PRONUNCIATION / Science and learning

How to pronounce bourgeois

Check bourgeois pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet.

The dictionary sound sequence

CMUdict lists these 2 North American English pronunciations for bourgeois. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

Dictionary variant 1

B UH0 R ZH W AA1

Syllable estimate: 2 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

Dictionary variant 2

B UH1 R ZH W AA0

Syllable estimate: 2 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Check bourgeois in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio.

Syllable counts come from vowel tokens; CMUdict does not supply syllable boundaries here. Variant order follows the dictionary and does not rank correctness. This lexicon does not represent every accent or context.

Use bourgeois in context

Bourgeois appears in social history, political writing, and cultural criticism, with its meaning shaped by the speaker and context. It may refer to class position or criticize conventional tastes. Narration should identify that perspective and supply concrete detail instead of treating the label as a neutral description in every setting.

The historian traces the growth of bourgeois culture in the city.
The character dismisses the dinner party as bourgeois.

Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of bourgeois. Unstressed vowels may sound reduced. These cues follow the CMU phoneme-set key (Appendix A).

Bsound in beconsonant

UHsound in hoodvowel

Rsound in readconsonant

ZHsound in seizureconsonant

Wsound in weconsonant

AAsound in oddvowel

TAKE IT TO YOUR NEXT RECORDING

Make an audition worksheet

Select a dictionary variant for your checklist. The two original sentences retain their normal spelling; this worksheet helps you review a recording rather than forcing a speech engine to use phonemes.

Worksheet pronunciation variant

Your plain-text audition worksheet

How to pronounce bourgeois

Word: bourgeois
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: B UH0 R ZH W AA1
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 2
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The historian traces the growth of bourgeois culture in the city.
The character dismisses the dinner party as bourgeois.

REVIEW CHECKLIST
[ ] Read both sentences naturally; keep the source wording.
[ ] Compare the intended pronunciation with the selected dictionary variant.
[ ] Listen for vowel sounds, consonants, and word stress in context.
[ ] Check with a speaker or another dictionary when accent or meaning matters.
[ ] Generate and listen to a short Murmur sample before exporting the full script.

Practice note: Audition bourgeois with the surrounding class or cultural explanation. When it appears in a character's judgment, compare that quotation with the narrator's voice so listeners can distinguish the speaker's attitude from the account's own descriptive position.

CMUdict is a North American English lexicon, not a recording or a complete accent guide.
Variant order is dictionary order; it is not a ranking of correctness.
Source: https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict
Source commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690
License: https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt
Reference: https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/bourgeois

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Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

CMUdict README · Included dictionary license

Source version and checksum

Commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690

Dictionary SHA-256: 81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22

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