🎧 Audio by Marie Assel Cambier — native speaker & pro voice artist from France
The French Word of the Day is pourtant, meaning “yet.” You’ll hear it constantly in conversations — but what does it actually mean, and how do the French actually use it?
Level: B1 (Intermediate)
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
✅ Related lessons
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📘 Pourtant meaning
Pourtant is both an adverb and a conjunction, meaning “yet,” “however,” or “nevertheless.” It introduces contrast or emphasizes something unexpected. You’ll also hear it in common expressions like et pourtant (and yet) and mais pourtant (but yet, still). See examples below.
🎧 Pourtant pronunciation
Pourtant is pronounced /puʁ.tɑ̃/. It sounds like poor-tahng. The ou is oo (as in food), the r is the French ʁ in the throat, and an is the nasal ahng.
📝 French and English examples
Pourtant – yet, however
Il a échoué l’examen. Et pourtant, c’est un bon étudiant.
He failed the exam. And yet, he is a good student.
C’est quelqu’un qui a fait plein d’études. Mais pourtant, il ne fait rien dans la vie.
He’s someone who studied a lot. Yet, he’s doing nothing in life.
Je vais acheter une nouvelle voiture, c’est cher mais pourtant necessaire.
I’m going to by the new car; it’s expensive but necessary.
Elle a consulté des médecins, mais pourtant rien n’a changé.
She consulted doctors, yet nothing changed.
This last example sentence is actually the main line from the chorus of the song Et pourtant by Charles Aznavour.
Et pourtant, pourtant, je n’aime que toi. (song title)
And yet, however, I only love you.
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Connecting words like pourtant are everywhere in daily conversations. To really hear how natives use them, I recommend Camille’s À Moi Paris audio course from French Today.
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🔗 More useful conjunctions
- cependant — however
- toutefois — however, nonetheless
- quand même — anyway
- néanmoins — nevertheless
- alors que — while, when
- sinon — otherwise
- car — because, for as
- quoique – although, even though
🚀 Expand your French vocabulary!
Now that you’ve mastered pendant, check out my lesson on or — an often overlooked advanced literary conjunction that also means “yet” or “however.”
👉 Learn the conjunction “or” »
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