WP:IPA for French

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 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 pâte bra ɑ̃ sans Nasalized [ɑ] e clé clay ɛ faite festival ɛː fête (as [ɛ], but longer) ɛ̃ saint Nasalized [ɛ] or [æ] ə repeser about, sofa i si see œ sœur similar to bird œ̃ 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 Notes