On this site, we use a standard and consistent system to show you how to pronounce French words. Each sound of the French language is always written with the same distinct symbol. All you have to do is remember which sound each symbol represents. This phonetic transcription was developed by the International Phonetic Association (IPA).
If you are unable to view the French phonetic symbols used on this site, you need to save the Lucida Sans Unicode TTF font in your Windows>Fonts folder.
French has 18 consonant sounds:
| /p/ | as in spill, e.g. pou louse /pu/ |
| /b/ | as in bill, e.g. boue mud /bu/ |
| /t/ | as in stick, e.g. tout everything /tu/ |
| /d/ | as in dick, e.g. doux soft, gentle /du/ |
| /k/ | as in skill, e.g. cou neck /ku/ |
| /g/ | as in gill, e.g. goût taste /gu/ |
| /m/ | as in mill, e.g. mou soft, limp /mu/ |
| /n/ | as in nil, e.g. nous we /nu/ |
| /ɲ/ | ny as in onion, e.g. agneau lamb /aɲo/ |
| /ŋ/ | ng as in ring, e.g. parking parking lot /paʁkiŋ/ (This sound is not native to French. It is used in words borrowed from English.) |
| /f/ | as in fan, e.g. fou crazy /fu/ |
| /v/ | as in van, e.g. vous you /vu/ |
| /s/ | as in sink, e.g. soûl drunk /su/ |
| /z/ | as in zinc, e.g. zoo zoo /zo/ |
| /ʃ/ | sh as in show, e.g. chou cabbage, darling /ʃu/ |
| /ʒ/ | zh as in pleasure or beige, e.g. joue cheek /ʒu/ |
| /ʁ/ | a gargling noise in your throat, e.g. roue wheel /ʁu/ (Here's the trick: Lift up your chin up high and pretend you are gargling some water. You will feel your throat and vocal cords vibrate. That fleshy ball that hangs at the back of your throat, the uvula, should be making the sound.) |
| /l/ | as in lip, e.g. loue (he) rents /lu/ |
Semi-consonants are very short gliding sounds. They sound like short vowels and behave like consonants.
| /j/ | y as in yell or mayonaise, e.g. sien his /sjɛ̃/ |
| /ɥ/ | a y sound (as in yell) with puckered lips, e.g. huit eight /ɥit/ (This is actually a short version of the /y/ sound described in the Vowels section below.) |
| /w/ | as in want or sweep, e.g. soin care /swɛ̃/ |
| /a/ | an open ah as in father or as the a used in German or Spanish |
| /e/ | as in day but without the y sound at the end (Try to say day with a Scottish accent.) |
| /ɛ/ | as in English fed |
| /ə/ | a weak version of /œ/, e.g. ce this /sə/ (In spoken language, this sound is shortened or dropped completely in many words.) |
| /i/ | as the ee sound in machine |
| /o/ | as in Scottish go or no, or American English oh without curving the lips into a w sound at the end. |
| /ɔ/ | somewhat like the uh sound in gun, luck |
| /ø/ | a puckered eh sound, like German öh. (Carefully place your lips as if to say "oo" but then say "eh", keeping your lips in this puckered position.) |
| /œ/ | similar to British English murder or German öffnen |
| /u/ | an oo sound like in cool |
| /y/ | a rounded ee sound as in German über (Carefully place your lips as if to say "oo" but then say "ee", keeping your lips in this puckered position.) |
| /ɑ̃/ | pronounced as in long French spelling: an, am, en, em Example: sans without /sɑ̃/ (Compare the English words law and long. Say them out loud. They use exactly the same vowel, but in the second one, you will feel air starting to come out of your nose in the middle of the aw sound as you prepare to pronounce the ng at the end. The French /ɑ̃/ sound does not have this ng sound at the end, but it does have the nose-air release, just like in English long.) |
/ɛ̃/ | pronounced as in land French spelling: in, im, ain, aim, (i)en, ein Example: sein breast /sɛ̃/ (As the exercise above, compare the English words lad and land out loud. They both use the same vowel. The first is not nasalized. The second one is. The French /ɛ̃/ sound should resonate through your nose the same way the word land does.) |
/ɔ̃/ | pronounced as in bone French spelling: on, om Example: son sound /sɑ̃/ (Compare bow (not nasalized) with bone (nasalized). You want the nasal oh sound, but without adding an n at the end.) |
/œ̃/ | French spelling: un, um, eun Example: un one /œ̃/ (This sound is dying out; most French people nowadays pronounce it exactly like /ɛ̃/. See above.) |
The symbol /‿/ is used to indicate liaison. Basically it means a consonant sound was added at the end of a word, and it sounds as if it's actually at the beginning of the next word. On this site, we use the symbol +V to indicate this.
Pronunciation: /a/ /ɑ̃/ /b/ /d/ /e/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /ɛ̃/ /f/ /g/ /i/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ɲ/ /ŋ/ /o/ /ɔ/ /ɔ̃/ /ø/ /œ/ /œ̃/ /p/ /ʁ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /t/ /u/ /ɥ/ /v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ /ʒ/ more...
Phonetic font: Lucida Sans Unicode
