French phonology

French phonology is the sound system of French. This article discusses mainly the phonology of all the varieties of Standard French. Notable phonological features include its uvular r, nasal vowels, and three processes affecting word-final sounds:


 * liaison, a specific instance of sandhi in which word-final consonants are not pronounced unless they are followed by a word beginning with a vowel;
 * elision, in which certain instances of (schwa) are elided (such as when final before an initial vowel);
 * (resyllabification) in which word-final and word-initial consonants may be moved across a syllable boundary, with syllables crossing word boundaries:

An example of the above is this:
 * Written: On a laissé la fenêtre ouverte.
 * Meaning: "We left the window open."
 * In isolation:
 * Together:

Consonants
Phonetic notes:
 * are laminal denti-alveolar, while are dentalised laminal alveolar  (commonly called 'dental'), pronounced with the blade of the tongue very close to the back of the upper front teeth, with the tip resting behind lower front teeth.
 * Word-final consonants are always released. Generally, are voiced throughout and  are unaspirated.
 * is usually apical alveolar but sometimes laminal denti-alveolar . Before, it can be realised as retroflex.
 * In current pronunciation, is merging with.
 * The velar nasal is not a native phoneme of French, but it occurs in loan words such as,  or . Some speakers who have difficulty with this consonant realise it as a sequence  or replace it with . It could be considered a separate phoneme in Meridional French, e.g. pain  ('bread') vs. penne  ('quill').
 * The approximants correspond to the close vowels . While there are a few minimal pairs (such as   's/he rented' and   'law'), there are many cases where there is free variation.
 * Belgian French may merge with  or.
 * Some dialects of French have a palatal lateral (French: l mouillé, 'wet l'), but in the modern standard variety, it has merged with . See also Glides and diphthongs, below.
 * The French rhotic has a wide range of realizations: the voiced uvular fricative, also realised as an approximant , with a voiceless positional allophone , the uvular trill , the alveolar trill , and the alveolar tap . These are all recognised as the phoneme , but and  are considered dialectal. The most common pronunciation is  as a default realisation, complemented by a devoiced variant  in the positions before or after a voiceless obstruent or at the end of a sentence. See French guttural r and map at right.
 * Velars and  may become palatalised to  and  before, and more variably before . Word-final  may also be palatalised to . Velar palatalisation has traditionally been associated with the working class, though recent studies suggest it is spreading to more demographics of large French cities.

Geminates
Although double consonant letters appear in the orthographic form of many French words, geminate consonants are relatively rare in the pronunciation of such words. The following cases can be identified.

The geminate pronunciation is found in the future and conditional forms of the verbs  ('to run') and  ('to die'). The conditional form il mourrait ('he would die'), for example, contrasts with the imperfect form il mourait  ('he was dying'). In some other words, most modern speakers have reduced to, such as "il pourrait" ('he could'). Other verbs that have a double $⟨rr⟩$ orthographically in the future and conditional are pronounced with a simple : il pourra ('he will be able to'), il verra ('he will see').

When the prefix combines with a base that begins with n, the resulting word is sometimes pronounced with a geminate  and similarly for the variants of the same prefix im-, il-, ir-:
 * ('innate')
 * ('immortal')
 * ('illegible')
 * ('irresponsible')

Other cases of optional gemination can be found in words like ('syllable'),  ('grammar'), and  ('illusion'). The pronunciation of such words, in many cases, a spelling pronunciation varies by speaker and gives rise to widely varying stylistic effects. In particular, the gemination of consonants other than the liquids and nasals is "generally considered affected or pedantic". Examples of stylistically marked pronunciations include  ('addition') and   ('intelligence').

Gemination of doubled $⟨m⟩$ and $⟨n⟩$ is typical of the Languedoc region, as opposed to other southern accents.

A few cases of gemination do not correspond to double consonant letters in the orthography. The deletion of word-internal schwas (see below), for example, can give rise to sequences of identical consonants: là-dedans ('inside'), l'honnêteté  ('honesty'). The elided form of the object pronoun l '  ('him/her/it') is also realised as a geminate when it appears after another l to avoid misunderstanding: Gemination is obligatory in such contexts.
 * Il l'a mangé ('He ate it')
 * Il a mangé ('He ate')

Finally, a word pronounced with emphatic stress can exhibit gemination of its first syllable-initial consonant:
 * formidable ('terrific')
 * épouvantable ('horrible')

Liaison
Many words in French can be analyzed as having a "latent" final consonant that is pronounced only in certain syntactic contexts when the next word begins with a vowel. For example, the word  ('two') is pronounced  in isolation or before a consonant-initial word (deux jours  →  'two days'), but in deux ans  (→  'two years'), the linking or liaison consonant  is pronounced.

