LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "le mari" in French?
luh ma-REE — a throat "r" in the middle and the stress on the final syllable.
le ma-RI, weight on the second syllable of the noun. Both vowels stay full; neither reduces to a schwa the way English would weaken an unstressed syllable.
Listen: le mari
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Mon mari prépare le dîner.
My husband is making dinner.
Listen: Mon mari prépare le dîner.
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"Mon mari prépare le dîner" uses "mon" even though the speaker may be a woman — possessives agree with the thing owned, not the owner, so a wife says "mon mari" and a husband says "ma femme". "Dîner" has a circumflex marking a lost "s" and works as both noun and verb. "Prépare" ends in a pronounced "r".
Where English speakers slip
English speakers stress the first syllable and give the "r" an American curl, producing "MA-ree". Move the weight to the end and rasp the "r" at the back. The possessive rule is the grammatical trap: "mon mari" from a woman feels wrong to an English ear but is exactly right in French, since "mari" is masculine.