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French nasal vowels: a first map with pain, pan and pont

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Meet the nasal vowels in pain, pan and pont, see their common spellings and practise with picture cards. Includes the fourth sound some speakers use in un.

In short

French nasal vowels let air pass through the mouth and nose during the vowel. Start with pain /pɛ̃/, pan /pɑ̃/ and pont /pɔ̃/: the first /p/ stays the same, while the vowel changes. The mark over the vowel, a tilde, means nasalisation; keep the vowel flowing rather than adding a final /n/.

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A shopper carries bread beside a stone bridge in a French town.
Bread and a bridge give pain and pont a concrete setting. Illustration: Atelier

Pain means bread, pan can mean a section of a wall, and pont means bridge. Those meanings give the three sound labels something concrete to attach to. The symbols below are a broad map; speakers’ exact vowel qualities vary across French-speaking regions.

Trois repères · pain, pan, pont

1 · /ɛ̃/ as in pain

Common spellings include in, ain and ein. Keep the vowel as one sound.

le pain /pɛ̃/bread
le matin /matɛ̃/morning
le cousin /kuzɛ̃/male cousin

Mon cousin achète du pain.My cousin buys bread.

2 · /ɑ̃/ as in pan

Common spellings include an and en, plus am and em in words such as lampe and temps.

pan /pɑ̃/a section of wall: pan
grand /ɡʁɑ̃/big; tall
enfant /ɑ̃fɑ̃/child

Un pan du mur est blanc.A section of the wall is white.

3 · /ɔ̃/ as in pont

Common spellings are on and om. The t at the end of the noun pont is silent.

le pont /pɔ̃/bridge
mon /mɔ̃/my, before a masculine singular noun
le nom /nɔ̃/name

Mon oncle habite près du pont.My uncle lives near the bridge.

4 · A fourth sound: /œ̃/

Some speakers distinguish un /œ̃/ from /ɛ̃/. Many others use /ɛ̃/ for both categories. Both three-vowel and four-vowel systems are used today.

un /œ̃/ or /ɛ̃/one; a
brun /bʁœ̃/ or /bʁɛ̃/brown

Il porte un pull brun.He is wearing a brown jumper.

A picture for the word, a label for the vowel

How many nasal vowels does French have?

Compare the whole word
WordPronunciationStructure
bon/bɔ̃/A nasal vowel after /b/.
bonne/bɔn/An oral vowel, then /n/.
ami/ami/Oral vowels on either side of /m/.
lampe/lɑ̃p/A nasal vowel followed by /p/.

The spelling pattern helps you recognise a word, but the whole word decides the sound. In bon, the letter n helps write the vowel. In bonne, /n/ is a consonant you pronounce. And lampe shows that another consonant can follow a nasal vowel. These are three useful structures to keep apart.

Question 1No account needed
Which word has /ɔ̃/?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

pont. Pont /pɔ̃/ supplies the /ɔ̃/ category. The other two words have different nasal vowels.

Question 2No account needed
What does the tilde over /ɛ̃/ mean?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

The vowel is nasal.. The mark describes the vowel itself; it is not another sound after the vowel.

Question 3No account needed
Why might a chart show four nasal vowels?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

It includes a separate /œ̃/ category.. Some speakers keep /œ̃/ distinct from /ɛ̃/, so their sound system has four categories.

Question 4No account needed
Which pronunciation contains oral /ɔ/ followed by /n/?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

/bɔn/. The absence of the tilde and the following /n/ show the structure of bonne.

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