LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la gare" in French?
lah GAR — a hard "g", an open "ah", and a throat "r" kept audible by the silent "e".
The phrase peaks on GARE, one syllable. The word means specifically a railway station — a bus station is "la gare routière", and a metro stop is "une station".
Listen: la gare
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
La gare est tout près.
The station is very close.
Listen: La gare est tout près.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"La gare est tout près" runs "gare est" together, with the "r" carrying onto the vowel. "Tout" here modifies an adverb and its "t" is silent before the consonant of "près". "Près" ends in an open "eh" with a silent "s", so the sentence closes on a bare vowel.
Where English speakers slip
The vowel gets swallowed by an American "r", producing "gar" as in "garden". French forms the "ah" fully and then rasps at the back. Learners also confuse "gare" with "station" — in French a "station" is a metro stop or a resort, and the train station is always "la gare". And "gare !" on its own is an old-fashioned warning meaning "watch out".