How do you pronounce 'ô' 'os/oz' 'au' and 'eau' in French?
　I read on a website that these are all pronounced like the 'o' sound in the English word 'bone,' but in the dictionary on www.larousse.com, words containing these letters are pronounced with a 'u' sound (kind of a softer version of the Chinese u, as in 酷 or 目).
　How are they actually pronounced? Is there an exact equivalent in another language? Thank you!

Question

How do you pronounce 'ô' 'os/oz' 'au' and 'eau' in French?
　I read on a website that these are all pronounced like the 'o' sound in the English word 'bone,' but in the dictionary on www.larousse.com, words containing these letters are pronounced with a 'u' sound  (kind of a softer version of the Chinese u, as in 酷 or 目).
　How are they actually pronounced? Is there an exact equivalent in another language? Thank you!

Answer

All "o" are not exactly like in the word "bone". That one is ô in French. Long and round.

Our "o" (au, eau, and o without accent) are a bit shorter. As a rule, we don't sing or drag letters like we do in English. To give you an idea, the name Paul, in English sounds like Po-o-o-l-l (to me) whereas in French it's Pol. (about 3 times shorter!)

"os" sounds like osss - short o, long s. 
"oz" sound like ozzzz - short o, long z.

No "u" sound at all, though I have no idea what the chinese "u" is...

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