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French and the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
IPA Symbol
Pronunciation
Examples
ə
keen
closed “e” (a lengthened is)
open “e” as in pet
hat
farther
soft
all
fool
like a German ü
(schwa) ahead
ø
like a German ö
lys, utile, lyre
et, aller, été, j’ai
est, mais, père
parler (most common “a”)
bas, pâte (much rarer “a”)
voler, mort
mot, beau
ou, roue
une, rue
le, demain and the mute “e” (when
enunciated) as in lune are very close to a
German schwa when spoken (see ø).
peu, deux and used instead of the schwa
when sung, so le, demain and the mute “e”
œ
fur
heure
j
yes
want
ɥ
close to a passing y
grenouille, pied, feuille
moi, oui, nouer
lui, suite
Vowel sounds
i
e
ɛ
a
ɑ
ɔ
o
u
y
Semi-vowel sounds
w
Nasal vowel sounds
ɑ̃
ɛ̃
õ (or ɔ̃ when spoken)
œ̃
No English equivalents
vent, temps, ans
faim, pain, vin
non, long, nom
un, parfum
Consonant sound pairs
Voiced
Unvoiced
b
d
p
t
v
f
g
k
z
ʒ
ʔ
s
ʃ
h
’ (apostrophe) or sometimes
* (asterisk)
bib
dread
gain
vault
gaze
vision
glottal
pipe
tight
cake
fifty
cease
shirt
aspirate
bon
pain
adieu
astre
gloire
coin
vin, wagon
fin
oser
soir
je, gilet
chat
virtually never used except for emphasis
In French, when a word begins with an “h” such as hibou the “h” is not sounded.
However there is nevertheless the concept of an aspirate “h” whose only function is to
prevent liaisons. It would be indicated in phonetic dictionaries by an apostrophe,
e.g. un_homme but un ’hibou. This is not an IPA symbol, but it is very useful when
trying to decide whether a liaison is permitted or not.
Nasal consonant sounds
m
n
ɳ
ɲ
my
main
name
nous
mainly in English derived words as camping
onion
agneau
Other consonant sounds
l
ʀ
r
x
light
lumière
use of the French guttural “r” when singing is a question of taste and tradition
but should be used when saying song titles or composers’ names
single flipped “r” as might be used in
English very
Not used in spoken French but used instead
of ʁ when singing French classical music
Used in imported words such as the Spanish jota
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