Vowels
Standard French contrasts up to 13 oral vowels and up to 4 nasal vowels. The schwa (in the center of the diagram next to this paragraph) is not necessarily a distinctive sound. Even though it often merges with one of the mid front rounded vowels, its patterning suggests that it is a separate phoneme (see the subsection Schwa below).

The table below primarily lists vowels in contemporary Parisian French, with vowels only present in other dialects in parentheses.

While some dialects feature a long distinct from  and a distinction between an open front  and an open back, Parisian French features only  and just one open vowel  realised as central. Some dialects also feature a rounded, which has merged with in Paris.

In Metropolitan French, while is phonologically distinct, its phonetic quality tends to coincide with either  or.

Close vowels
In contrast with the mid vowels, there is no tense–lax contrast in close vowels. However, non-phonemic lax (near-close) appear in Quebec as allophones of  when the vowel is both phonetically short (so not before ) and in a closed syllable, so that e.g. petite  'small (f.)' differs from petit 'small (m.)'  not only in the presence of the final  but also in the tenseness of the. Laxing always occurs in stressed closed syllables, but it is also found in other environments to various degrees.

In Metropolitan French, are consistently close, but the exact height of  is somewhat debatable as it has been variously described as close  and near-close.

Mid vowels
Although the mid vowels contrast in certain environments, there is a limited distributional overlap so they often appear in complementary distribution. Generally, close-mid vowels are found in open syllables, and open-mid vowels  are found in closed syllables. However, there are minimal pairs:
 * open-mid and close-mid  contrast in final-position open syllables:
 * ('was going'), vs.  ('gone');
 * likewise, open-mid and  contrast with close-mid  and  mostly in closed monosyllables, such as these:
 * ('young'), vs.  ('fast', verb),
 * ('rock'), vs.  ('hoarse'),
 * ('Rhodes'), vs.  ('[I] lurk'),
 * ('Paul', masculine), vs.  ('Paule', feminine),
 * ('good', feminine), vs.  ('Beaune', the city).

Beyond the general rule, known as the loi de position among French phonologists, there are some exceptions. For instance, and  are found in closed syllables ending in, and only  is found in closed monosyllables before , , and.

The Parisian realization of has been variously described as central  and centralized to  before, in both cases becoming similar to.

The phonemic opposition of and  has been lost in the southern half of France, where these two sounds are found only in complementary distribution. The phonemic oppositions of and  and of  and  in terminal open syllables have been lost in almost all of France, but not in Belgium or in areas with an Arpitan substrate, where  and  are still opposed as  and.

Open vowels
The phonemic contrast between front and back  is sometimes no longer maintained in Parisian French, which leads some researchers to reject the idea of two distinct phonemes. However, the back is always maintained in Northern French, but only in final open syllables,  (lawyer), but in final closed syllables, the  phoneme is fronted to , but it is always long,  (pasta). The distinction is still clearly maintained in many dialects such as Quebec French.

While there is much variation among speakers in France, a number of general tendencies can be observed. First of all, the distinction is most often preserved in word-final stressed syllables such as in these minimal pairs:
 * → ('stain'), vs.   →  ('task')
 * → ('leg'), vs.   →  ('paste, pastry')
 * → ('rat'), vs.   →  ('short')

There are certain environments that prefer one open vowel over the other. For example, is preferred after  and before :
 * ('three'),
 * ('gas').

The difference in quality is often reinforced by a difference in length (but the difference is contrastive in final closed syllables). The exact distribution of the two vowels varies greatly from speaker to speaker.

Back is much rarer in unstressed syllables, but it can be encountered in some common words:
 * ('castle'),
 * ('past').

Morphologically complex words derived from words containing stressed do not retain it:
 * → ('aged', from   → )
 * rarissime →  ('very rare', from   → ).

Even in the final syllable of a word, back may become  if the word in question loses its stress within the extended phonological context:
 * J'ai été au bois →  ('I went to the woods'),
 * J'ai été au bois de Vincennes →  ('I went to the Vincennes woods').

Nasal vowels
The phonetic qualities of the back nasal vowels differ from those of the corresponding oral vowels. The contrasting factor that distinguishes and  is the extra lip rounding of the latter according to some linguists, and tongue height according to others. Speakers who produce both and  distinguish them mainly through increased lip rounding of the former, but many speakers use only the latter phoneme, especially most speakers in northern France such as Paris (but not farther north, in Belgium).

