French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "tout" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce tout in French?

tout is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tu/. It means “everything / all.” too — the vowel of "soup", not the French "u" of "tu". Both final letters are silent.

too — the vowel of "soup", not the French "u" of "tu". Both final letters are silent.

tout /tu/

One syllable. Watch out for the feminine and plural forms, which change both spelling and sound: "toute" has an audible "t" (/tut/), and "tous" as a pronoun ends in a pronounced "s" (/tus/) though as an adjective it does not.

Listen: tout

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Sound it out

t Unaspirated: no puff of air after it. The tongue touches the back of the upper teeth rather than the ridge behind them.

ou A back, rounded "oo" as in "soup". This is the vowel English speakers usually put in "tu" by mistake — here it genuinely belongs.

t Silent at the end. It reappears in liaison before a vowel, which is what you hear in "tout à fait" (too-ta-FEH) and "tout à l'heure".

Hear it in a sentence

J'ai tout compris.

I understood everything.

Listen: J'ai tout compris.

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"J'ai tout compris" places "tout" between the auxiliary and the past participle, which is where short adverbs go in French compound tenses — you cannot say "j'ai compris tout". "Compris" ends in a silent "s" and starts with the nasal /ɔ̃/, so the whole sentence is four syllables: zhay-too-kohn-PREE.

Where English speakers slip

The trap is the vowel, and it comes from the neighbouring word "tu". Those two are a minimal pair: "tout" has the back /u/, "tu" has the front /y/. Learners who have been drilled hard on the French "u" often over-apply it and say "tü" here, which turns "everything" into "you". Keep the tongue back and the lips rounded for "tout".