Ligature
When the French letters o and e are pronounced as a single sound,* they combine into a symbol called a ligature: œ. The pronunciation of this symbol depends on the letter(s) that follow it.
- œ plus any consonant is pronounced [e]
– except when followed by st, when it’s pronounced [ɛ] - œu follows the same pronunciation rules as eu
- œ followed by il is pronounced like eu – learn more: œil
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Par exemple… |
| un œnologue | oenologist | |
| un œsophage | esophagus | |
| œstrogène (m) | estrogen | |
| un vœu | wish | |
| un œuf | egg | |
| un cœur | heart |
*O and e do not form a ligature when they are pronounced separately, such as when the e is accented – learn more.
Typing oe when it should be œ is a spelling mistake, so learn how to type accents.
Related lessons
- Letters: O | E
- Vowels
- Accents
- Consonants
- How to type French accents
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Verb conjugation tables for more than 1,600 French verbs in all the simple and compound tenses and moods.
In English, we say that the vowels are “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.” The last couple of words hint at one of the keys to understanding pronunciation: a vowel is not so much a letter as the sound represented by a letter or combination of letters.
