French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "apprendre" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce apprendre in French?

apprendre is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.pʁɑ̃dʁ/. It means “to learn.” ah-PRAHN-druh — the same shape as "prendre" with an extra syllable at the front.

ah-PRAHN-druh — the same shape as "prendre" with an extra syllable at the front.

apprendre /a.pʁɑ̃dʁ/

ap-PREN-dre, with the weight on the middle syllable. Since it is "prendre" with a prefix, the root's rhythm survives untouched and the prefix simply adds an unstressed beat in front.

Listen: apprendre

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Sound it out

a A short open "ah", unstressed.

pp A single unaspirated "p" sound, doubled only in spelling.

r A uvular "r" immediately after the "p", forming a cluster made entirely without the tongue tip.

en The nasal vowel /ɑ̃/, open and nasal, tongue flat.

dre A "d" into a second uvular "r", with the final "e" silent — the fading ending shared by the whole -endre family.

Hear it in a sentence

J'apprends le français.

I'm learning French.

Listen: J'apprends le français.

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"J'apprends le français" elides "je" before the vowel, giving one fused word, /ʒa.pʁɑ̃/. Note the definite article before the language — French says "the French" where English says just "French" — and note that "français" takes no capital letter as a language name. "Apprends" has silent "d" and "s", so it ends on the nasal vowel.

Where English speakers slip

The word gets stretched into four English-style syllables, "ap-pren-DER-uh", and both "r"s pick up the American curl. It is two and a half beats with everything happening in the throat. Learners also confuse "apprendre" with "comprendre" and "prendre", which is understandable — they are the same root — but the prefix changes the meaning completely, from taking to learning to understanding.