How do I pronounce Un coup de main?

[V Cathrill-Denton]

I know what it means, but can anyone tell me how to pronounce it (phoenetically).  It would be much appreciated..

[stu harris]

The "un" is very like "uh" -- the n should not sound at all
"coup" is very close to "coo"
"de" is a very short "duh"
the ain in "main" is a long a like in BAD

Put it all together and what do you get?

"Uh coo d'ma"

[V Cathrill-Denton]

Thank you soooo much. Merci:)

[V Cathrill-Denton]

One more thing... How do I pronounce succes (success)? soo-say?

[Frank]

You can listen to it online:

Succès
Le succès

[Neil Coffey]

For many speakers, the sound represented by un/ain is roughly similar to the a in the English word amplitude. Start saying this word, but cut yourself off before your lips actually come together for the m sound.

In English, when you say a word like amplitude where you have a stressed vowel followed by a nasal consonant like m (pronounced with the air coming out of the nose), it is common for the vowel also to be nasalsed-- in other words, in amplitude, the air generally comes out of both the nose and the mouth when you say the initial a vowel.

The French vowel represented by un/ain is essentially just the vowel part, but still nasalised as though there was a following nasal consonant like n (but, at least in what is considered a "neutral" accent of French, the n no longer pronounced as such-- it just indicates that the previous vowel is nasalsed). So effectively what you need to do to pronounce this vowel is pronounce an a sound as in amplitude and "imagine" that the following m is present, but don't actually pronounce it as such.

N.B. For the majority of French speakers-- and again, what is generally considered a "standard" French accent-- un represents the same vowel as ain. The similarity with English uh really doesn't work too well.

[Frank]

You can listen to it online: Donner un coup de main à quelqu'un

If you need the pronunciation of a word that isn't in the Shtooka database, feel free to ask and we'll be glad to record it.

[V Cathrill-Denton]

Thank you. My mother has a non-profit organiztion. We searched for what we wanted to say that was not "usual" I thought, let's try French. We can all learn something, no? Her CEO thought the same. Now we need to find a closing to our letters. My mother never said "Good luck." She always said "Success." I find it fitting.

By the way way, my father's name is Frank--how do you say "Very cool"?

PS: the speaker spoke too fast--could not understand. Give me about 3 months and maybe I'll catch on!

[Frank]

how do you say "Very cool"?

Très cool, Trop cool or Super cool, although teenagers don't say that any more (Trop dare, Trop frais, Trop puissant and Chanmé are preferred by teenagers nowadays).

PS: the speaker spoke too fast--could not understand. Give me about 3 months and maybe I'll catch on!


The intent is to provide recordings made by native speakers, talking in a natural way, so that people using it in order to improve their pronunciation eventually sound like a native speaker :)