English approximations are in some cases very approximate, and only intended to give a general idea of the pronunciation. See French phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of French.
Note: Unlike most European languages, French has no stress at the level of the word, so stress marks should not be used in transcribing French words. See here for explanation.
^The French rhotic varies from region to region, though it is often uvular (especially in Northern France); the more common pronunciations include a voiced uvular fricative ([ʁ]) and a uvular trill ([ʀ])
^often replaced by [ɛ]; rare among younger speakers in France
^In French, /ə/ is pronounced with some lip rounding; for a number of speakers, it is also more front and may even be phonetically identical to the vowel of sœur.
