EIL and EILL

French pronunciation

The letter combinations eil (at the end of a word) and eill (almost anywhere*) have no English equivalent: they are pronounced like the short e in "let" plus a "y" sound. The IPA spelling is [ɛj], and the Lawless phonetic spelling is [ehy].

  * eill followed by é (as in the past participle veillé) or by er (in the infinitive veiller) is pronounced [ej] but the y sound is transferred to the next syllable: [e je]. See lesson on e to learn the difference between [ɛ] and [e].

Par exemple…
un orteil toe
le soleil sun
un appareil device
une oreille ear
la veille eve, the night before
une merveille marvel
surveillé watched, surveyed
conseiller to advise

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French pronunciation

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