Languages › French The French Pronunciation of E Share Flipboard Email Print Orin Zebest/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 French Pronunciation & Conversation Vocabulary Grammar Resources For Teachers By ThoughtCo Team Updated on March 06, 2019 The French letter E can be pronounced several different ways — such as the schwa sound, a long A sound, and short E sounds. Below are examples of the different sounds and sound files to hear the way they're spoken. Examples of the Various E Sounds Like the E in angel (like a schwa) — listen. This sound is often heard in single syllable words like le, me, etc. Like the vowel sound in "weigh" except without the y sound at the end — listen. This sound occurs in the following:E with an acute accent: étéE in an open syllable (i.e., a syllable that ends in a vowel sound): trajetthe verb endings -er and -ez: manger, veuillez. Like the E in bed — listen. This sound is found in the following:E with a grave accent: exprèsE with a circumflex: têteE followed by a double consonant: belleE in a closed syllable (a syllable that ends in a consonant sound): sept An unaccented E at the end of a word is called an E muet and may or may not be pronounced. French Words With E Click on the links below to hear the words pronounced in French: le (the) été (summer) manger (to eat) veuillez (please) exprès (on purpose) tête (head) belle (beautiful) sept (seven) Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Team, ThoughtCo. "The French Pronunciation of E." ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/french-pronunciation-of-e-1369553. Team, ThoughtCo. (2021, December 6). The French Pronunciation of E. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/french-pronunciation-of-e-1369553 Team, ThoughtCo. "The French Pronunciation of E." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/french-pronunciation-of-e-1369553 (accessed March 28, 2023). copy citation