AIL and AILL

French pronunciation

The pronunciation of the letter combinations ail (at the end of a word) and aill (anywhere) is somewhat tricky to explain in writing. The phonetic spelling is [aj]; in the Lawless phonetic system, it’s [ahy]. Imagine saying "ah" then adding a y sound to the end. The closest English approximations are "I" and "eye."

Par exemple…
ail (m) garlic
le bail lease
faillir to almost (do something)
la taille size
la paille straw
bâiller to yawn

  Many nouns that end in –ail have an irregular plural.

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French pronunciation

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