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Wikipedia:IPA for French

Mayelana Wikipedia

Template:IPAkeys 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 rough, 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 English approximation
Template:IPAlink beau beau
Template:IPAlink doux do
Template:IPAlink fête; pharmacie festival
Template:IPAlink gain; guerre gain
Template:IPAlink cabas; archque; aquarelle; kelvin sky
Template:IPAlink loup loop
Template:IPAlink mou; femme moo
Template:IPAlink nous; bonne no
Template:IPAlink agneaux roughly like canyon
Template:IPAlink parking sing
Template:IPAlink passé spy
Template:IPAlink roue; rhume[1] guttural r
Template:IPAlink sa; hausse; ce; garçon; option; scie sir
Template:IPAlink chou; schème; shampooing shoe
Template:IPAlink tout; thé sty
Template:IPAlink vous; wagon view
Template:IPAlink hasard; zéro zeal
Template:IPAlink joue; geai measure
Semivowels
Template:IPAlink fief; payer; fille; travail yes
Template:IPAlink oui; loi; moyen; web we
Template:IPAlink huit between yet and wet
Vowels
  IPA   Examples English approximation
Template:IPAlink patte pat
Template:IPAlink pâte; glas[2] bra
Template:IPAlink clé; les; chez; aller; pied pay
Template:IPAlink mère; est; abdomen; faite best
Template:IPAlink fête; mtre[3] long Template:IPAblink
Template:IPAlink le; reposer[4] minor (often elided)
Template:IPAlink si; île; y beet
Template:IPAlink sœur; jeune roughly like bird
(esp. in RP)
Template:IPAlink ceux; jne
Template:IPAlink sot; hôtel; haut; bureau mole
Template:IPAlink sort; minimum sore
Template:IPAlink coup coo
Template:IPAlink tu; sûr roughly like cute
Nasal vowels
Template:IPAlink sans; champ; vent; temps; Jean; taon nasalized Template:IPAblink
Template:IPAlink vin; impair; pain; daim; plein; Reims; bien nasalized Template:IPAblink
Template:IPAlink brun, parfum[5] nasalized Template:IPAblink
Template:IPAlink son; nom nasalized Template:IPAblink
 
Suprasegmentals
IPA Example Explanation
Template:IPAlink moyen [mwaˈjɛ̃][6] phrasal stress
Template:IPAlink pays [pe.i][7] syllable boundary
les agneaux [lez‿aˈɲo] liaison[8]
  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 Template:IPAblink and a uvular trill Template:IPAblink and sometimes Template:IPAblink (after voiceless consonants).
  2. In European French, Template:IPAslink is often replaced by Template:IPAblink.
  3. Template:IPAslink is often replaced by Template:IPAblink, particularly among younger speakers in France.
  4. In French, Template:IPAslink is pronounced with some lip rounding [ɵ̞]; for a number of speakers, it is also more front and may even be phonetically identical to the vowel of sœur [sœʁ].
  5. Template:IPAslink is often replaced by Template:IPAblink.
  6. Stress falls on the last full syllable of a phrase, except in emphatic speech.
  7. Used sparingly.
  8. Latent final consonant is pronounced before a following vowel sound.