Minimal pair · French (France)
French /ɛ/ vs /œ//ɛ/ / /œ/
Learn to hear the difference between ɛ and œ in French words.
Practice these sounds/ɛ/
An open-mid, unrounded vowel
The tongue is toward the front, with a more open vowel position than /e/.
As inpère
/œ/
An open-mid, rounded vowel
A front vowel with rounded lips. Listen to its quality immediately before the final French r.
As inpeur
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
A small change.
A different word.
Père/peur, serre/sœur and air/heure compare /ɛ/ with /œ/ before final /ʁ/. The r remains part of the shared sound frame.
Listen for the target sound in each word.
A common trap
The h in heure adds no consonant. Vowels before r can have natural timing differences; use their quality rather than treating length as the entire contrast.
Sound examples
Tap to hear each wordpère
/pɛʁ/fatherserre
/sɛʁ/greenhousepeine
/pɛn/sorrow; penaltypeigne
/pɛɲ/combreine
/ʁɛn/queenrègne
/ʁɛɲ/reignbelle
/bɛl/beautiful; feminine singularair
/ɛʁ/airpeur
/pœʁ/fearsœur
/sœʁ/sisterbeurre
/bœʁ/butterjeune
/ʒœn/youngneuf
/nœf/nine in isolationheure
/œʁ/hour; time14 words. Words stay hidden during practice unless you choose to reveal them.