Paste English text, press Listen, and hear it read in a French accent. Browser only, no account, and the audio saves as an MP3.
One word or a whole paragraph both work, and they answer different questions. A word tells you how a sound lands. A paragraph tells you what happens to the rhythm, which is where most of this accent actually lives.
Feed it a paragraph at a time. Short passages are easier to judge and easier to work with afterwards.
French and English disagree about where to put weight in a word and about several consonants. Five patterns carry most of the effect.
Stress moves to the end. This is the big one and it is not a single sound. French puts the weight on the last syllable of a group, so “IMportant” comes out closer to “importANT” and “PHOtograph” closer to “photoGRAPH”. It changes the shape of a whole sentence rather than one word, which is why a French accent is recognizable even in text where no individual sound has shifted.
The H goes quiet. French does not pronounce it. “Happy” leans toward “appy”, “hotel” toward “otel”.
TH becomes S or Z. French has neither TH sound. “Think” moves toward “sink”, “this” toward “zis”. Which one you get depends on whether the original was voiced.
Vowels pick up nasal colour. French carries nasal vowels that English does not have, and they bleed into English vowels sitting next to N and M. A word like “man” can come out sounding more nasal than a native speaker would make it.
The R is made further back. French forms it in the throat rather than with the tip of the tongue, and the difference is audible at the start of words like “red” and inside clusters like the one in “bread”.
Because so much of this accent is rhythm, longer sentences show it better than single words. A three-word phrase gives the stress pattern nowhere to go.
Punctuation matters too. Commas tell the voice where to break, and without them a long line runs together and the stress pattern gets harder to hear.
The download button gives you an MP3 that plays anywhere without conversion.
Generate one line per file if you plan to edit later. It costs nothing extra and saves cutting a long recording apart when a single line needs changing.
A synthetic voice, not a dialect coach and not a translator. Paris and Quebec do not sound the same in English, and this makes no attempt to tell them apart.
For translation rather than reading, use the English to French translator.
Is the French accent generator free?
Yes, with no sign-up.
Can I download the voice?
Yes, as an MP3.
Will it work on mobile?
Yes, straight from the browser.
Is it a Parisian or a Canadian French accent?
It is a general French-accented English voice and does not model regional variation.
Why does a short phrase sound neutral?
Most of this accent is in the stress pattern, and a short phrase gives it too little room. Try a full sentence.