LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la femme" in French?
lah FAM — and yes, that "e" is pronounced "a". This is one of French spelling's oddest words.
The phrase peaks on FEMME, one syllable. The word means both woman and wife, distinguished by context and by whether a possessive is attached — "ma femme" is my wife.
Listen: la femme
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Cette femme travaille avec moi.
That woman works with me.
Listen: Cette femme travaille avec moi.
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"Cette femme travaille avec moi" uses the feminine demonstrative "cette", /sɛt/, with an audible "t". "Travaille" has the "y" sound from "-aill-", and "avec" keeps its final "c" as a hard "k". Note that "avec moi" needs the stressed pronoun — never "avec je".
Where English speakers slip
Everyone says "FEM" with an "eh" vowel the first time, because that is what the spelling suggests and because English "femme fatale" reinforces it. The vowel is "ah": FAM. It is a one-off irregularity, so there is nothing to reason from — it simply has to be memorised. Learners also nasalize the "mm", which the doubling rules out.