How to Pronounce French Semi-Vowels

Learn the pronunciation of French semi-vowels

This tutorial presents an overview of the rules of European/metropolitan French pronunciation, focusing on the vowels, consonants, stress, and intonation patterns that are different from American English. For more practice with comprehension and pronunciation, please check the listening and repetition exercises.

For more French learning through authentic videos, I recommend Yabla French and FluentU. For audiobooks and lessons of modern French, try French Today. I've recommended some French books at Amazon, and Interlinear books are great for learning French by reading literal translations in English. French Listening and Authentic French provide audio and video clips of real, spoken French in various accents with transcripts so you can listen and read along, plus some exercises to test your comprehension. Need even more French? Try the French courses at Udemy or consider purchasing French Language Tutorial as an e-book to support ielanguages.com.

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For more French learning through authentic videos, I recommend Yabla French and FluentU. For audiobooks and lessons of modern French, try French Today. I've recommended some French books at Amazon, and Interlinear books are great for learning French by reading literal translations in English. Need even more French? Try the French courses at Udemy

French Semi-Vowels

Semi-vowels can also be called glides or approximants.

Semi-Vowels

IPA	Phonetic spelling	Sample words	General spelling
[w]	w	fois, oui, Louis	oi, ou
[ɥ]	ew-ee	lui, suisse	ui
[j]	yuh	oreille, Mireille	ill, y

 

Some words ending in -ille(r) pronounce the l, however: ville, mille, tranquille, distiller, osciller, etc.

 

Words in Contrast

[wa] - [a]	loi	la
[ɥ] - [y]	lui	Lu
[ej] - [e]	pareil	paré
[aj] - [a]	bail	bas

 

Notice that words ending in -eil or -eille are pronounced [ej], while words ending in -ail or -aille are pronounced [aj].

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