Table of content

• Combinations of vowels
• Consonant clusters
• Nasal vowels in French
• The role of u after c, g and q
• Combinations il & ille
• Breaking combined letters in French

Combinations of vowels

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There exists 5 types of vowel combinations in French:

• ai and ei form the same sound as in the English word (a bed).
• Pronounce au and eau as in the word (a boat).
• eu and œu should be pronounced as in (her).
• ou is the same sound as in the English word (a tool).
• Last, oi is approximately the same sound as in (a waffle).

Here is a sample sentence containing all these sounds: Learn more on vowel combinations in French.

Consonant clusters

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Some consonants can form a combination, too. There are 3 types in French:

• ch and sch are the same sound as in the word (a tee-shirt)
• gn is the sound you hear in the word (an onion), for example.
• ph is pronounced the same as in English.

Listen to the following sentence, it contains all these sounds: Learn more about the French consonant combinations:

• Sound ph in French
• How to pronounce gn in French?
• Sounds ch and sch in French

Nasal vowels in French

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The following nasal sounds have no equivalent in English.

We call them ‘nasal’ because they are partly pronounced with the nose. They form three different sounds which can be spelled in different ways:

• Sound #1: on, om
• Sound #2: en, em, an, am
• Sound #3: in, im, un, um, yn, ym, ein, ain, aim

And here is a sample phrase: Learn more about the pronunciation of the French nasal vowels.

The role of u after c, g and q

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The vowel u is sometimes used to harden the sound of a consonant. This is the case in the combinations cu, gu, qu. For example:

Combinations il & ille

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At the end of some words, the letters il or ille form a unique sound. The sound is similar to y in the word (a yard).

And when we want to form the same sound inside a word, we will use the group of letters ill.

But beware! The combinations ill and il are not systematically pronounced as a whole. In some words, the letters are pronounced separetely (also see chapter: breaking combined letters in French).

Here are some examples:

As you can hear, there is no combination in the word il (he / it). The two letters are pronounced separately.

However, in the words cueille and myrtilles, the letters ille combine to form a unique sound.

Another example: In outil (tool), the letters il also form a combination. Learn more: How to pronounce ille and il in French?

Breaking combined letters in French

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Most letter combinations are unconditional.

However, the French nasal vowels (on, an, un…), and the combinations il and ille are sometimes broken, according to their place in the word.

"Broken" IL and ILLE

On one hand, the combination il will only “work” at the end of a word (and only for some words).

Inside a word, we need to use ill to get the same sound.

Hear the difference:

"Broken" nasal vowels

On the other hand, nasal vowels will only “work” in two cases:

• when they are placed at the end of a word.
• before a consonant (other than n or m).

These combinations will be “broken”:

• when they come before a vowel.
• when they come before the consonants n or m.

Here are some examples of broken nasal vowels: In the word homme, the combination om is followed by the consonant m. The nasal sound will then be broken. Here, the combination ain is followed by a vowel (e). The consonnant n will then be pronounced separately.

However, the combined letters ai remain, because they are unconditionnal.

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