French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "l'étudiant (m.)" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce l'étudiant (m.) in French?

l'étudiant (m.) is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /le.ty.djɑ̃/. It means “student (f. l'étudiante).” lay-tü-DYAHN — three beats, with the tight French "u" and a nasal ending.

lay-tü-DYAHN — three beats, with the tight French "u" and a nasal ending.

l'étudiant (m.) /le.ty.djɑ̃/

l'é-tu-DIANT, weight on the final syllable. Three beats, not four — the "-diant" ending is a single glide-plus-nasal unit.

Listen: l'étudiant (m.)

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Sound it out

l'é The article elided before the vowel, then a closed "ay" from the accent aigu. The accent also marks a lost "s" — compare English "student" and "estudiante" in Spanish.

tu An unaspirated "t" plus the vowel /y/: tongue in the "ee" position, lips rounded.

diant A dental "d", the "i" as a "y" glide, then the nasal vowel /ɑ̃/ with the "t" silent. One beat.

Hear it in a sentence

L'étudiant travaille à la bibliothèque.

The student is working in the library.

Listen: L'étudiant travaille à la bibliothèque.

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"L'étudiant travaille à la bibliothèque" links the noun into the verb across the vowels. "Bibliothèque" is four syllables with a grave accent marking an open "eh" and a hard "k" from the "qu": bee-blee-o-TEK. The feminine form of the noun would be "l'étudiante", with an audible "t".

Where English speakers slip

The vowel in "tu" gets the "oo" treatment, and the ending gets split into "dee-AHNT" with a real "n" and a released "t". Fix them in order: front-rounded /y/, then a glide into a nasal that fades. And the masculine/feminine pair is audibly different, since "étudiante" pronounces its final "t".