How to pronounce Yaourt in French?

Updated: March 13, 2021 by Mylene in How to PronounceArray ▪

Yogurt in French

Yaourt is a masculine noun in French that refers to yogurt in English: un yaourt. The plural is des yaourts.

In French, you can also use yoghourt or yogourt. It depends on where you live. It’s usual to say yogourt in the French part of Switzerland and Belgium. In the French region, le Finistère, you can also hear yaourt without pronouncing the letter t at the end of the word. The commonly used version is yaourt with the pronunciation of the letter “t” at the end.

Yogurt is produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. There are different kinds of yogurt:

Les yaourts nature: the plain yogurts
Les yaourts aromatisés: the flavored yogurts
Les yaourts aux fruits: the fruit yogurts
Le yaourt fait maison: homemade yogurts

How to pronounce “yaourt” in French?

Yaourt Is Pronounced /jauʀt/

/j/: The tongue is slightly more forward. It is the same sound as the beginning of the English word “yes”. Your vocal cords vibrate.
/a/: Your mouth is much more open and the tip of the tongue is forward. Your vocal cords vibrate.
/u/: The tongue is back, the mouth is slightly open and the lips are rounded. Your vocal cords vibrate.
/r/: The key to making /r/ is not letting the tip of your tongue touch the roof of your mouth. The tip of the tongue must touch the front lower teeth. Vibrate your vocal cords and let the airflow around and over your tongue.
/t/: Place the tip of your tongue on the ridge behind your upper teeth. As you push air out of your mouth, briefly stop it behind your tongue before releasing it. Do not vibrate your vocal cords as you make this sound.

This Instagram video will show you how to pronounce the word yaourt in French. Click the link to listen to this video or directly play the video shown below.

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A post shared by Master Your French (@masteryourfrench) on Feb 7, 2020 at 11:03am PST

Using Yaourt in French

Un pot de yaourt means a yogurt container. It can also mean another French expression: a car smaller than 3 meters, a bubble car. The Isetta is an Italian designed microcar, because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car a name also given to other similar vehicles.

In France, it is colloquially known as the “yogurt pot”, because of the white color generally used and for its resemblance to the glass yogurt pots of the time. But then the expression pot de yaourt was used to speak about a car smaller than 3 meters. For example:

Il y a un pot de yaourt devant nous: there is a microcar in front of us.

Get a better French pronunciation

The French language contains a large number of words that are difficult to pronounce. To learn the right pronunciation of French words, check our article on the pronunciation of French words.

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