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ForumGeneral info about French sounds
Letters & Sounds --> General info about sounds
French has 36 sounds that are devided into vowels, consonants and semi-consonants. Some other sounds can occasionally be used in French, but they occur in various words borrowed from other languages and are not properly French.
Vowels
There are 16 vowels in French which include 4 nasal vowels. Please note that the nasal sound [œ̃] is most often replaced with the sound [ε̃] in modern French. Also, the sound [ɑ] is disappearing and it is replaced by [a].
| Sound | Transcription | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| [a] | date, valse | |
| [ε] | belle, crème, fête, maire | |
| [œ] | directeur, sœur, œil | |
| [ə] | de, que, mener, monsieur | |
| [i] | ami, type, naïf, île | |
| [e] | café, parler, nez, tes | |
| [ø] | peu, deux, sérieuse, vœu | |
| [y] | lune, sûr, j’ai eu, gageure | |
| [ɔ] | homme, laure, automne | |
| [o] | rose, pot, rôle, haut, peau | |
| [u] | fou, groupe, août | |
| [ɑ] | âme, bas, tasse, vase | |
| [ɑ̃] | plan, lampe, centre, temps | |
| [ɔ̃] | garçon, rond, bombe | |
| [ε̃] | vin, simple, synthèse, nymphe, rien | |
| [œ̃] | un, brun, parfum |
Consonants
French has 17 consonants. The sound [ŋ] occurs only in words borrowed from other languages and is not properly French.
| Sound | Transcription | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| [p] | stop, soupe, coupe, jupe | |
| [b] | snob, cube, aube, pub | |
| [t] | acte, sept, patte, liste | |
| [d] | sud, vide, mode, stade | |
| [k] | cosaque, lac, sac, duc | |
| [g] | gare, guerre, fugue, dague | |
| [f] | chef, actif, naïf, vif | |
| [v] | cave, vive, élève, mauve | |
| [s] | sac, caisse, passe, os | |
| [z] | douze, gaz, dose, chose | |
| [ʃ] | pêche, miche, mouche, tache | |
| [ʒ] | beige, cage, sage, plage | |
| [m] | charme, album, islam, mime | |
| [n] | lune, bonne, colline | |
| [l] | lune, villa, île | |
| [ʁ] | raide, vrai, parade, gare, sucre | |
| [ɲ] | oignon, Espagne, gagner | |
| [ŋ] | parking, camping, bingo |
Semi-consonants (or semi-vowels)
| Sound | Transcription | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| [j] | bien, détail, travailler, yoga | |
| [ɥ] | nuit, duel, linguiste | |
| [w] | ouest, noir, trois, point |
French sounds classification
Vowels
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||
| Close | i | y | u |
| Close-mid | e | ø | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ - ɛ˜ | œ-œ˜ (ə) |
ɔ˜ ɔ |
| Open | a | ɑ - ɑ˜ | |
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Plosive | p-b | t-d | k-g | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Fricative | f-v | s-z | ʃ-ʒ | ʁ | ||||
| Approximant | j | ɥ | w | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||