LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "dire" in French?
deer — but with the throat "r" and a pure "ee" that keeps its own shape right up to the "r".
One syllable, ending on that "r". Compare the conjugated "dit" /di/, where the final consonant is silent: the infinitive keeps its "r", the third-person form does not.
Listen: dire
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire ?
What do you mean?
Listen: Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire ?
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"Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire ?" is the fixed idiom for "what do you mean" — literally "what do you want to say". The opening is a compressed cluster: "qu'est-ce que" runs together as /kɛs.kə/, often collapsing further to "kesk". Then "tu veux dire" has the /ø/ vowel in "veux" with a silent "x".
Where English speakers slip
The English word "deer" gets you the vowel but ruins the "r": the American version bends the vowel into an "r"-coloured glide, so "ee" turns into "ee-uhr". French keeps a clean, unwavering "ee" and then makes a separate "r" at the back of the throat. Learners also confuse "dire" with "dire" the English adjective, which has an entirely different vowel — ignore the English word completely.