French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "parce que" in French?

pars-KUH — two beats, usually compressed so the "e" of "parce" disappears entirely.

parce que /paʁs.kə/

The phrase compresses to roughly two beats: PARS-kuh. In fast speech it can reduce further, and you will sometimes hear it as little more than "pask".

Listen: parce que

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Sound it out

par An unaspirated "p", an open "ah", then the uvular "r".

ce A soft "s" from the "c" before "e", with the vowel almost always dropped in speech — so "parce" comes out as "pars".

que A bare "k" plus a weak schwa. Before a vowel it elides to "qu'", as in "parce qu'il".

Hear it in a sentence

Je reste parce qu'il pleut.

I'm staying because it's raining.

Listen: Je reste parce qu'il pleut.

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"Je reste parce qu'il pleut" shows the required elision: "que" loses its vowel before "il", giving "qu'il", so the whole conjunction runs together as "pars-KEEL". "Pleut" ends in a silent "t" and has the rounded /ø/ vowel. French cannot drop this conjunction the way English can sometimes drop "because".

Where English speakers slip

Learners pronounce all four written syllables — "par-suh-kuh-uh" — which is slow and unnatural. Compress it. They also forget the elision, producing "parce que il" with a hiatus, when French requires "parce qu'il". And the "que" often gets a full "kay" vowel; it is a schwa, and often not even that.