FRENCH & ENGLISH VOWELS

sounds vs. letters of the alphabet

How many vowel-sounds
do we have in English?
How many vowel-letters do we have in
the alphabet in order to represent all the
vowel-sounds available in English?

I
vowel-sounds common to both French & English

1
ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes
FRENCH: 2 allophones of the same phoneme

ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes

FRENCH: 2 allophones of the same phoneme

SUMMER
French spelling rule to represent this sound =

-e* / eu /u
ex: le feu l uf le buf me te se
(*) when placed at the end of a multisyllabic word,
the letter -e is usually silent

ex: le meuble
3

ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes

FRENCH: 2 allophones of the same phoneme

BOOK vs. BOOT

French spelling rule to represent this sound =

ou
ex: le fou le pou doudou
exception => oo mostly in words borrowed from English

ex: cool, le look

4

ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes

FRENCH: 2 allophones of the same phoneme
CAT vs. CART
French spelling rule to represent this sound =

a//
ex: Papa Tata Nana la pte la patte Canada
exception => e in la femme

ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes

FRENCH: 2 allophones of the same phoneme
TO LIVE vs. TO LEAVE
French spelling rule to represent this sound =

i/y
ex: Tim lami(e) Annie la vie
exception => ee mostly in words borrowed from English
ex: le tee-shirt
6

ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes

FRENCH: 2 allophones of the same phoneme
COCK vs. COKE
French spelling rule to represent this sound =

o / / eau / au
ex: le job - de leau le taureau le veau le dodo
Note => some dialects of French have retained the
distinction between closed o and open o, usually in
order to indicate gender difference
ex: Paul vs. Paule
7

I
vowel-sounds common to both French & English

2
ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes
FRENCH: 2 different phonemes too!

ENGLISH: 2 different phonemes

FRENCH: 2 different phonemes too!
BAIT vs. BET
French spelling rule to represent these 2 different sounds =

BAIT: / / -ed / -et / -er / -ez

ex: le pr le prt le nez le pied chez Dd

BET: / ai / ei / -elle / -enne / -ette / -esse

ex: la mre le pre le frre la craie elle la veine
lolienne les fesses la cassette
9

II
vowel-sounds specific only to French
1
le u
and German

2
nasal vowels
and Portuguese

3
some diphthongs
10

1) the (in)famous French

same as German
In theory, no equivalent in English. Good approximation:
Phew! Pappi LaPhew!

u/

French spelling rule to represent this sound =

ex: a pue! tu pues! il pue! mre le mur plus!
exceptions =>
-preterit forms & imperfect subjunctive forms of avoir (not longer in use)
-past participle of avoir, spelled =

eu

ex: jai eu
11

nasal vowel 1
same as Portuguese bem
if it were written phonetically in English: [e(n)],
good approximation in English: aint, the saint
French spelling rule to represent this sound =

in / imp/b(1) / ain / aimp/b(1) / ein / i/en(2)

ex: cinq limpt le pain le chien europen Calvin Klein
Note => adding the letter e to a nasal consonant (in final position)
de-nasalizes the sound
ex: le vilain / la vilaine
(1)
(2)

spelled with an m before the letters p or b

the vowel that comes before is also pronounced

12

nasal vowel 2
if it were written phonetically in English:
[euh(n)], where [euh] is pronounced more or less
like the oo in good and (n) equals the nasal
sound
French spelling rule to represent this sound =

un / um
ex: un lundi parfum - brun
13

nasal vowel 3
same as Portuguese
if it were written phonetically in English:
[ah(n)] => Henri \ ah(n)-rHee
approximation in English: arent, aunt
French spelling rule to represent this sound =

an / amp/b / en / emp/b / aen / aon

ex: la tante la tente le temps le champ
14

nasal vowel 4
same as Portuguese bom
if it were written phonetically in English:
[o(n)], where [o] is pronounced like the O
in cold and (n) equals the nasal sound
French spelling rule to represent this sound
= on /omp/b
ex: onze le bonbon le comptable
15

3) DIPHTHONGS & TRIPHTHONGS

What are diphthongs?
Diphthongs occur when 2 vowel-sounds (i.e.: 2 distinct
syllable nucleii) merge into 1 vowel-sound (i.e.: 1
syllable). Thus, the first vowel-sound becomes a semiconsonant.
Some diphthongs in English:
yes, yeah, water, watt
In written English, the letters y and w (followed by
another vowel) are usually used to represent diphthongs
occurring in initial position
16

DIPHTHONGS & TRIPHTHONGS

In French, there are 3 vowel-sounds that can
produce a diphthong when combined with
another vowel-sound:
1) the vowel-sound i (initial & final positions)
2) the vowel-sound ou (initial position only)
3) the vowel-sound u (initial position only)
there are, however, specific spelling rules to
represent these diphthongs in writing
17

Written representations in French of a diphthong

that uses the vowel-sound i as a semi-consonant
In FINAL position, spell it this way =
vowel other than i + il(l)
ex: la feuille, la rouille, le conseil, la fille, lal;
exception: la ville (same pronunciation as in English)
In INITIAL position, spell it the following way =
i + vowel
ex: la viande, la commission, le pied
In INITIAL position, some words (usually imported
from other languages) are also spelled with the letter
y
ex: le yakuza, le yatch
18

Written representations of a diphthong that uses

the vowel-sound ou as a semi-consonant
A few words are spelled this way =
ou + vowel
ex:
ou + i
=> oui
ou +
=> ouais
ou + in
=> ouin
ou + a
=> oua
Most words that include this last diphthong (ou + a),
however are spelled the following way =
oi
ex: la joie, le foie, la foi, loie, toi, moi
exception: le quadrilatre,
le kilo-watt,
ua
wa le water-polo,
wa
le/la drag-queen
uee (usually in scientific words or words
imported from other languages)
19

Written representations of a diphthong

that uses the vowel-sound u as a semi-consonant

French spelling rule to represent this

diphthong =
ui
ex: lhuile, la tuile, suivre, huit, cui-cui

20

Function of the letter y

When placed after the letter a, the letter y can represent
in writing the following sounds:
ai + i(as a vowel) + consonant
ex: le paysan, le paysage
ai + i(as a semiconsonant) [+ vowel]
ex: payer, le crayon
When placed after the letter o, the letter y will represent
in writing the following sound:
oi + i(as a semiconsoant) [+ vowel]
ex: le voyou, le voyage
21