Closed vowel

When pronouncing a vowel, you must pay particular attention to three parameters to pronounce the sound correctly:

• the shape of the lips: spread or rounded,
• the position of the tip of the tongue: it touches the teeth or not,
• the aperture or opening of the mouth: closed, half-closed, half-open and open.

To say that a vowel is closed, we will focus on the last point. A vowel is said to be “closed” if the mouth is very little open to pronounce the vowel.

Pronunciation

The mouth is almost closed, the lower teeth are close to the upper ones and the tongue is in the position closest to the palate.

Closed vowels

• [i] as in il [il], ​​petit [pəti], samedi [samdi]
• [y] as in tu [ty], sur [syʁ], du [dy]
• [u] as in nous [nu], jour [ʒuʁ], souris [suʁi]