French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "l'école (f.)" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce l'école (f.) in French?

l'école (f.) is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /le.kɔl/. It means “school.” lay-KOL — the article fuses on, and the accented "é" gives a closed "ay".

lay-KOL — the article fuses on, and the accented "é" gives a closed "ay".

l'école (f.) /le.kɔl/

l'é-COLE, weight on the second syllable. The "(f.)" note tells you the hidden article is "la", which the elision conceals — useful when you need an adjective to agree.

Listen: l'école (f.)

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Sound it out

l' The article "la" with its vowel dropped before the vowel-initial noun. It adds no syllable of its own.

é A closed "ay" from the accent aigu. The accent also marks a lost "s" — the older form was "escole", which is where English "school" and "scholar" connect.

cole A hard "k" — "c" before "o" — a short open "o", and a light "l" kept audible by the silent "e".

Hear it in a sentence

Les enfants sont à l'école.

The children are at school.

Listen: Les enfants sont à l'école.

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"Les enfants sont à l'école" carries an obligatory liaison at the start: "les enfants" is /le.z‿ɑ̃.fɑ̃/. Then "à l'école" shows the same elision as the headword. French says "à l'école" for being at school, with the article, where English drops it entirely — "at school", not "at the school".

Where English speakers slip

Learners give the apostrophe a beat, producing "la-ay-KOL" in three syllables. It is two. The accented "é" also gets stretched into an English diphthong; keep it short and closed. And the article is not optional: "je vais à école" is wrong, it must be "à l'école".