Word of the Week #35 - French “U”s Between Vowels - Mastering French Pronunciation w/Geri Metz

WORD OF THE WEEK #35-curiosité: the French “u”, “s” between vowels-and more, to learn from this word
Bonjour! I'm Geri Metz and this is the "Word of the Week!" A mini video lesson in French Pronunciation!
Please visit pronouncingfrench.com and sign up for a free French pronunciation lesson, phonetics chart and many other useful learning tools for teachers and students alike! Enjoy!
The purpose of PronouncingFrench.com is to improve the quality of spoken French among teachers, students and
all who wish to sound more authentic when speaking the beautiful French language.
If you enjoyed this video please click the "thumbs up" button on the bottom right of the video, subscribe to my channel and share with your friends! Merci!
---------------------------------------­­--------------------------------------
Word of the Week # 35 curiosité /ky rjo zi te
Bonjour; I’m Geri Metz of Pronouncing French.com and I’m here with word of the week #35, curiosité, meaning, of course, curiosity. This word has a lot of interesting features.
The first vowel sound, the sharp French “u” sometimes causes trouble for English speakers since we don’t have that vowel in English. To make it, take the tongue position of “i” as in ski, tongue raised high in the front of the mouth. Then round the lips like saying “ou”.
Next we have the “r” followed by the semi vowel “yuh” .
So the word does not have 5 syllables, cu-ri-o-si-te but 4 syllables: ky rjo-zi-te.
Now we would expect the vowel “o” to be the open “o” since the “o” in an unaccented syllable is normally the open “o” as we saw in the word rhododendron a couple of weeks ago. Or in the word “comment”. But in this case, it is the closed “o” because it comes in front of a “z” sound and all “o’s” in front of /z/ are closed, as in “rose” or “chose”.
And in this word we also have the situation of a single “s” being between 2 vowels. If it were a double “s”, it would have the sound of “s” as in “assume” ; but a single “s” between vowels is always pronounced like a “z”. You have this also in words like “maison”. For the last syllable, we just need to remember to make the “t” against the upper teeth and to hold the vowel steady so as not to make a diphthong saying “ei” as we would in English. So putting it all together we have this interesting word: curiosité. Enjoy this word, et A la prochaine.

[@RRMSWISS]

Merci beaucoup Geri!