French vowel
The letter E has several different pronunciations in French. The explanation and equivalents provided here are based on the closest sounds that exist in American English, which are sometimes not very close at all. IPA symbols are provided in [brackets].
1. [ə] – the unstressed e, called a "schwa" in both French and English, is commonly found in French at the beginning of multi-syllable words as well as in single-syllable words. It’s also known as e muet or e instable and its pronunciation is often optional.
| schwa sound | ||
| le | the | |
| debout | standing | |
| samedi | Saturday | |
2. [e] – the closed e sound, which is always found in open syllables.* The closest English sound is the long a as in "name," but that’s a diphthong: [eI] which starts out like the French [e] but ends in a sort of y sound. In contrast, the French open e sound is just the first part: [e]. It may be spelled é (e accent aigu) anywhere within a word, but there are numerous other spellings, especially at the end of a word.
| closed e sound | ||
| été | summer | |
| vous avez | you have | |
| freiner | to brake | |
3. [ɛ] – the open e sound is found mainly in closed syllables.* It may be spelled e, è (e accent grave), or ê (e accent circonflexe) and is equivalent to English’s short e sound, as in "set."
| open e sound | ||
| elle | she | |
| sept | seven | |
| la tête | head | |
| très | very | |
E is the only French vowel that can take all four accents.
- Letter combinations: EAU | EI | EIL | EIN | EN | EU | EUIL | OE | Œ | ŒIL | UE | UEIL
- E muet
- Introduction to vowels
- French alphabet
- Accents
This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.
I live in Montreal, QC, and have noticed that ê can often have a different pronunciation. Fête sounds like “fight”, fenêtre sounds like fenaïtre. I think it may depend on where in Quebec the speaker came from. Is this also true for some areas in France?
The pronunciation I teach is based on so-called “standard” French, which includes Paris and most major French cities. I can’t comment on any other variety of French.