Wikipedia:IPA for French

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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 beau doux fte; pharmacie gain; guerre cabas; archaque; aquarelle; kelvin loup mou; femme nous; bonne agneaux parking pass English approximation beau do festival gain sky loop moo no roughly like canyon sing spy IPA Vowels Examples patte pte; glas[2] cl; les; chez; aller; pied mre; est; abdomen; faite fte; matre[3] le; reposer[4] si; le; y sur; jeune ceux; jene sot; htel; haut; bureau sort; minimum coup tu; sr English approximation pat bra pay best best (longer) minor (often elided) beet (shorter) roughly like bird (esp. in RP) mole hot coo (shorter) roughly like cute

b d f k l m n p s t v z j w

roue; rhume[1] guttural r sa; hausse; ce; garon; sir option; scie chou; schme; shampooing shoe tout; th vous; wagon hasard; zro joue; geai sty view zeal measure

a e i o u y

Nasal vowels sans; champ; vent; temps; Jean; nasalized [] taon vin; impair; pain; daim; plein; nasalized [] Reims; bien brun, parfum[5] son; nom Suprasegmentals nasalized [] nasalized []

Semivowels fief; payer; fille; travail yes oui; loi; moyen; web huit we between yet and wet IPA

Example moyen [mwaj][6] pays [pe.i][7] les agneaux [lezao]

Explanation phrasal stress syllable boundary liaison[8]

Notes
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 [] and a uvular trill [] and sometimes [] (after voiceless consonants). 2. ^ In European French, // is often replaced by [a]. 3. ^ In European French, // is often replaced by []. 4. ^ In French, // is pronounced with some lip rounding []; for a number of speakers, it is also more front and may even be phonetically identical to the vowel of sur [s]. 5. ^ In European French, // is often replaced by []. 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.