Minimal pair · French (France)
French /y/ vs /i//y/ / /i/
Learn to hear the difference between y and i in French words.
Practice these sounds/y/
A front, rounded vowel
The tongue is high and farther forward, with rounded lips. It is one vowel, not a separate y sound plus a vowel.
As inrue
/i/
A close, unrounded vowel
The tongue is high and toward the front. Listen to the vowel as one complete sound.
As inriz
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
A small change.
A different word.
Rue/riz, bulle/bile and pur/pire each have a single vowel. The first category is rounded /y/ and the second unrounded /i/; the surrounding consonants stay unchanged within a pair.
Listen for the target sound in each word.
A common trap
The letter u in these French words does not mean /u/. Do not add a separate glide or rely on an English spelling analogy to identify it.
Sound examples
Tap to hear each wordrue
/ʁy/streettu
/ty/you, informal singularvu
/vy/seenbu
/by/drunk, past participle of drinkjus
/ʒy/juicedu
/dy/some, masculine partitive articlebulle
/byl/bubblepur
/pyʁ/pureriz
/ʁi/ricelit
/li/bednid
/ni/nestprix
/pʁi/price; prizeami
/ami/friend; masculine nounbile
/bil/bilepire
/piʁ/worseville
/vil/town; cityvite
/vit/quickly17 words. Words stay hidden during practice unless you choose to reveal them.