Vocabulary list
French gn words: montagne, agneau and six everyday examples
Learn the French gn sound /ɲ/ with eight useful words, example sentences and picture cards. Compare a nasal consonant with a nasal vowel and check gnome.
- A2
- 8 words
- Gender marked
- With examples
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
In short
In montagne /mɔ̃taɲ/ and agneau /aɲo/, gn represents /ɲ/, a nasal consonant. Think of the joined “ny” sound in English “canyon” as a starting cue. Keep it together and leave out a separate /g/.
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Eight words with gn
How do you pronounce gn in French?
| Word | Pronunciation | Where gn sits |
|---|---|---|
| agneau | /aɲo/ | Between /a/ and /o/. |
| montagne | /mɔ̃taɲ/ | After /a/, at the end of the word. |
| peigne | /pɛɲ/ | After /ɛ/, with no extra syllable for final e. |
| ligne | /liɲ/ | After /i/, with no separate /g/. |
For /ɲ/, the tongue makes contact towards the hard palate while air passes through the nose. Some speakers use a sound close to /nj/. In both cases, keep agneau flowing in two syllables and ligne in one. Adding a hard /g/ changes the consonant sequence.
Find the gn word in the pictures
Find:
Is gn a nasal vowel in French?
Montagne /mɔ̃taɲ/ starts with nasal /ɔ̃/ and ends with consonant /ɲ/. For the vowel, the mouth stays open; for the consonant, the tongue makes a closure. Agneau /aɲo/ has /ɲ/ between two oral vowels. A word can therefore contain gn without having a nasal vowel.
Je me peigne devant le miroir.
I comb my hair in front of the mirror.
The daily-routine verb se peigner /sə pɛɲe/ keeps the consonant of peigne.
One useful exception is gnome /gnom/: pronounce /g/ and /n/ separately, with one syllable overall. The mountain pattern covers the eight words above; gnome gives you a clear reason to check an unfamiliar gn word.