LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "dernier" in French?
dehr-NYAY — a throat "r" in the middle, a "y" glide at the end, and no final "r" sound.
der-NIER, weight on the second syllable. Two beats, not three — the same ending shape as "premier", so the two ordinals rhyme.
Listen: dernier
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
C'est le dernier bus.
It's the last bus.
Listen: C'est le dernier bus.
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"C'est le dernier bus" puts the adjective before the noun, where it means "final". Placed after a noun, "dernier" shifts meaning to "previous" — "la semaine dernière" is last week. "Bus" is one of the words that keeps its final "s": /bys/, with the tight French "u", so it sounds like "büss".
Where English speakers slip
The two "r"s behave differently — the first is a throat rasp, the second is silent — and learners tend to treat them alike, saying "der-nee-AIR". The ending is a bare "nyay". The first vowel also gets absorbed into an American "r", giving "durr"; keep the "eh" open and let the throat make the "r" afterwards.