# Voiceless labiodental fricative

The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in a number of spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨f⟩.
Some scholars also posit the voiceless labiodental approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as ⟨ʋ̥⟩.

## Features

Features of the voiceless labiodental fricative:
* Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
* Its place of articulation is labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
* Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
* It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
* Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
* Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

## Occurrence

| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Abkhaz | Abkhaz | фы/fy | [fə] | 'lightning' | See Abkhaz phonology |
| Adyghe | Adyghe | тфы/tfy | | 'five' | Corresponds to [xʷ] in Kabardian and Proto-Circassian |
| Albanian | Albanian | faqe | [facɛ] | 'cheek' | |
| Arabic | Modern Standard | ظرف/th'arf | [ðˤɑrf] | 'envelope' | See Arabic phonology |
| Armenian | Eastern | ֆուտբոլ/futbol | | 'football' | |
| Assyrian | Assyrian | ܦܬܐ pata | [fɔθɔ] | 'face' | Used mostly by Western speakers; corresponds to /p/ in most other dialects. |
| Assamese | Assamese | বৰফ/borof | [bɔɹɔf] | 'snow/ice' | |
| Azeri | Azeri | tüfəng | [t̪y̆fæɲɟ] | 'ɡun' | |
| Basque | Basque | fin | [fin] | 'thin' | |
| Bengali | Bengali | ফুল/ful | [ful] | 'flower' | Allophone of /pʰ/. See Bengali phonology |
| Catalan | Catalan | fort | [ˈfɔɾt] | 'strong' | See Catalan phonology |
| Chechen | Chechen | факс / faks | [faks] | 'fax' | Used only in loanwords. There is no /f/ in Chechen; /f/ was replaced by /p/ in loanwords that contained it before increased influence from the Russian language popularized the usage of /f/. |
| Chinese | Cantonese | 飛 / fēi | | 'to fly' | See Cantonese phonology |
| Chinese | Mandarin | 飛 (traditional) / 飞(simplified) / fēi | | 'to fly' | See Mandarin phonology |
| Coptic | Coptic | ϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ/ftoow | [ftow] | 'four' | |
| Czech | Czech | foukat | [ˈfoʊ̯kat] | 'to blow' | See Czech phonology |
| Dutch | Dutch | fiets | [fiːts] | 'bike' | See Dutch phonology |
| English | All dialects | fill | | 'fill' | See English phonology |
| English | Cockney | think | [fɪŋk] | 'think' | Socially marked, with speakers exhibiting some free variation with [θ] (with which it corresponds to in other dialects). See th-fronting. |
| English | Many British urban dialects | think | [fɪŋk] | 'think' | Socially marked, with speakers exhibiting some free variation with [θ] (with which it corresponds to in other dialects). See th-fronting. |
| English | Some younger East Anglian English | think | [fɪŋk] | 'think' | Socially marked, with speakers exhibiting some free variation with [θ] (with which it corresponds to in other dialects). See th-fronting. |
| English | Some younger New Zealanders | think | [fɪŋk] | 'think' | Socially marked, with speakers exhibiting some free variation with [θ] (with which it corresponds to in other dialects). See th-fronting. |
| English | Broad South African | myth | [mɨf] | 'myth' | Possible realization of /θ/, more common word-finally. See White SAE phonology. |
| English | Indian South African | fair | [ʋ̥eː] | 'fair' | Described as an approximant. Corresponds to /f/ in other accents. |
| Esperanto | Esperanto | fajro | [ˈfajɾo] | 'fire' | See Esperanto phonology |
| Ewe | Ewe | eflen | [éflé̃] | 'he spit off' | |
| French | French | fabuleuse | [fäbyˈløːz̪] | 'fabulous' | See French phonology |
| Galician | Galician | faísca | [faˈiska] | 'spark' | See Galician phonology |
| German | German | fade | [ˈfaːdə] | 'bland' | See Standard German phonology |
