French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "changer" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce changer in French?

changer is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʃɑ̃.ʒe/. It means “to change.” shahn-ZHAY — a soft "sh" at the front, a nasal vowel, a buzzy "zh", and no "r" at the end.

shahn-ZHAY — a soft "sh" at the front, a nasal vowel, a buzzy "zh", and no "r" at the end.

changer /ʃɑ̃.ʒe/

chan-GER, weight on the second syllable. The word has no hard consonants at all: two soft palatal sounds and a nasal vowel, which gives it a notably smooth texture.

Listen: changer

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Sound it out

ch "sh", as French "ch" almost always is.

an The nasal vowel /ɑ̃/, open and through the nose, with the tongue lying still.

ger "g" before "e" is soft — the buzz of "measure" — followed by the -er infinitive ending, a closed "ay" with a silent "r".

Hear it in a sentence

Je dois changer de train à Lyon.

I have to change trains in Lyon.

Listen: Je dois changer de train à Lyon.

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"Je dois changer de train à Lyon" uses "changer de", the fixed construction for switching from one thing to another — you change "de train", "d'avis", "de chemise", always with "de" and never with an article. "Train" is one nasal beat, /tʁɛ̃/, and "Lyon" is two: lee-OHN.

Where English speakers slip

The English word "change" supplies a hard "ch" and a hard "j", both of which are wrong: French wants "sh" and "zh", neither with a stop in front. The nasal also gets flattened into "chan" with a real "n". And then the -er ending gets an "r". Fixing all four turns "CHAIN-jer" into "shahn-ZHAY", which sounds like a completely different word — as it should.