LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la cuisine" in French?
la kwee-ZEEN — with the "w" made in the French "u" position, and the "s" pronounced as a "z".
la cui-SINE, weight on the second syllable. The word means both the room and the activity, so "la cuisine française" is French cooking, not a French kitchen.
Listen: la cuisine
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Hear it in a sentence
La cuisine est au fond.
The kitchen is at the back.
Listen: La cuisine est au fond.
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"La cuisine est au fond" uses "au fond" for "at the back", a fixed phrase where "fond" ends in a nasal vowel with both the "n" and the "d" silent. "Est au" runs together across the vowels. The article is required — French does not say "cuisine est au fond".
Where English speakers slip
The "s" stays a hiss for most learners, producing "kwee-SEEN", when a single "s" between vowels is always a "z" in French. The /ɥ/ glide also gets replaced by a plain English "w" with the tongue pulled back. And the final "-ine" gets nasalized by people over-applying the nasal rule; the silent "e" keeps that "n" real.