LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la poule" in French?
lah POOL — the back "oo" of "soup" and a light "l". Not the French "u".
The phrase peaks on POULE, one syllable. It is worth contrasting directly with "pull" (a sweater, borrowed from English) and with any "u" word like "pur": the spelling "ou" always means the back /u/, while a bare "u" always means the front /y/.
Listen: la poule
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
La poule pond un œuf.
The hen lays an egg.
Listen: La poule pond un œuf.
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"La poule pond un œuf" carries a liaison: "un œuf" is /œ̃.n‿œf/, with the nasal releasing into a real "n". "Œuf" uses the ligature and has an audible "f" in the singular — but the plural "œufs" drops both, becoming /ø/, which surprises everyone. "Pond" ends in a nasal with the "d" silent.
Where English speakers slip
Learners substitute the front /y/ here, producing "pül", usually because they have been drilled hard on the French "u" and over-apply it. The spelling "ou" always means the back vowel. The "l" also goes dark; keep it bright. And the œuf/œufs irregularity is worth knowing — one egg is "uhf", several are "uh".