Today we’ll take a close look at the word août, which means August in French. Specically, we’ll look at the pronunciation. The tricky aspect of this word is that it’s pronunciation goes completely against the French reading rules. Keep reading and I’ll explain!
août – [ut]
August
Août (August)
Pronunciation
In French, the pronunciation of aout is: [oo-t]. The reason that this pronunciation causes confusion is that it goes against the French reading rules, which state that if a word ends in vowel + consonant, the final consonant is silent. For example petit (short, small) is pronoucned [puh-tee].
Word origin
The modern French word août comes from middle and old French aoust, which in turn comes Augustus in Latin. Both août and August in English are named after Augustus Caesar, founder of the Roman empire.
Example sentences
This first sentence uses vacances (vacation) which has a tricky nasal sound.
Les Français partent en vacances en août.
The French go on vacation in August.
For this next sentence, un jour férié is a public holiday. This is not to be confused with un jour de congé, which is a personal day off.
Le 15 août est l’Assomption. C’est un jour férié en France.
August 15 is Assumption Day. It’s a day off in France.
This sentence uses été, which means both summer and was/have been in French.
Juillet et août sont les mois d’été.
July and August are the summer months.
This final example uses il fait, which is used for talking about the weather.
Souvent il fait très chaud au mois d’août en Europe.
The weather is often very hot during the month of August in Europe.
![Août means August in French. It is pronounced oo-t or [ut].](https://www.frenchlearner.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/aout-pronunciation-french.jpg)
Word of the Day Lessons | Lessons by David Issokson
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