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

August

Août (August) – Pronunciation & Usage in French

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]. If you look at Camille of French Today’s lesson on août, you’ll hear that she clearly pronounces the final T.

Word origin

According to Wiktionary.org, 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. Camille at French Today explains the French nasal sounds beautifully in this lesson.

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. I explain congé in detail in this lesson.

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. I cover été in detail in this lesson.

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. This lesson covers weather terms and phrases in detail.

Souvent il fait très chaud au mois d’août en Europe.

The weather is often very hot during the month of August in Europe.

Conclusion

Et voilà ! Now you know how to pronounce and use août (August) in French! Now check our lesson covering the 25 most difficult words to pronounce in French.

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