Eau (letter)

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Eau is a trigraph of the Latin alphabet.

[edit] French

In Modern French, eau is pronounced /o/ and may or may not be the same phoneme as the one attached to the letter o.

It is used as an ending for several words, like “berceau” (cradle) or “manteau” (coat), usually being the remnant of a suffix (bercer — to cradle, mante — mantle). But this is also a word by itself: eau means water.

[edit] English

In English, eau only exists in words imported from French, and so is pronounced likewise in almost all cases. The only exceptions to this are “beauty” and formations of it (excepting plain “beau”) where it is pronounced /juː/, “bureaucrat” where it is pronounced /ə/, and “bureaucracy” where it is pronounced /ɑ/.

v • d • e Latin alphabet
Digraphs	Aa aa Ae ae Ai ai Au au Aw aw Ay ay Bh bh Ch ch Ck ck Cö cö Cs cs Cu cu Cz cz Dd dd Dh dh Dj dj Dx dx Dz dz Dž dž Dź dź Dż dż Ea ea Ee ee Ei ei Eu eu Ew ew Ey ey Ff ff Fh fh Gb gb Gh gh Għ għ Gi gi Gj gj Gn gn Gy gy Hs hs Hu hu Ie ie IJ ij Jö jö Kh kh Kp kp Ku ku Lh lh Lj lj Ll ll Ly ly Mb mb Mh mh Mp mp Nd nd Ng ng Nh nh Nj nj Nk nk Ns ns Nt nt Ny ny Nz nz Oa oa Oe oe Oi oi Oo oo Ou ou Ow ow Oy oy Ph ph Qu qu Rd rd Rh rh Rl rl Rn rn Rr rr Rt rt Rz rz Sh sh Sv sv Sy sy Sz sz Th th Tj tj Tr tr Ts ts Tx tx Ty ty Tz tz Ue ue Ui ui Vh vh Wh wh Xh xh Xö xö Yh yh Yk yk Zh zh Zs zs Zv zv
Trigraphs	C'h c'h Dzs dzs Eau eau Ngb ngb Ngh ngh Ngk ngk Nkp nkp Nth nth Nyk nyk Rnd rnd Sch sch
Tetragraphs	Eeuw eeuw Ieuw ieuw Ough ough