French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "vouloir" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce vouloir in French?

vouloir is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /vu.lwaʁ/. It means “to want.” voo-LWAHR — two syllables, with an "lw" cluster in the middle that English never produces.

voo-LWAHR — two syllables, with an "lw" cluster in the middle that English never produces.

vouloir /vu.lwaʁ/

vou-LOIR, with the second syllable carrying the weight. Note how differently the conjugated forms sound — "veux", "veut", "voulons" — which is typical of French irregular verbs, where the infinitive is a poor guide to the rest.

Listen: vouloir

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Sound it out

vou A "v" plus the back "oo" of "soup".

loi A light "l" straight into the "wa" glide. English has "lw" only across word boundaries, as in "well worth", so inside a single syllable it feels unfamiliar.

r A pronounced uvular "r", standard for -oir infinitives.

Hear it in a sentence

Je veux rentrer tôt.

I want to go home early.

Listen: Je veux rentrer tôt.

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"Je veux rentrer tôt" uses "veux" /vø/, one syllable with a rounded vowel and a silent "x", not the infinitive. "Rentrer" is an -er infinitive so its final "r" is silent, but its initial "r" is fully sounded in the throat: rahn-TRAY. "Tôt" has a circumflex marking a lost "s" and ends in a silent "t".

Where English speakers slip

The "lw" cluster is the pinch point, and learners resolve it by inserting a vowel — "voo-loo-AHR" — which adds a syllable that is not there. Practise "lwa" on its own: say "wa", then put a light "l" directly in front with no gap. Also do not import the English "r": the ending is "-lwar" with the rasp at the back of the throat, not a curled tongue.