The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) shows French language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.
English estimations are in some cases very approximate. They are only meant to give a general idea of the pronunciation.
Unlike most European languages, French has no stress at the level of the word. So, stress marks should not be used in transcribing French words.
| Consonants
|
|---|
| IPA |
Examples |
Nearest word in English
|
|---|
| b
|
beau
|
beau
| | d
|
doux
|
do
| | f
|
fête
|
festival
| | ɡ
|
gain
|
gain
| | ɥ
|
huit
|
(simultaneous y and w)
| | j
|
fief, fille
|
yes
| | k
|
queue, cabas
|
sky
| | l
|
loup
|
clean
| | m
|
mou
|
moo
| | n
|
nous
|
no
| | ɲ
|
agneau
|
canyon
| | p
|
passé
|
spy
| | ʁ[1] |
roue
|
(French "r")
| | s
|
sœur, hausse
|
sir
| | ʃ
|
chou
|
shoe
| | t
|
tout
|
sty
| | v
|
vous
|
view
| | w
|
oui
|
we
| | z
|
zain, hase
|
zoo
| | ʒ
|
joue, geai
|
measure
| | Marginal consonants
|
|---|
| ŋ
|
parking
|
parking
|
|
| Vowels
|
|---|
| IPA |
Examples |
Nearest word in English
|
|---|
| a
|
patte
|
pat
| | ɑ[2] |
pâte
|
bra
| | ɑ̃
|
sans
|
Nasalized [ɑ]
| | e
|
clé
|
clay
| | ɛ
|
faite
|
festival
| | ɛː[3] |
fête
|
(as [ɛ], but longer)
| | ɛ̃
|
saint
|
Nasalized [ɛ] or [æ]
| | ə[4] |
repeser
|
about, sofa
| | i
|
si
|
see
| | œ
|
sœur
|
similar to bird
| | œ̃[5] |
brun
|
Nasalized [œ]
| | ø
|
ceux
|
similar to bird
| | o
|
sot
|
sole
| | ɔ
|
sort
|
sort
| | ɔ̃
|
son
|
Nasalized [ɔ] or [ɒ]
| | u
|
sous
|
zoo
| | y
|
tu
|
similar to cute
|
- ↑ The French rhotic is different 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])
- ↑ often replaced by [a]
- ↑ often replaced by [ɛ]; not found in standard French
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ often replaced by [ɛ̃]
|
