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How to pronounce chauffeur

Chauffeur is pronounced shoh-FUR in American English and SHOH-fuh in British English. It has two syllables, and the stress moves. The ch is sh, as in chef.

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  • 2 syllables
  • Stress on FUR
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

chauffeur

Two syllables, stress on the second

noun · a person whose job is to drive a car for someone else

  1. shohʃoʊ
  2. FURfɝː (stressed)
  • US /ʃoʊˈfɝː/shoh-FUR Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈʃəʊ.fər/SHOH-fuh Your device’s voice

Also said: US /ˈʃoʊ.fɚ/.

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.

Chauffeur, sound by sound

Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.

US American English/ʃoʊˈfɝː/

  1. shoh

    • /ʃ/as in shoe
    • /oʊ/as in go (US)

  2. FURstressed

    • /f/as in fall
    • /ɝː/as in bird (US)

UK British English/ˈʃəʊ.fər/

  1. SHOHstressed

    • /ʃ/as in shoe
    • /əʊ/as in go (UK)

  2. fuh

    • /f/as in fall
    • /ə/as in about
    • /r/as in red

Say chauffeur yourself

Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes chauffeur, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.

Tip. Start with sh, not ch. US: shoh-FUR, stressed at the end. UK: SHOH-fuh.

Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.

Say it

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chauffeur

    Common chauffeur pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say shoh-FUR.

    • NotCHOH-fer

      Saying ch as in chair. In this French word it is sh.

    • Notchow-FUR

      Reading au as in cow. In chauffeur it is the oh of go.

    • Notshoh-FYOOR

      Ending in yoor. The end is ur (US) or uh (UK).

    Chauffeur in a sentence

    Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.

    • The chauffeur opened the car door for her.

    • They hired a chauffeur for the wedding day.

    • My uncle works as a chauffeur in London.

    How do you say chauffeur?

    Chauffeur is a French word. The ch is sh, as in chef and champagne, and the au is the oh of go. The ending -eur is ur in the US and uh in the UK.

    The stress changes between accents. In the US it is on the second syllable: shoh-FUR. In Britain it is on the first: SHOH-fuh. Oxford and Cambridge show both.

    The French word chauffeur is from chauffer, to heat, and first meant a person who looked after the fire in an early steam-driven car. Now it means a paid driver. The word can also be a verb: to chauffeur someone is to drive them.

    Words that sound like chauffeur

    Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.

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