French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la peur" in French?

lah PUR — with rounded lips on the vowel and a throat "r". Nothing like English "pure".

la peur /la pœʁ/

The phrase peaks on PEUR, one syllable. It rhymes with "cœur", "sœur" and "fleur", which makes the set easy to drill together.

Listen: la peur

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Sound it out

la The feminine article.

p An unaspirated "p": no puff of air.

eu The open rounded vowel /œ/, as in "sœur" and "fleur". Lips rounded, tongue mid-front.

r A final uvular "r", fully pronounced, with the lips staying rounded.

Hear it in a sentence

Il a peur des chiens.

He's afraid of dogs.

Listen: Il a peur des chiens.

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"Il a peur des chiens" uses "avoir peur de" — the fixed construction where fear is something you have, not something you are. "Des chiens" is "de les" contracted, used for fearing dogs in general. There is no article before "peur" in this expression: never "il a la peur".

Where English speakers slip

The vowel gets unrounded into an English "er", or substituted with "oo" or "yoo" from "pure". Round your lips and keep the tongue mid and forward. The construction is the grammatical trap: "je suis peur" is wrong, and so is "j'ai la peur" — it is "j'ai peur de", with no article at all.