occitane - French pronunciation

I love this one because it illustrates both sounds of the letter C:
C sounds like *s* before E,I, or Y and like *k* before anything else.
As usual in French, the final E is silent and only here to let us know that the ending is “ane “, not “an”.

13. How to pronounce Givenchy

I and Y make the same sound in French - iii
G sounds like. *j* when it is followed by E, I or Y
In the middle we have the nasal *an*
Finally CH is a digram that makes the sound *sh*

14. Lancôme - French pronunciation

Don’t be fooled by this little hat, it doesn’t change the sound - although some people would point out that it signals a close O, rather than an open OC before anything but E,I, Y sounds like *K* And the digram AN is the nasal *an*

15. How to pronounce Longchamp

This is originally someone’s last name, meaning ‘long field’, so we really need to understand it as two words: ‘long’ and ‘champ’. Each word ends with a silent letter because us French looove ending words with silent letters. Then there are two nasals for your practice: ON for /on/ and AM for /en/.

One more digram = CH makes the sound /sh/.

Your next steps

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About the author

Angel Pretot is a French learning coach. He helps English speakers from all over the world learn French fast and become fluent. You can work with him one-on-one (online via skype or a similar software) or join a global community of French learners in his group program the French Fluency Accelerator.

French Brands have tricky pronunciation - Are you wondering how to pronounce Yves Saint Laurent, Hermès, Dior, Chanel, Ladurée, Louboutin, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Dom Pérignon, Guerlain, Fauchon, Longchamp, Givenchy, Lancôme, Le Creuset? Worry no more, this handy French pronunciation guide is for you! Beginner friendly and with all the necessary explanations to understand how French is spelled and spoken.