Hadar Shemesh breaks down how to say bourgeois, a French word meaning a middle-class person concerned with property and respectability. She shows exactly where your tongue goes for each sound, from the B to the silent s to the final zh sound.
Questions this video answers
Hadar Shemesh
February 8, 2018
1) a member of the middle class; 2) a person whose political, economic and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.
(1) 'a member of the middle class'; (2) 'a person whose political, economic and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.'
Chapters
Have you noticed that I put on my gold earrings to get into character? I feel very bourgeois today. The word bourgeois does make me speak with a vocal fry. Bourgeois. Anyway, today we are going to talk about the word bourgeois. We're going to learn how to pronounce it and when to use it and what it actually means. According to Dictionary.com number one, a member of the middle class, and number two, a person whose political, economic and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability. Now, the word bourgeois is derived from French. This is why we have this weird spelling pattern with a lot of letters that we don't pronounce. But what's new? That's English. To pronounce the word bourgeois, we start with a B sound. So make sure to close your lips. You don't want it to sound like a V sound or anything like that. And then it's the or as in pour. So it's not an sound, it's not bourgeois. It's not an sound, it's not bourgeois. It's right there in the middle. Because why be specific if you can be vague? Bore. Bore. Make sure that the tongue doesn't go up too quickly. And then it sounds something like br. Br. It's not a huge mistake and everyone will still understand you. So if this is the only way you can make it, by all means do it. But if you want to be more accurate, try to pronounce this or as in poor. You hear transition here. And the tongue is not going up until the end of the vowel. Pour. Bore. Bore. Then, although it looks like you're about to say goys or something like that, the S is not pronounced and the G represents a J sound, as in vision. Bour. And then W sound. Wa. That's the second syllable, joie. The last vowel is the ah, as in father. You see, it's the same sound. Joie. Ah. Ah, Father. So you drop your jaw quite a lot, relax your lips, pull the tongue back. Bor. Joa. So there is this motion here. Bourgeois. Bourgeois. Now, since I'm feeling a little bourgeois today, I wanted to start a conversation by asking you what the word bourgeois means to you. What comes up when you think of this word? I'm really curious and I'm sure it's going to spark an interesting conversation because there are so many people from all around the world here. So let me know what you think. That's it. Thank you for watching. Please share this video with your friends if you liked it. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on the bell to get notifications so you'll know when I'm having a live lesson or when I upload a new video. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next week in the next video.
