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Help:IPA/French

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 Template:IPA 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
IPAExamplesEnglish approximation
bbonabout
ddeux, grande, Djiboutitoday
ffaire, viffestival
ɡgarçon, longueagain
kcorps, avec, quand, Iraksky
llaisser, possible, seul, villelaw
mmêmemoo
nnous, bonneno
ɲgagner, champagne[1]canyon
ŋcamping, funk[2]camping
ppère, groupespy
ʁregarder, nôtre[3]Scottish English loch, but voiced; Northumbrian burr
ssans, ça, assez, soixante, sixsir
ʃchance, tchèqueshoe
ttout, thé, tchèquesty
vvous, wagon, neuf heuresvein
zzéro, raison, chose, deuxièmezeal
ʒjamais, visage, Djiboutimeasure
Semivowels
jfief, payer, fille, travail, hieryet
woui, loi, moyen, web, whiskywet
ɥhuit, Puybetweenwet andyet
Vowels
Oral vowels
IPAExamplesEnglish approximation
apatte, là, femmetrap
ɑpâte, glas[4]father
eclé, et, les, chez, aller, pied, journéemace
ɛbaie, faite, mettre, renne, crème, peine, violetbest
ɛːfête, mtre, reine, rtre, caisse, presse, Levesque[4]fairy
əreposer, monsieur, faisons[5]again (often elided, see e muet)
isi, île, régie, pays, fils[6]seat
œsœur, jeunebird (RP)
øceux, jner, queueburn (RP)
osaut, haut, bureau, chose, tôt, cônestory
ɔsort, minimum, pommeoff
ucoup, roue[6]pool
ytu, sûr, rue[6]roughly like tooin some dialects such as Australian;[7] somewhat like cute in other dialects; Germanüber
Nasal vowels
ɑ̃sans, champ, vent, temps, Jean, taonroughly like song; nasalized[ɒ] (Europe) or[a] (Canada)
ɛ̃vin, impair, pain, daim, plein, Reims, synthèse, sympathique, bienroughly like hang; nasalized[æ] (Europe) or[ei̯] (Canada)
œ̃un, parfum[4]roughly like non-rhotic burn; nasalized[œ]
ɔ̃son, nomroughly like Australian drawn; nasalized[o] (Europe) or[ou̯] (Canada)
Suprasegmentals
IPAExampleDescription
.pays[pe.i][8]syllable boundary
les agneaux[lez‿aɲo],
grand-oncle[ɡʁɑ̃t‿ɔ̃kl]
liaison

See also

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Notes

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  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 as in English.
  3. ^The French rhotic/ʁ/ is usually guttural (uvular), but it varies by region. For example, in Quebec, [ʁ], [r], and [ʀ] are all used, but nowadays, most speakers use [ʁ]. This sound may also be devoiced to [χ] in certain contexts; see French phonology § Consonants for details.
  4. ^ abcIn Parisian French, /œ̃/ is usually merged with /ɛ̃/, /ɑ/ is often merged with /a/, and /ɛː/ is normally merged with /ɛ/. These pairs are always distinguished in Northern, Belgian, Swiss, and Quebec French.
  5. ^In Metropolitan French, while /ə/ is phonologically distinct, its phonetic quality tends to coincide with either /ø/ or /œ/.
  6. ^ abcIn Quebec, /i/, /u/, and /y/ may be laxed before a consonant to [ɪ], [ʊ], and [ʏ], e.g. For more details, see Quebec French phonology § Vowels.
  7. ^More dialects include New Zealand, most accents of Southern England (including Multicultural London, Cockney, Estuary and modern Received Pronunciation), Scouse, Mancunian, Scottish, Ulster, Southern American, Midland American, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and younger Californian.
  8. ^The syllable break ⟨.⟩ is used sparingly.
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