French is more consistent than English — it just uses different rules. A few sounds don't exist in English, and a lot of letters go silent, but both follow patterns you can learn. Master these four areas and your accent will jump from "clearly a beginner" to "genuinely understandable".
Make peace with silent letters
Most final consonants in French are silent: petit, beaucoup and vous all drop their last letter in speech. The reliable rule of thumb: final e, s, t, d, x, z, p are usually silent, while a final c, r, f, l is often pronounced (remember them as the word "CaReFuL"). Trust the pattern and stop sounding out every letter.
The sounds English doesn't have
Three French sounds have no English equivalent, so they need deliberate practice rather than guessing.
- Nasal vowels (bon, vin, blanc) — let the sound resonate through your nose
- The French R — a soft sound made at the back of the throat, not rolled or hard
- The U in tu — round your lips as if to say "oo", then say "ee" instead
Train your ear before your mouth
You can only produce a sound you can hear. Spend time listening closely and imitating short clips — shadowing native speakers is the single most effective drill. Record yourself, compare, adjust. A good teacher accelerates this enormously by catching the small errors you can't yet detect.
Learn the silent-letter rules, drill the three foreign sounds, embrace liaison, and listen more than you read. Your French will start to sound like French.