When “em” and “en” are used as prefixes (meaning at the start of a word) in French, they are always nasal vowels.
| Prefix | Example | Phonetics | Audio |
| em- | emmener | ɑ̃mne | emmener |
| em- | empirer | ɑ̃piʀe | empirer |
| en- | enamourer | ɑ̃namuʀe | enamourer |
| en- | ennuyer | ɑ̃nɥije | ennuyer |
“én” (with an acute accent) is not the same as “en” (without an accent). As a prefix with an acute accent, it is oral, not nasal.
If you’re learning French, you might find it odd that the past participle of avoir is eu [pronounced /y/], which rhymes with du [dy], vu [vy], and su [sy], but not with peut [pø] from the verb pouvoir. This might seem confusing at first, especially since both eu and peut come from verbs and are…
The pronunciation of the French words “six” (6) and “dix” (10) is a bit unusual. There are three ways of pronouncing the final “x.” When counting, eg from 1 to 10, “six” is pronounced SEESS and “dix” is pronounced DEESS. So the last letter sounds like a soft “s” sound. When saying something like “six…
Some French words, like contact, have a clearly pronounced -ct, while others, like aspect, have a silent -ct. This difference is due to phonetic evolution, word stress, and borrowing history. 1. The Role of Stress and Borrowing History 2. When is -CT Pronounced in French? The -ct is pronounced when: 3. When is -CT Silent?…
Why isn’t the French word oignon (onion) pronounced like the French word moi (me)? The short answer is that the irregular pronunciation of oignon (approximately “ohn-yon”) is a fossil of its historical spelling and etymology. The difference between it and a word like moi (“mwa”) comes down to a specific spelling reform. Let’s break it…
French words like “démocratie,” “acrobatie,” “aristocratie,” or “patienter” all contain the letter combination “tie.” How are words like these pronounced in French? What about words like “amnistie” or “dynastie”? The “tie” letter combination in French can either be pronounced as “SEE” or as “TEE.” How do you know which pronunciation to use? The easiest way…
Some French words ending in -ille are pronounced with a “y” sound (like fille → [fij], meilleur → [mɛjœʁ]), while others keep a regular l sound (mille → [mil], ville → [vil]). This difference goes back to the history of French and how Latin words evolved over time. Two Pronunciations of -ille French actually has…