How to Pronounce 'Heureux' [Effortless French Pronunciation]
In this episode, you’ll learn how to pronounce the French word ‘heureux.’ 😊
If you’d prefer to listen on the go, listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Transcript
Bonjour et bienvenue à tous! 😊
I'm your host, Mathilde, and you're listening to ‘Effortless French Pronunciation’. This is a special pronunciation series from the French Made Easy podcast, specifically designed for French beginners wanting to perfect their pronunciation.
In this new episode, we're going to look at the pronunciation of the French word - 'heureux'. That means "happy." Two things that often mispronounced in this word are the first letter of that word 'h' and the last letter of that word 'x'. So we'll see how to pronounce this today. And we're also going to look at the feminine form of 'heureux' which is 'heureuse.
Now, let's explore the nuts and bolts of its pronunciation.
Let's start with the masculine form of this adjective: 'heureux': [ø.ʁø].
1) First, very important. The 'h' is silent in French. So don't pronounce it.
2) Next, the letters 'eu' are pronounced as [ø].
3) Then, we have the r. I recommend revisiting episode 21 of the podcast for more guidance.
4) Then we have again the letters 'eu', pronounce the same way [ø].
5) Lastly, the 'x' is silent in that word.
Putting it all together, we have 'heureux': [ø.rø].
Now, let's move on to 'heureuse', the feminine form: [ø.røz].
You'll notice the difference between the masculine form and the feminine form of that word is at the end. Instead of a silent 'x', we have 'se' pronounced as [z].
Just as always, for those who are new here, not all letters or letter combinations sound the same in every French word. For example, the 'x' is not always silent at the end of words. More on this in my French Pronunciation Made Easy course.
Now, pronouncing sounds properly is essential for clear French pronunciation. And when you have a clear French pronunciation, French speakers can understand you better.
Studying sounds and becoming familiar with them is really your first step towards clear, effortless French pronunciation.
✨ To help you with this, I've created a FREE cheat sheet, simply called the French Sounds Cheat Sheet, where you have all the sounds of French in one spot, along with example words and, of course, accompanying audio. And it is a great tool to get you started on your French pronunciation journey. ✨
You can get that French Sounds Cheat Sheet for free, with its audio guide below:
Let's use 'heureux' and 'heureuse' in some example sentences:
Nous sommes heureux de te voir. (We are happy to see you.)
Nous sommes heureuses de te voir. (We [feminine] are happy to see you.)
Tu as l'air heureux aujourd'hui. (You look happy today.)
Tu as l'air heureuse aujourd'hui. (You [feminine] look happy today.)
There you have it—today's episode on how to pronounce 'heureux' and 'heureuse' in French.
Alright - keep practising, you'll be saying this word effortlessly in no time!
Thank you for tuning into Effortless French Pronunciation, a series from the French Made Easy podcast. À bientôt!