This paper compares formant transitions in English, French and German monophthongs after labial and lingual (tip, front and back) consonants. The monophthongs were extracted from words, sentences and texts read by female speakers. The formant values were measured at 9 points within each vowel. Formant transitions were plotted on line graphs. The derivatives of the resulting functions at 9 points were calculated to compare the slopes of different formant trajectories. The formant values were converted from Hertz to Bark in order to evaluate the variability of the formant structure. The results indicated that the formant transitions in English and German vowels were similar after tip and front consonants. In labial consonantal context, the dynamics of formant transitions did not show any clear trends. After back lingual consonants, the formant transitions were similar for all the three languages. The region in which the greatest slope occurred was the same for French and German monophthongs, but different for English vowels. The variability of formant structure was lower in the back monophthongs compared to the front vowels in English and German data. However, in French monophthongs, the transition from one critical bandwidth to another became more frequent with backness.