LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "le frère" in French?
luh FREHR — two throat "r"s bracketing an open "eh", in one syllable.
The phrase peaks on FRÈRE, one dense syllable. It rhymes with "mère" and "père", completing a neat family set — and all three end in the same open vowel plus throat "r".
Listen: le frère
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Mon frère habite à Lyon.
My brother lives in Lyon.
Listen: Mon frère habite à Lyon.
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"Mon frère habite à Lyon" links "habite" and "à" across the mute "h", so the middle of the sentence flows without a break. "Lyon" is a single beat, /ljɔ̃/, with the "y" acting as a glide straight into a nasal vowel rather than forming a syllable of its own. The possessive "mon" ends in a nasal with no "n" consonant, since "frère" starts with a consonant and no liaison occurs.
Where English speakers slip
Two uvular "r"s in one syllable is demanding, and English speakers respond by curling the tongue twice, producing "frair" with the vowel swallowed. Keep the tongue tip resting behind the lower teeth throughout and let the back of the tongue do all the work, with a clean open "eh" in between. The vowel also drifts closed toward "ay"; the grave accent says otherwise.