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How do French and German front-rounded vowels differ from English vowels?

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Diagram of a human head in profile showing the location of vocal organs and possible places of articulation for speech sounds, with labels for lips, teeth, tongue, palate, uvula, pharynx, and vocal cords, and numbered regions corresponding to types of articulation such as bilabial, alveolar, and velar.
pronunciation Diagram depicting the location of human vocal organs and possible places of articulation used for speech.

In many languages, including English, there is a strong phonetic tendency for front vowels to be produced with unrounded or spread lips, while back vowels are produced with rounded lips to ensure the sounds remain acoustically distinct.1

French and German differ from this pattern because they utilize front rounded vowels. In these languages, a speaker can produce a vowel with a high front tongue position—similar to the unrounded vowel in the English word "heed"—while simultaneously rounding the lips. For example, French contrasts the high front unrounded vowel in vie ("life") with the high front rounded vowel in vu ("seen").1

In contrast, English typically does not employ front rounded vowels. While English features rounded vowels, they are generally restricted to back positions, such as the o in "note" or the u in "rule". By incorporating front rounded vowels, French and German expand their phonetic inventory beyond the standard articulatory tendencies found in English.213