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French Orthography

Phonetic Distinctions: Nasal Vowels (an, in, on, un)

The four French nasal vowels and their spelling patterns, essential for accurate pronunciation and listening comprehension.

Level A2 Category Orthography

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Lesson Summary

The four French nasal vowels and their spelling patterns, essential for accurate pronunciation and listening comprehension.

Phonetics & Orthography

The Nasal Vowel System

Standard French possesses four nasal vowel phonemes, produced by allowing air to escape through both the nose and the mouth. Their written representations follow predictable patterns: the digraphs an, am, en, em for [ã]; in, im, ain, ein for [ɛ̃]; on, om for [ɔ̃]; and un, um for [œ̃].

Nasal Vowel Chart

Nasal Sound	Spellings	Examples
[ã] (an)	an, am, en, em	dans, chambre, en France, temps
[ɛ̃] (in)	in, im, ain, ein	train, important, demain, plein
[ɔ̃] (on)	on, om	bonjour, pont, nom, composter
[œ̃] (un)	un, um	un, lundi, parfum

Identifying Nasal and Oral Vowels

A vowel letter followed by a single n or m that belongs to the same syllable is nasalised. If the nasal consonant is followed by a vowel or is doubled, the preceding vowel remains oral and the consonant is pronounced. Compare bon (nasal) with bonne (oral), or un (nasal) with une (oral). The grapheme en is nasal in prend but oral in prenons, where the n is followed by a vowel.

Examples

Un bon vin blanc.
All four words contain nasal vowels: un [œ̃], bon [ɔ̃], vin [ɛ̃], blanc [ã].
Demain, nous prenons le train de Lyon.
Nasal vowels in demain [ɛ̃] and train [ɛ̃]; the verb prenons is oral because the n is followed by a vowel.