French letter A and spelling combinations

A wonderful twelve spelling combinations can be found for the French letter A. Find handy information about the single letter A (a, â, à) and the combinations of the letter A including; ai, ais, au, am, an, ain, aim, ail, aille all on one page at spellandsound.com.

All the images you see on this page are part of our free French phonetics charts just follow the link to discover more.

Click the French word to listen to audio files at the end of each section or visit our Audio lounge to record and playback your attempts! Compare them to ours to fine tune your pronunciation

a, â, à

French letter a and father sound in French chart The “Father” sound box shown in the image has different spellings that make the “a” sound as in father. The letter “a” by itself and the letter a with an accent circumflex (â) make this sound. But not all single letter a’s make this sound…

Listen to flamme and pâte

The French letter a making the bat sound in French phonics chart The single letter “a” and a with an accent grave (à) makes the “a” sound as in bat. Many argue that in time there will only be one version of the single letter A but for now, we have highlighted both.

Listen to barrique and à

ai, aî, ais

French letters ai make a ur sound in French Chart The letters “ai” in the case of “faisons” make the “ur” sound as in fur. Technically known as a schwa [ə], and across a variety of languages is known to make the sound “a” in above, but we’ve found that the European French schwa is closer to “ur” in fur and is presented in our Spell and Sound French Charts.
Listen to faisons

Please note that the word “faisons” is an exception to how the letters “ai” usually work.

Letter a combinations that make e sound in French box Here is another sound that can be spelled with the letter combination “ai”. In the Bed sound box (extract), pictured the letter “e” in Bed makes the ɛ sound in French.
Listen to traître and maison

Please note that the use of the circumflex accent above the letter “i” in the word “traître” is an exception. The use of the circumflex on an “ai” letter combination in French is not the norm.

french sound e as in eight and letter A spellings in Chart box The Eight Sound Box (pictured) represents the French sound [e] that doesn’t exist in English. The closest sound we have in English is the “eigh” sound in the word eight. The best way to say [e] is to shorten the “eigh” sound so that the “ee” sound at the end is no longer present.
Listen to saigner

Please note that the “ai” letters in the French word “saigner” is not a common expression of the [e] sound. This is more of an exception.

au

The spellings and sound for the letters au in French Hopefully, you’ll find this sound and letter combination easy.

The “au” combination of letters in French make the same sound as the “au” combination in the English word “author”.
Listen to hausse and au

am, an

nasal French vowels using letters an am Two International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols are represented in the sound box for “song” (pictured) but you’ll find the letters “am” and “an” make the nasal vowel [ɑ̃]. English doesn’t contain any of the nasal vowels found in French but the closest English sound is the letter “o” in “song”. If you stop short just before you pronounce the final part involving the “ng”, you’ll be almost there.
Listen to quand and camping

Nasal vowels are voiced when air is passed through the mouth and nose at the same time.

Nasal French vowel A and spellings Again, we can see two IPA symbols in the one sound box (pictured). The sound “u” as in “sun” represents two nasal vowel sounds but only one is found starting with the letter a, the [ɛ̃] sound. The letters “aim” and “ain” make this sound.

Listen to train and faim

Nasal vowel letter combinations can be cancelled out by vowels. False French Nasal Vowels explains it all.

ail, aille

sound that French letters ail and aille make The last sound that can be represented by the letter A is in the Eye Sound Box (pictured). The letters “ail” and “aille” make the “eye” sound, not found in English but is the closest sound we could find.
Listen to bail and taille