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    Pronunciation · Academic and IELTS words

    How to pronounce “entrepreneur”

    on-truh-pruh-NUR

    4 syllables · stress on “NUR”

    ontruhpruhNUR
    Britishˌɒntrəprəˈnɜː
    Americanˌɑːntrəprəˈnɜːr

    In short

    “entrepreneur” is pronounced on-truh-pruh-NUR: 4 syllables, with the stress on “NUR”. It is French, so the stress falls at the end rather than the beginning, which is unusual for a long English noun. Three weak syllables have to be produced before the stressed one arrives. The version to avoid is en-truh-pruh-NOOR or ON-truh-pruh-nur — wrong first vowel, or stress on the front.

    Say “entrepreneur” in 3 steps

    1. 1Stress the final syllable: on-truh-pruh-NUR.
    2. 2Keep the first three syllables short and weak — they are a runway, not the destination.
    3. 3The ending is the /ɜː/ of “her”, not “-noor”.

    The version to avoid

    Commonly said as: en-truh-pruh-NOOR or ON-truh-pruh-nur — wrong first vowel, or stress on the front

    It is French, so the stress falls at the end rather than the beginning, which is unusual for a long English noun. Three weak syllables have to be produced before the stressed one arrives.

    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

    1 human recording

    Actual people saying “entrepreneur”, 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 DroEsperanto, licensed under Public domain. Full credits.

    Practise it out loud

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    Say it yourself

    0/6 practised

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    Three speakers per accent

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    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.

    ɒo as in hotnn as in nott as in tearr as in redəa as in about (schwa)pp as in penɜːer as in bird

    Who finds this word hardest

    Your first language predicts which part of a word will break. These guides list the highest-impact fixes for each.

    • Mandarin speakers: Mandarin syllables end only in n or ng, so the single biggest win for Mandarin speakers is final consonants: keeping the ends of words alive, including the -s and -ed that carry English grammar.
    • Hindi speakers: Hindi speakers' single highest-impact fix is the v/w merger: Hindi has one sound (व) where English has two, so 'wine' and 'vine' collapse.
    • Arabic speakers: The signature fix for Arabic speakers is /p/: Arabic has no p, so 'pen' becomes 'ben' and 'park' becomes 'bark'.
    • Vietnamese speakers: For Vietnamese speakers one issue towers over all others: final consonants.
    • Korean speakers: Korean speakers' highest-impact fixes are /f/→/p/ ('coffee' → 'copi'), /z/→/dʒ/ ('zoo' → 'joo'), the r/l alternation, and the helper vowel that sneaks in after final consonants ('finish' → 'finishi').

    More academic and ielts words

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

    questionnairekwes-chuh-NAIRenvironmentin-VY-run-muntphenomenonfuh-NOM-ih-nunhierarchyHY-uh-rar-keegenreZHON-ruhhypothesishy-POTH-uh-sis

    Keep exploring

    Frequently asked questions

    How do you pronounce entrepreneur?
    entrepreneur is pronounced on-truh-pruh-NUR, written /ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜː/ in IPA. Stress the final syllable: on-truh-pruh-NUR.
    How many syllables are in entrepreneur?
    four: on-truh-pruh-NUR. The stress falls on “NUR”.
    What is the most common mistake with entrepreneur?
    en-truh-pruh-NOOR or ON-truh-pruh-nur — wrong first vowel, or stress on the front. It is French, so the stress falls at the end rather than the beginning, which is unusual for a long English noun. Three weak syllables have to be produced before the stressed one arrives.

    The full sound library

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