How to pronounce “charcuterie”

shar-KOO-tuh-ree

4 syllables · stress on “KOO”

sharKOOtuhree

Britishʃɑːˈkuːtəri

Americanʃɑːrˈkutəri

In short

“charcuterie” is pronounced shar-KOO-tuh-ree: 4 syllables, with the stress on “KOO”. The French ch is /ʃ/, not the /tʃ/ of “chair”. Four syllables also need to stay balanced, with only the second stressed. The version to avoid is char-KOO-tuh-ree with a hard /tʃ/ start, or char-KOO-tree.

Say “charcuterie” in 3 steps

1The ch is “sh”: shar, not “char”.
2Four syllables: shar-KOO-tuh-ree.
3Stress the second syllable.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: char-KOO-tuh-ree with a hard /tʃ/ start, or char-KOO-tree

The French ch is /ʃ/, not the /tʃ/ of “chair”. Four syllables also need to stay balanced, with only the second stressed.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

2 human recordings

Actual people saying “charcuterie”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by Edwin Walker and LegionMammal978, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Full credits.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

ʃsh as in she ɑːar as in car kk as in key uːoo as in blue tt as in tea əa as in about (schwa)rr as in red iːee as in see

Don't confuse it with…

Minimal pairs isolate the exact contrast this word depends on — the fastest way to train both ear and mouth.

More food and drink words

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

croissantKWAS-on quinoaKEEN-wah gnocchiNYOK-ee bruschettabroo-SKET-uh espressoe-SPRES-oh jalapeñohal-uh-PAY-nyoh

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce charcuterie?

charcuterie is pronounced shar-KOO-tuh-ree, written /ʃɑːˈkuːtəri/ in IPA. The ch is “sh”: shar, not “char”.

How many syllables are in charcuterie?

four: shar-KOO-tuh-ree. The stress falls on “KOO”.

What is the most common mistake with charcuterie?

char-KOO-tuh-ree with a hard /tʃ/ start, or char-KOO-tree. The French ch is /ʃ/, not the /tʃ/ of “chair”. Four syllables also need to stay balanced, with only the second stressed.

The full sound library

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