French Phonetic Chart
Learn all of the vowel and consonant sounds in French with this free, interactive French Phonetic Chart.
Click on any sound or word to hear my pronunciation.
This chart is from our book
38 French Sounds That Will Transform Your Pronunciation.
It’s free and you can get it here
https://ceciestlafrance.com/get-e-book-38-french-sounds/
Improve your pronunciation with this IPA chart with sounds
Are you looking to ace your pronunciation? Would you like to know how to pronounce vowels and consonants properly? What about clusters and nasals ? Then look no further than our page with an interactive IPA chart below. You’ll be speaking our language fantastically in no time.
What is the French Phonetic Alphabet or IPA
The International Phonetic Table, also known as the International Phonetic Alphabet (or IPA), was formulated in the 19th century by the International Phonetic Association. It is based mainly on the Latin alphabet.
This tool is widely used by linguists and contains symbols representing the sounds of spoken languages. In the case of French, these symbols make it possible to transcribe the sounds actually pronounced, without relying on the sometimes misleading spelling.
Standard French (particularly that spoken in Paris, sometimes called reference French) uses around 36 to 38 sounds called phonemes. These phonemes are each represented by an API symbol.
🎓 Example
Let’s take the word « oignon » :
Its spelling can be misleading. Its phonetic transcription is [ɔ.ɲɔ̃]
[ɲ] is the “gn” sound
[ɔ̃] is a nasal vowel as in nom or bon
Or the word « eau » → [o], although the letters « e-a-u » may seem more complex.
This should make the French language easier. Let’s take a look deeper below.
Why even bother with the phonetics Alphabet
Think of the phonetic alphabet like a cheat code to the French language.
Before you can pronounce words correctly, you need to know how sounds are represented.
This chapter is your backstage pass to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a tool that’ll make you sound more French, faster.
No fluff, just the essentials to decode any tricky French word.
Do you need to learn the whole alphabet ? Of course not, only a teacher will do such a thing.
At first you can focus on the sounds you are unsure or unfamiliar with.
Then if you want to become a master, the Phonetic Alphabet is right here.
French Phonetic Chart structure
There are six important areas to consider when looking at this. The chart is divided into vowels , the letter « e », consonants, consonant clusters, vowel clusters and nasals and each of them have their own symbols.
You maybe familiar with most of them already but some of them will be easier to grasp after these definitions.
The letter « e » : A real chameleon ! It’s one of the most common letters in the French language, but also one of the most complex to pronounce, as it can represent several sounds.
Consonant clusters : Is a set of two (or more) consonants that follow each other without any vowel between them.
Vowel clusters : Is a succession of two or more vowels in a word, either in writing or (more importantly) in pronunciation.
Nasals : Is a sound produced by passing air through both the mouth and thenose.
Are you ready to take a closer look at the letter « e », consonant clusters, vowel clusters and nasals and hear their characters?
The letter « e » in the French Phonetic Chart
Take a look at the the letter « e » section.
Of course, there are more words that can be included in each of the sections.
[e] : épinard (spinach) assez (enough) Dîner (dinner)
[ɛ] : chèvre (goat) pêche (enough) Noël (christmas)
Consonant clusters in the French Phonetic Chart
Like the letter « e » take a look at the consonant clusters section and the list below for more examples.
[ʃ] : chut (sush) chat (cat) chemise (shirt)
[ɲ] : campagne (countryside) bagnole (slang for car) champagne (sparkling wine)
Vowel clusters in the French Phonetic Chart
Like the consonant clusters vowels have their own clusters in French. Look at the list below for more examples.
[u] : fou (crazy) loup (wolf) sous (coin)
[ø] : Mathieu (man’s name) courageux (brave) euros (European currency)
[wa] : loi (law) oiseau (bird) noix (walnut)
Nasals in the French Phonetic Chart
Nasals are very French. You can find more examples in the list below.
[ã] : Français (French) campagne (countryside) ensemble (together)
[ɛ̃] : simple (simple) parfum (perfume) train (train)
[ɔ̃] : Léon (man’s name) pompier (firefighter) tonton (uncle)
[wɛ̃] : besoin (need) Shampoing (shampoo) conjoint (partner)
Further Advice
Find the link to our Free French Sound book here https://ceciestlafrance.com/get-e-book-38-french-sounds/
Do you need more help ? If this French Phonetic Chart helped you, get our Ultimate French Pronunciation Course here https://ceciestlafrance.com/ultimate-french-pronunciation-course/
Look at our videos on pronunciation. They will help you get the best results.
Everything you need about French Pronunciation and Reading Rules
Consonant Clusters Complete and Full lesson