French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la sœur" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce la sœur in French?

la sœur is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /la sœʁ/. It means “sister.” lah SUR — with rounded lips on the vowel. The "œ" ligature is one letter making one sound.

lah SUR — with rounded lips on the vowel. The "œ" ligature is one letter making one sound.

la sœur /la sœʁ/

The phrase peaks on SŒUR, one syllable. Unlike "mère", "père" and "frère", this family word has a rounded vowel rather than an open "eh" — so it does not rhyme with the others.

Listen: la sœur

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Sound it out

la The feminine article.

s A voiceless "s" at the start of the noun.

œu The ligature "œ" plus "u" gives the open rounded vowel /œ/, the same as in "neuf" and "heure". Lips rounded, tongue mid-front. The ligature is a single typographic character, not two letters.

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

Hear it in a sentence

Ma sœur adore la musique.

My sister loves music.

Listen: Ma sœur adore la musique.

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"Ma sœur adore la musique" links "adore" straight after the noun across the vowels. "Adore" ends in a pronounced "r" thanks to its silent "e", and "musique" ends in a hard "k" from the "qu": mü-ZEEK, with the tight French "u" at the front and a "z" from the single "s" between vowels.

Where English speakers slip

The ligature startles people, but it is just one vowel. The real error is unrounding it into a plain "er" as in English "sir", or substituting "oo". Round your lips while keeping the tongue mid and forward. The final "r" then needs the throat treatment rather than the American curl — and crucially, it must not reshape the vowel it follows.