French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "désolé" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce désolé in French?

désolé is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /de.zɔ.le/. It means “sorry (m.; f. désolée).” day-zo-LAY — and that middle "s" is a "z", because it sits between two vowels.

day-zo-LAY — and that middle "s" is a "z", because it sits between two vowels.

désolé /de.zɔ.le/

Three even syllables with the lift on the final one: dé-zo-LÉ. Every syllable gets a clear, full vowel — none of them reduce to "uh" the way an English three-syllable word would.

Listen: désolé

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Sound it out

dé The accent aigu makes a closed "ay" sound, but without the English glide. Say "day" and stop the vowel before your tongue slides up toward "ee".

so A single "s" between two vowels is always pronounced "z" in French. The "o" here is a short, open "aw".

lé Another closed "ay", again clipped short with no glide. If the word is spelled "désolée" (feminine), the extra "e" is silent and nothing changes in the sound.

Hear it in a sentence

Désolé, je suis en retard.

Sorry, I'm late.

Listen: Désolé, je suis en retard.

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"Désolé, je suis en retard" contains the nasal phrase "en retard", where "en" is the nasal vowel /ɑ̃/ and "retard" ends in a silent "d". The whole thing is /ɑ̃ ʁə.taʁ/. Note also that the apology is masculine here; a woman writes "désolée" but says exactly the same three syllables.

Where English speakers slip

The "s" is the trap. English speakers see "désolé" and reach for "desolate", which has a hissing "s", so they say "day-so-lay". French has an ironclad rule in the other direction: one "s" between vowels is voiced to "z". You want "day-zo-LAY". The second issue is the final vowel — the English habit is to glide from "eh" toward "ee" at the end of "-ay", which makes the word sound sung. Cut it off clean.