In some dialects, particularly that of Europe, there is an attested tendency for nasal vowels to shift in a counterclockwise direction: tends to be more open and shifts toward the vowel space of  (realised also as ),  rises and rounds to  (realised also as ) and  shifts to  or. Also, in some regions, there also is an opposite movement for for which it becomes more open like, resulting in a merger of Standard French  and  in this case. According to one source, the typical phonetic realization of the nasal vowels in Paris is for,  for  and  for , suggesting that the first two are unrounded open vowels that contrast by backness (like the oral  and  in some accents), whereas  is much closer than.

In Quebec French, two of the vowels shift in a different direction: →, more or less as in Europe, but  →  and  →.

In the Provence and Occitanie regions, nasal vowels are often realized as oral vowels before a stop consonant, thus reviving the $⟨n⟩$ otherwise lost in other accents: quarante →.

Contrary to the oral, there is no attested tendency for the nasal to become central in any accent.

Schwa
When phonetically realised, schwa, also called e  ('dropped e') and e  ('mute e'), is a mid-central vowel with some rounding. Many authors consider its value to be, while Geoff Lindsey suggests. state, more specifically, that it merges with before high vowels and glides:
 * → ('clarity'),
 * → ('workshop'),

in phrase-final stressed position:
 * dis-le ! →  ('say it'),

and that it merges with elsewhere. However, some speakers make a clear distinction, and it exhibits special phonological behavior that warrants considering it a distinct phoneme. Furthermore, the merger occurs mainly in the French of France; in Quebec, and  are still distinguished.

The main characteristic of French schwa is its "instability": the fact that under certain conditions it has no phonetic realization.
 * That is usually the case when it follows a single consonant in a medial syllable:
 * → ('to call'),
 * It is occasionally mute in word-final position:
 * → ('door').
 * Word-final schwas are optionally pronounced if preceded by two or more consonants and followed by a consonant-initial word:
 * une porte fermée →  ('a closed door').
 * In the future and conditional forms of -er verbs, however, the schwa is sometimes deleted even after two consonants :
 * tu garderais →  ('you would guard'),
 * nous brusquerons [les choses] →  ('we will precipitate [things]').
 * On the other hand, it is pronounced word-internally when it follows more pronounced consonants that cannot be combined into a complex onset with the initial consonants of the next syllable:
 * → ('scoundrel'),
 * sept petits →  ('seven little ones').

In French versification, word-final schwa is always elided before another vowel and at the ends of verses. It is pronounced before a following consonant-initial word. For example, une grande femme fut ici,  in ordinary speech, would in verse be pronounced, with the enunciated at the end of each word.

Schwa cannot normally be realised as a front vowel in closed syllables. In such contexts in inflectional and derivational morphology, schwa usually alternates with the front vowel :
 * → ('to harass'), with
 * il harcèle →  ('[he] harasses').

A three-way alternation can be observed, in a few cases, for a number of speakers:
 * → ('to call'),
 * j'appelle →  ('I call'),
 * → ('brand'), which can also be pronounced.

Instances of orthographic $⟨e⟩$ that do not exhibit the behaviour described above may be better analysed as corresponding to the stable, full vowel. The enclitic pronoun, for example, always keeps its vowel in contexts like donnez-le-moi →  ('give it to me') for which schwa deletion would normally apply (giving *), and it counts as a full syllable for the determination of stress.

Cases of word-internal stable $⟨e⟩$ are more subject to variation among speakers, but, for example, un rebelle ('a rebel') must be pronounced with a full vowel in contrast to un rebond  → or  ('a bounce').

Length
Except for the distinction still made by some speakers between and  in rare minimal pairs like   ('to put') vs. ('teacher'), variation in vowel length is entirely allophonic. Vowels can be lengthened in closed, stressed syllables, under the following two conditions:


 * ,, , and the nasal vowels are lengthened before any consonant:  ('dough'),   ('sings').
 * All vowels are lengthened if followed by one of the voiced fricatives—,, , (not in combination)—or by the cluster : /  ('sea/mother'),   ('crisis'),   ('book'),  However, words such as (ils) servent  ('(they) serve') or   ('pie') are pronounced with short vowels since the  appears in clusters other than.

When such syllables lose their stress, the lengthening effect may be absent. The vowel of  is long in Regarde comme elle saute !, in which the word is phrase-final and therefore stressed, but not in Qu'est-ce qu'elle saute bien ! In accents wherein  is distinguished from, however, it is still pronounced with a long vowel even in an unstressed position, as in fête in C'est une fête importante.

