Letters:
| a | as in father |
| b | as in bed |
| c | before e, i or y as in city or as in camp, cook elsewhere |
| d | as in dandy |
| e | (long) as in men or (short) as in fur or (silent) at the end of a polysyllabic word |
| f | as in fork |
| g | before a, o, u as in get before e or i as in rouge |
| h | silent |
| i | (long) as in machine or (short) as in fit |
| j | as in rouge |
| k | (used in foreign words only) as in kind |
| l | as in label |
| m | as in master |
| n | as in no |
| o | as in forever |
| p | as in pet |
| q | as in kick |
| r | as in carrot (but pronounced in the back of the throat) |
| s | as in sink, as in reason |
| t | as in cashed |
| u | No English equivalent; round lips (as if to whistle) and pronounce "he". |
| v | as in vase |
| w | as in vase (used in foreign words only) |
| x | as in axe |
| y | as in meet |
| z | as in zinnia |
Other sounds:
| à (accent grave) | as in father |
| â (accent circonflexe) | as in yacht |
| ai | as in play |
| ail | as in buy |
| au | as in boat |
| ç (cédille) | as in sit |
| ch | as in ship |
| é (accent aigu) | as in debut |
| è (accent grave) | as in ghetto |
| ê (accent circonflexe) | as in ghetto |
| eau | like oh |
| er | at the end of a polysyllabic word, like eh? or at the end of a one-syllable word, like air |
| eu | as in fur |
| ez | at the end of a word, like eh? |
| gn | as in companion |
| ou | as in root |
| ph | as in phrase |
French also has nasalized vowels:
[an], [en], [in], [on], [un]:
enfant (child), champ (field), dent (tooth), temps (time), vin (wine) bon (good) un (one), brun (brown)
See Also: