French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "peut-être" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce peut-être in French?

peut-être is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pø.tɛtʁ/. It means “maybe / perhaps.” puh-TEH-truh — the hyphen forces a liaison, so the silent "t" of "peut" becomes audible.

puh-TEH-truh — the hyphen forces a liaison, so the silent "t" of "peut" becomes audible.

peut-être /pø.tɛtʁ/

peut-Ê-tre, with the weight on the middle syllable, since the trailing "-tre" carries no real vowel. The whole phrase runs as one rhythmic unit, not two words.

Listen: peut-être

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Sound it out

peu An unaspirated "p" plus the rounded vowel /ø/, as in "deux".

t Normally silent at the end of "peut", but the hyphen binds the two words together and forces the liaison, so the "t" links straight into "être".

être An open "eh" — the circumflex marks a lost "s" — then a "t" into a uvular "r", with the final "e" silent. The same trailing cluster as the verb "être".

Hear it in a sentence

Il est peut-être malade.

Maybe he's sick.

Listen: Il est peut-être malade.

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"Il est peut-être malade" slots the adverb between the verb and the adjective, which is normal placement. It could equally open the sentence, though then formal French would want inversion: "peut-être est-il malade". "Malade" ends in an audible "d" thanks to its silent "e", and "il est" links into a single unit.

Where English speakers slip

Learners treat the hyphen as a pause and drop the liaison, giving "puh ETR" with a gap. The "t" must bridge them — that is exactly what the hyphen is signalling. The first vowel also gets unrounded into "puh", losing the /ø/. And the ending gets inflated into "EH-truh" with a full second vowel, when it should fade.