French Pronunciation
In French, ll has two possible pronunciations:
While there are patterns that can help you determine the pronunciation of most words, there are a few dozen words that you just need to memorize.
LL as [j]
In all letter combinations with vowel + ill, the double l is pronounced [j]:
| Letters | Examples | |||
| aill | la paille | straw | ||
| eill | la veille | night before | ||
| euill | la feuille | leaf | ||
| œill | une œillade | wink | ||
| ouill | bouillir | to boil | ||
| ueill | cueillir | to gather | ||
| uill | la cuillère | spoon | ||
Double l is also pronounced [j] in most words with consonant + ill, including
| la Bastille | Bastille | |
| le cédille | cedilla (ç) | |
| le chantilly | whipped cream | |
| la famille | family | |
| la fille | girl | |
| Millau | Millau (town in Aveyron) | |
| la vanille | vanilla |
LL as [l]
After any other vowel, the double l is pronounced [l]:
| la salle | room | |
| belle | beautiful | |
| folle | crazy | |
| le pull | sweater | |
| une syllabe | syllable |
And it’s also pronounced [l] after i in about two dozen words (and their derivatives). This is the complete list – anything not listed here is pronounced [j].
| Achille | Achilles | |||
| un bacille | germ, bacillus | |||
| billevesées | nonsense | |||
| un billion | trillion | |||
| capillaire | capillary | |||
| un codicille | codicil | |||
| distiller | to distill | |||
| une fibrille | small fiber | (fibrillaire, fibrillation)* | ||
| Gilles | boy’s name | |||
| -illaire | -ilary (suffix) | |||
| un krill | krill | |||
| Lille | Lille (town in Nord) | |||
| lilliputien | Liliputian | |||
| mille | thousand | (un millénium, millier, etc.) | ||
| un mille | mile | (le millage) | ||
| milli- | milli- (prefix) | (millimètre, milligramme, etc) | ||
| un milliard | billion | (un milliardaire, le milliardième, etc.) | ||
| un million | million | (un millionaire, le millionième, etc.) | ||
| osciller | to oscillate, swing | |||
| la pénicilline | ||||
| un/e pupille* | ward of the state | |||
| une pupille* | pupil | |||
| une scille | scilla | |||
| une spongille | spongilla | |||
| tranquille | calm, tranquil | |||
| un verticille | verticil | |||
| un vexille | vexillum | |||
| une ville | town | (une villa, un village, etc.) | ||
| une zorille | zorilla |
*The ll in these words may be pronounced either way.
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