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

 Related lessons

• Letters: E | I | L
• French vowels

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