French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "inquiet" in French?

an-KYEH — a nasal opening, a bare "k", a "y" glide, and a silent "t".

inquiet /ɛ̃.kjɛ/

in-QUIET, weight on the second syllable. Two beats, not three — the "-quiet" ending is a single glide-plus-vowel unit.

Listen: inquiet

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

in The nasal vowel /ɛ̃/ — an open "eh" through the nose, tongue never rising.

qu A bare "k", with no "w" — the opposite of English "inquiet" or "quiet".

ie The "i" acts as a "y" glide into an open "eh". One beat.

t Silent in the masculine. The feminine "inquiète" makes it audible and opens the vowel with a grave accent.

Hear it in a sentence

Je suis inquiet pour lui.

I'm worried about him.

Listen: Je suis inquiet pour lui.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Je suis inquiet pour lui" links "suis" into the vowel of "inquiet": /sɥi.z‿ɛ̃.kjɛ/, with the silent "s" surfacing as a "z". "Pour lui" uses the stressed pronoun any preposition requires. French says "inquiet pour" where English says "worried about".

Where English speakers slip

English "quiet" pulls hard: it adds a "w" after the "qu", gives two clear syllables, and means something almost opposite. French has a bare "k", a glide, and the meaning "worried". Learners also pronounce the final "t" and give the nasal a real "n". Four things to fix in seven letters.