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].

For example…

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