French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "jeune" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce jeune in French?

jeune is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʒœn/. It means “young.” zhuhn — the soft "j" of "measure", an open rounded vowel, and a real "n" at the end.

zhuhn — the soft "j" of "measure", an open rounded vowel, and a real "n" at the end.

jeune /ʒœn/

One syllable. Do not confuse it with "jeûne" (a fast, as in going without food), which has a circumflex and a closer vowel — a small spelling difference that native speakers do hear.

Listen: jeune

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Sound it out

j The buzzy consonant of "measure", with no "d" in front of it.

eu The open rounded vowel /œ/, as in "neuf" and "heure". More open than the /ø/ of "deux", because a consonant closes the syllable.

ne A genuine "n" consonant — tongue on the ridge behind the teeth — kept audible by the silent "e" after it. This vowel is not nasal.

Hear it in a sentence

Ma sœur est plus jeune que moi.

My sister is younger than me.

Listen: Ma sœur est plus jeune que moi.

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"Ma sœur est plus jeune que moi" is a comparison built on "plus... que", and here "plus" is pronounced without its "s" — /ply/ — because it stands before an adjective. "Sœur" uses the ligature "œ" and has the same open rounded vowel as "jeune": sur, with a throat "r". "Moi" is the stressed pronoun that "que" requires in comparisons.

Where English speakers slip

Two habits collide here. First, the hard English "j" turns it into "june", which is a different sound entirely — start from the middle of "measure". Second, the vowel gets flattened into an unrounded "uh", losing what makes it French; round your lips deliberately. And because so many French "n"s are nasal markers, learners sometimes nasalize this one — but the silent "e" after it keeps it a real consonant.