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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents French language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

French has no word-level stress so stress marks should not be used in transcribing French words. See French phonology and French orthography for a more thorough look at the sounds of French.

Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
b bon about
d deux, grande, Djibouti today
f faire, vif festival
ɡ garçon, longue again
k corps, avec, quand, Irak sky
l laisser, possible, seul, ville law
m même moo
n nous, bonne no
ɲ gagner, champagne 1 canyon
ŋ camping, funk 2 camping
p père, groupe spy
ʁ regarder, nôtre 3 Scottish English loch, but voiced; Northumbrian burr
s sans, ça, assez, soixante, six sir
ʃ chance, tchèque shoe
t tout, thé, tchèque sty
v vous, wagon, neuf heures vein
z zéro, raison, chose, deuxième zeal
ʒ jamais, visage, Djibouti measure
Semivowels
j fief, payer, fille, travail, hier yet
w oui, loi, moyen, web, whisky wet
ɥ huit, Puy between wet and yet
Vowels
Oral vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
a patte, là, femme trap
ɑ pâte, glas 4 father
e clé, et, les, chez, aller, pied, journée mace
ɛ baie, faite, mettre, renne, crème, peine, violet best
ɛː fête, mtre, reine, rtre, caisse, presse, Levesque 4 fairy
ə reposer, monsieur, faisons 5 again (often elided, see e muet)
i si, île, régie, pays, fils 6 seat
œ sœur, jeune bird ( RP)
ø ceux, jner, queue burn (RP)
o saut, haut, bureau, chose, tôt, cône story
ɔ sort, minimum, pomme off
u coup, roue 6 pool
y tu, sûr, rue 6 roughly like too in some dialects such as Australian; 7 somewhat like cute in other dialects; German über
Nasal vowels
ɑ̃ sans, champ, vent, temps, Jean, taon roughly like song; nasalized [ ɒ (Europe) or [ a (Canada)
ɛ̃ vin, impair, pain, daim, plein, Reims, synthèse, sympathique, bien roughly like hang; nasalized [ æ (Europe) or [ ei̯ (Canada)
œ̃ un, parfum 4 roughly like non-rhotic burn; nasalized [ œ
ɔ̃ son, nom roughly like Australian drawn; nasalized [ o (Europe) or [ ou̯ (Canada)
Suprasegmentals
IPA Example Description
. pays [pe.i] 8 syllable boundary
les agneaux [lez‿aɲo],
grand-oncle [ɡʁɑ̃t‿ɔ̃kl]
liaison

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In European French, / ɲ/ is merging with /nj/, but in Quebec, /ɲ/ is distinguished from /nj/.
  2. ^ In European French, / ŋ/ is often pronounced [ŋɡ]. In Quebec, some speakers merge it with /ɲ/ and some speakers pronounce it exactly as in English.
  3. ^ The French rhotic /ʁ/ is usually guttural (uvular), but it varies by region. For example, in Quebec, [ ʁ, [ r, and [ ʀ are all used, but nowadays, most speakers use [ʁ]. This sound may also be devoiced to [ χ in certain contexts; see French phonology § Consonants for details.
  4. ^ a b c In Parisian French, /œ̃/ is usually merged with /ɛ̃/, /ɑ/ is often merged with /a/, and /ɛː/ is normally merged with /ɛ/. These pairs are always distinguished in Belgian, Swiss, and Quebec French.
  5. ^ In Metropolitan French, while /ə/ is phonologically distinct, its phonetic quality tends to coincide with either /ø/ or /œ/.
  6. ^ a b c In Quebec, /i/, /u/, and /y/ may be laxed before a consonant to [ ɪ, [ ʊ, and [ ʏ, e.g.
    • film [fɪlm] "kit"
    • route ʊt] "foot"
    • jupe ʏp] roughly like Scottish "goose"; German "müssen"
    For more details, see Quebec French phonology § Vowels.
  7. ^ More dialects include New Zealand, most accents of Southern England (including Multicultural London, Cockney, Estuary and modern Received Pronunciation), Scouse, Mancunian, Scottish, Ulster, Southern American, Midland American, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and younger Californian.
  8. ^ The syllable break ⟨.⟩ is used sparingly.