Help:IPA/French

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of French on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of French in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Shortcuts

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 {{IPA-fr}}, {{IPAc-fr}} 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	today
f	faire, vif	festival
ɡ	garçon, longue	again
k	corps, avec	sky
l	laisser, possible, seul	loo
m	même	moo
n	nous, bonne	no
ɲ	gagner, champagne^[1]	canyon; nothing yet
ŋ	camping, funk^[2]	camping
p	père, groupe	spy
ʁ	regarder, nôtre^[3]	Guttural R, Scottish English loch, but voiced
s	sans, ça, assez	sir
ʃ	chance	shoe
t	tout, thé, grand-oncle	sty
v	vous, wagon, neuf heures	vein
z	zéro, raison, chose	zeal
ʒ	jamais, visage	measure
Semivowels
j	fief, payer, fille, travail, hier	yet
w	oui, loi, moyen, web, whisky	wet
ɥ	huit, Puy	Huey

Vowels
Oral vowels
IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	patte, là, femme	trap
ɑ	pâte, glas^[4]	bra
e	clé, les, chez, aller, pied, journée, et	mace
ɛ	baie, faite, mettre, renne, crème, peine, violet	best
ɛː	fête, maître, reine, reître, caisse, presse, Lévesque^[4]	fairy
ə	reposer, monsieur, faisons^[5]	again (often elided, see e muet)
i	si, île, régie, pays, fils	seat
œ	sœur, jeune, club (Europe)	bird (British)
ø	ceux, jeûner, queue	burn (British)
o	saut, haut, bureau, chose, tôt, cône	story
ɔ	sort, minimum, pomme	off
u	coup, roue	shoot
y	tu, sûr, rue	roughly like too in Australian English
Nasal vowels
ɑ̃	sans, champ, vent, temps, Jean, taon	roughly like song; nasalized [ɒ] (Europe) or [a] (Quebec)
ɛ̃	vin, impair, pain, daim, plein, Reims, synthèse, sympathique, bien	roughly like hang; nasalized [æ] (Europe) or [ei̯] (Quebec)
œ̃	un, parfum^[4]	roughly like burn; nasalized [œ]
ɔ̃	son, nom	roughly like drawn (Australian); nasalized [o] (France) or [ou̯] (Quebec)

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Example	Description
.	pays [pe.i]^[6]	syllable boundary
‿	les agneaux [lez‿aɲo]	liaison^[7]

NotesEdit

^ In European French, /ɲ/ is merging with /nj/, but in Quebec, /ɲ/ is distinguished from /nj/
^ In European French, /ŋ/ is often pronounced [ŋɡ]. In Quebec, some speakers merge it with /ɲ/ and some speakers pronounce it exactly in English.
^ The French rhotic /ʁ/ is usually uvular, but it varies by region. For example, in Quebec, [ʁ], [r] and [ʀ] are all used, but nowadays, most speakers pronounce [ʁ].
^ ^a ^b ^c In Parisian French, /œ̃/ is usually merged with /ɛ̃/, /ɑ/ with /a/ and /ɛː/ with /ɛ/. These pairs are always distinguished in Belgian, Swiss and Quebec French.
^ In French French, while /ə/ is phonologically distinct, its phonetic quality tends to coincide with either /ø/ or /œ/.
^ The syllable break ⟨.⟩ is used sparingly.
^ In liaison, the latent final consonant is pronounced before a following vowel sound, but s and x are voiced and pronounced [z], and d is unvoiced and pronounced [t].

[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 in English.

[3] The French rhotic /ʁ/ is usually uvular, but it varies by region. For example, in Quebec, [ʁ], [r] and [ʀ] are all used, but nowadays, most speakers pronounce [ʁ].

[merger-4] In Parisian French, /œ̃/ is usually merged with /ɛ̃/, /ɑ/ with /a/ and /ɛː/ with /ɛ/. These pairs are always distinguished in Belgian, Swiss and Quebec French.

[5] In French French, while /ə/ is phonologically distinct, its phonetic quality tends to coincide with either /ø/ or /œ/.

[6] The syllable break ⟨.⟩ is used sparingly.

[7] In liaison, the latent final consonant is pronounced before a following vowel sound, but s and x are voiced and pronounced [z], and d is unvoiced and pronounced [t].

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

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