French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "être" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce être in French?

être is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɛtʁ/. It means “to be.” EH-truh, where that last part is barely a syllable — just a "t" and a throat "r" trailing off.

EH-truh, where that last part is barely a syllable — just a "t" and a throat "r" trailing off.

être /ɛtʁ/

Essentially one syllable with a trailing consonant cluster: EH-tr. Because there is no full vowel at the end, the weight sits on the first part — which is unusual for French but forced by the shape of the word.

Listen: être

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Sound it out

ê An open "eh" as in "bed". The circumflex marks a lost "s" from the older spelling "estre", which is also why English got "estate" and French kept "état" from the same root.

tr An unaspirated "t" straight into the uvular "r". Keep the tongue tip down for the "r" — all the work happens at the back of the throat.

e The final "e" is silent or reduced to the merest breath. It exists to make the "tr" cluster pronounceable at the end of the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Je veux être médecin.

I want to be a doctor.

Listen: Je veux être médecin.

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"Je veux être médecin" drops the article before the profession, which is a rule with "être": you say "je suis médecin", never "je suis un médecin". Two verbs stack here, with "veux" conjugated and "être" left in the infinitive. "Médecin" ends in the nasal /ɛ̃/ and its middle "e" often drops, giving med-SAN.

Where English speakers slip

The typical rendering is "ay-truh" with a full second syllable and an English "r", which turns a compact word into a bouncy two-beat one. The vowel should be open "eh" not closed "ay", and the ending should fade rather than resolve into a clear "uh". A useful check: "être" should take about as long to say as English "etch", not as long as "attribute".