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Appendix:French Pronunciation Definition

Appendix:French pronunciation

Wikipedia has an article on: Wikipedia:IPA for French

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents French pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

English approximations are in some cases very approximate, and only intended to give a general idea of the pronunciation. See French phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds.

French has no word-level stress, so stress marks should not be used in transcribing French words. See here for explanation.

Consonants
IPA Examples Nearest English equivalent
b beau beau
d deux do
f fête festival
ɡ gain, guerre gain
ɥ huit simultaneous [j] and [w]
j ciel, fille yes
k que, cabas sky
l le clean
m moi moo
n nous no
ɲ espagnol, agneau canyon
ŋ parking parking
p passé spy
ʁ[1] roue, français Somewhat like red
s sœur, hausse, garçon sir
ʃ chef shoe
t tout sty
v vous view
w oui we
z onze zoo
ʒ je, voyage measure
Vowels
IPA Examples Nearest English equivalent
Oral
a patte pat
ɑ[2] pâte bra
e aller, clé none, generally approximated to clay
ɛ faite festival
ɛː[3] fête as IPA: [ɛ], but longer
ə[4] je sofa or Received Pronunciation bird; often elided
i si see
œ sœur similar to Received Pronunciation bird
ø ceux similar to bird
o mot sole
ɔ orange sort
u sous zoo
y tu none; like [i] but with lip rounding.
Nasal
ɑ̃ sans Nasalized [ɑ] or [ɒ]
ɛ̃ cinq Nasalized [ɛ] or [æ]
œ̃[5] brun Nasalized [œ]
ɔ̃ son Nasalized [ɔ] or [o]
Other symbols
IPA Explanation
. Syllable break
‿ Liaison: latent final consonant is pronounced before a following vowel sound

Notes

  1. ^ The French rhotic varies from region to region, though it is often uvular, especially in Northern France; the more common pronunciations include a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] and a uvular trill [ʀ]
  2. ^ often replaced by [a] in speech; often transcribed with /a/ too.
  3. ^ often replaced by [ɛ]; rare among younger speakers in France; rarely transcribed as /ɛː/ on Wiktionary.
  4. ^ In French, /ə/ is pronounced with some lip rounding; for a number of speakers, it is also more front and may even be phonetically identical to the vowel of sœur.
  5. ^ often replaced by [ɛ̃]

 

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