Slova
Restaurant is pronounced RES-tuh-rahnt in American English and RES-tuh-ront in British English. It has three syllables with the stress on the first. A short two-syllable form, RES-trahnt, is also correct.
restaurant
noun · a place where you pay to sit and eat a meal
Also said: US /ˈres.trɑːnt/; UK /ˈres.trɒnt/.
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford lists the short form, RES-trahnt (US) and RES-tront (UK). Cambridge lists the three-syllable form. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˈres.tə.rɑːnt/
RESstressed
tuh
rahnt
UK British English/ˈres.tər.ɒnt/
RESstressed
tuh
ront
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes restaurant, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Three beats or two: RES-tuh-rahnt, or RES-trahnt. There is no aw sound in the middle.
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What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say RES-tuh-rahnt.
NotRES-taw-rant
Saying aw because of the letters au. The middle is a very short uh.
Notres-TOR-unt
Stressing the second syllable. The stress is on the first.
NotRES-ter-ant
Ending in a short a as in cat. The last vowel is ah (US) or o (UK).
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
We had dinner at a small Italian restaurant.
This restaurant is open until midnight.
Is there a good restaurant near here?
Three, or two in a short form. The common mistake is the spelling: the letters aura look like they should be said aw, as in res-tor-ant or res-taw-rant. They are not. The middle is a very short uh, or it disappears: RES-trahnt.
The word came into English from French restaurant, a form of the verb restaurer, to restore. The first restaurants served a strong soup meant to restore a tired person, and that is how the name began.
The ending is ant, which in American English is the ah of father plus nt, and in British English the short o of hot. Put all the weight on RES and say the rest lightly.
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.