The following table presents the pronunciation of a representative sample of words in phrase-final (stressed) position:

Devoicing
In Parisian French, the close vowels and the mid front  at the end of utterances can be devoiced. A devoiced vowel may be followed by a sound similar to the voiceless palatal fricative :
 * Merci. →  ('Thank you.'),
 * Allez ! →  ('Go!').

In Quebec French, close vowels are often devoiced when unstressed and surrounded by voiceless consonants:
 * université →  ('university').

Though a more prominent feature of Quebec French, phrase-medial devoicing is also found in European French.

Elision
The final vowel (usually ) of a number of monosyllabic function words is elided in syntactic combinations with a following word that begins with a vowel. For example, compare the pronunciation of the unstressed subject pronoun, in je dors  ('I am sleeping'), and in j'arrive   ('I am arriving').

Glides and diphthongs
The glides, , and appear in syllable onsets immediately followed by a full vowel. In many cases, they alternate systematically with their vowel counterparts, , and such as in the following pairs of verb forms:
 * nie ;  ('deny')
 * loue ;  ('rent')
 * tue ;  ('kill')

The glides in the examples can be analyzed as the result of a glide formation process that turns an underlying high vowel into a glide when followed by another vowel: →.

This process is usually blocked after a complex onset of the form obstruent + liquid (a stop or a fricative followed by or ). For example, while the pair loue/louer shows an alternation between and, the same suffix added to cloue , a word with a complex onset, does not trigger the glide formation: clouer  ('to nail'). Some sequences of glide + vowel can be found after obstruent-liquid onsets, however. The main examples are, as in pluie ('rain'), , as in proie  ('prey'), and , as in groin  ('snout'). They can be dealt with in different ways, as by adding appropriate contextual conditions to the glide formation rule or by assuming that the phonemic inventory of French includes underlying glides or rising diphthongs like and.

Glide formation normally does not occur across morpheme boundaries in compounds like semi-aride ('semi-arid'). However, in colloquial registers, si elle ('if she') can be pronounced just like   ('sky'), or tu as  ('you have') like tua  ('[(s)he] killed').

The glide can also occur in syllable coda position, after a vowel, as in   ('sun'). There again, one can formulate a derivation from an underlying full vowel, but the analysis is not always adequate because of the existence of possible minimal pairs like  ('country') /   ('paycheck') and   ('abbey') /   ('bee'). Schane (1968) proposes an abstract analysis deriving postvocalic from an underlying lateral by palatalization and glide conversion ( →  → ).

Stress
Word stress is not distinctive in French, so two words cannot be distinguished based on stress placement alone. Grammatical stress is always on the final full syllable (syllable with a vowel other than schwa) of a word. Monosyllables with schwa as their only vowel (,, , etc.) are generally clitics but otherwise may receive stress.

The difference between stressed and unstressed syllables in French is less marked than in English. Vowels in unstressed syllables keep their full quality, regardless of whether the rhythm of the speaker is syllable-timed or mora-timed (see isochrony). Moreover, words lose their stress to varying degrees when pronounced in phrases and sentences. In general, only the last word in a phonological phrase (mot phonétique) retains its full grammatical stress (on its last full syllable).

Emphatic stress
Emphatic stress is used to call attention to a specific element in a given context such as to express a contrast or to reinforce the emotive content of a word. In French, this stress falls on the first consonant-initial syllable of the word in question. The characteristics associated with emphatic stress include increased amplitude and pitch of the vowel and gemination of the onset consonant, as mentioned above. Emphatic stress does not replace, but occurs in tandem with, grammatical stress.
 * C'est parfaitement vrai. ('It's perfectly true.'; no emphatic stress)
 * C'est parfaitement vrai. (emphatic stress on parfaitement)

For words that begin with a vowel, emphatic stress falls on the first syllable that begins with a consonant or on the initial syllable with the insertion of a glottal stop or a liaison consonant.
 * C'est épouvantable. ('It's terrible.'; emphatic stress on second syllable of épouvantable)
 * C'est épouvantable ! (initial syllable with liaison consonant )
 * C'est épouvantable ! (initial syllable with glottal stop insertion)

Intonation
French intonation differs substantially from that of English. There are four primary patterns:


 * The continuation pattern is a rise in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a rhythm group (typically a phrase).
 * The finality pattern is a sharp fall in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a declarative statement.
 * The yes/no intonation is a sharp rise in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a yes/no question.
 * The information question intonation is a rapid fall-off from a high pitch on the first word of a non-yes/no question, often followed by a small rise in pitch on the last syllable of the question.