LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "jamais" in French?
zha-MEH — a soft "zh", an open "eh" at the end, and a silent "s".
ja-MAIS, weight on the second syllable. The word pairs with "ne" to form a negation, and in that structure the beat still lands here: je ne bois ja-MAIS.
Listen: jamais
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Je ne suis jamais allé à Paris.
I've never been to Paris.
Listen: Je ne suis jamais allé à Paris.
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"Je ne suis jamais allé à Paris" is a compound tense, so the negation wraps around the auxiliary rather than the participle: "ne suis jamais allé". "Allé" is the past participle of "aller", and "être" is its auxiliary, which is why the participle would gain an "e" for a woman. "Jamais allé" links smoothly across the vowel.
Where English speakers slip
The "ai" gets read as "ay", giving "zha-MAY", and the "s" gets pronounced. Both are wrong: the ending is a flat open "eh" with nothing after it. The "j" also comes out hard. Structurally, remember "jamais" needs "ne" before the verb in careful French, though speech routinely drops it — "j'y suis jamais allé".