🎧 Audio by Marie Assel Cambier — native speaker & pro voice artist from France
Level B1 (Intermediate)
Au fur et à mesure is an intermediate French expression meaning gradually. Learners see it often but rarely master it — we’ll demystify it step by step.
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
✅ Related lessons
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📘 Au fur et à mesure meaning
Au fur et à mesure is a French expression that translates literally to “at the rate and in measure.” It means gradually, little by little, as you go along, or as something happens. The phrase shows that something develops step by step, often at the same time as another action. See examples below.
🎧 Au fur et à mesure pronunciation
Au fur et à mesure is pronounced /o fyʁ e‿a məzyʁ/ in IPA, sounding like oh fyoor ay ah meh-zur in English. The u is the French [y] (like “ee” with rounded lips), and the final -re ends with [ʁ], the soft French throat r.
📝 French and English examples
Au fur et à mesure – gradually
Au fur et à mesure, j’ai compris la leçon.
Gradually, I understood the lesson.
Tu apprendras au fur et à mesure.
You’ll learn gradually / little by little.
Au fur et à mesure qu’il parlait, je devenais impatient.
As he spoke, I became impatient.
Au fur et à mesure que le film avançait, l’histoire devenait plus claire.
As the movie went on, the story became clearer.
🎯 Achieve your French learning goals!
Expressions like au fur et à mesure show up constantly in real conversations. To hear them in action, I recommend the À Moi Paris audio course from French Today.
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🔗 Related words and expressions
- petit à petit — little by little
- peu à peu — bit by bit
- progressivement — progressively
- graduellement — gradually
- au fil du temps — over time, as time goes by
- au fur du temps — over the course of time
🚀 Expand your French vocabulary!
Now that you’ve seen how au fur et à mesure expresses gradual change, explore déjà — a short but powerful word that means “already” and is everywhere in daily French.
👉 Learn déjà here »
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