| Goemai | Goemai | f'at' | [fat] | 'to blow' | |
| Greek | Greek | φύση / fysī | [ˈfisi] | 'nature' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Gujarati | Gujarati | ફળ / faļ | [fəɭ] | 'fruit' | See Gujarati phonology |
| Hebrew | Hebrew | סופר/sofer | [so̞fe̞ʁ] | 'writer' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hindustani | Hindustani | साफ़ / صاف/saaf | [sɑːf] | 'clean' | See Hindustani phonology |
| Hungarian | Hungarian | figyel | [ˈfiɟɛl] | 'he/she pays attention' | See Hungarian phonology |
| Indonesian | Indonesian | fajar | [fadʒar] | 'dawn' | See Indonesian phonology |
| Italian | Italian | fantasma | [fän̪ˈt̪äzmä] | 'ghost' | See Italian phonology |
| Kabardian | Kabardian | фыз/fyz | [fəz] | 'woman' | Corresponds to [ʂʷ] in Adyghe and Proto-Circassian |
| Kabyle | Kabyle | afus | [afus] | |
| Kazakh | Kazakh | faqır / фақыр | [faqr] | 'poor' | |
| Khmer | Khmer | កាហ្វេ / kahvé | [kaːfeː] | 'coffee' | See Khmer phonology |
| Macedonian | Macedonian | фонетика/fonetika | [fɔnetika] | 'phonetics' | See Macedonian phonology |
| Māori | Māori | whakapapa | [fakapapa] | 'genealogy' | Less commonly [ɸ]. See Māori phonology. |
| Malay | Malay | feri | [feri] | 'ferry' | Only occurs in loanwords |
| Malayalam | Malayalam | ഫലം/falam | [fɐlɐm] | 'fruit, result' | Only occurs in loanwords in the standard version. ഫ is used to represent both /pʰ/ and /f/ but nowadays most people pronounce /pʰ/ as [f]. Occurs in native words in the Jeseri dialect. |
| Maltese | Maltese | fenek | [fenek] | 'rabbit' | |
| Norwegian | Norwegian | filter | [filtɛɾ] | 'filter' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Persian | Persian | فروخت/foruxt | [foru:χt] | 'he/she sold' | |
| Polish | Polish | futro | | 'fur' | See Polish phonology |
| Portuguese | Portuguese | fala | [ˈfalɐ] | 'speech' | See Portuguese phonology |
| Punjabi | Punjabi | ਫ਼ੌਜੀ/faujī | [fɔːd͡ʒi] | 'soldier' | |
| Romanian | Romanian | foc | [fo̞k] | 'fire' | See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Russian | орфография/orfografiya | [ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə] | 'orthography' | Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology |
| Scottish Gaelic | Scottish Gaelic | faisg | [faʃkʲ] | 'near, close' | Loosely articulated, can resemble [ɸ]. See Scottish Gaelic phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Serbo-Croatian | фаза / faza | [fǎːz̪ä] | 'phase' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
| Slovak | Slovak | fúkať | [ˈfu̞ːkäc] | 'to blow' | See Slovak phonology |
| Slovene | Standard | flavta | [ˈfláːu̯t̪à] | 'flute' | See Slovene phonology |
| Slovene | Some dialects | vsi | [ˈfs̪î] | 'all (people)' | Allophone of /v/ before voiceless obstruents in dialects with /ʋ/ → /v/ development. See Slovene phonology |
| Somali | Somali | feex | [fɛħ] | 'wart' | See Somali phonology |
| Spanish | Spanish | fantasma | [fã̠n̪ˈt̪a̠zma̠] | 'ghost' | See Spanish phonology |
| Swahili | Swahili | kufa | [kufɑ] | 'to die' |
| Swedish | Swedish | fisk | [ˈfɪsk] | 'fish' | See Swedish phonology |
| Thai | Thai | ฝน/fon | [fon˩˩˦] | 'rain' | |
| Toda | Toda | nes̲of | [nes̲of] | 'moon' | |
| Turkish | Turkish | saf | [ˈs̟ɑf] | 'pure' | See Turkish phonology |
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian | Фастів/fastiv | [ˈfɑsʲtʲiw] | 'Fastiv' | See Ukrainian phonology |
| Vietnamese | Vietnamese | pháo | [faːw˧ˀ˥] | 'firecracker' | See Vietnamese phonology |
| Welsh | Welsh | ffon | [fɔn] | 'stick' | See Welsh phonology |
| West Frisian | West Frisian | fol | [foɫ] | 'full' | See West Frisian phonology |
| Yi | Yi | ꃚ / fu | [fu˧] | 'roast' | |
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan | cafe | [kafɘ] | 'coffee' | Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish |