---
title: "How to pronounce bourgeois | Murmur"
description: "Check bourgeois pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet."
canonical: "https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/bourgeois"
---
[Murmur](https://www.murmurtts.com/)/[Pronunciation](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)/bourgeois

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](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bourgeois).

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.

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

### A practice cue

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.

## 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)](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aria/Papers/MastersThesis.pdf#page=115).

`B`sound in **be**consonant`UH`sound in **hood**vowel`R`sound in **read**consonant`ZH`sound in **seizure**consonant`W`sound in **we**consonant`AA`sound in **odd**vowel

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.

Copying and downloading happen in your browser. No script upload or audio generation is needed.

## Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from [CMU Pronouncing Dictionary](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict). The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

[CMUdict README](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/README) · [Included dictionary license](https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt)

Source version and checksum

Commit: `74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690`

Dictionary SHA-256: `81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22`

## Keep practising

[How to pronounce asterisk](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/asterisk)[How to pronounce chameleon](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/chameleon)[How to pronounce chrysanthemum](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/chrysanthemum)[How to pronounce criterion](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/criterion)

[Build a pronunciation test suite for local TTS](https://www.murmurtts.com/blog/pronunciation-test-suite-local-tts) · [Browse all word references](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)

MURMUR FOR MAC

## Check the word in a real voiceover.

Murmur generates speech locally on Apple Silicon Macs. Try your audition sentences with your chosen model and voice, listen for pronunciation, and review the result before exporting. A dictionary sequence does not guarantee a model’s output.

[Explore Murmur](https://www.murmurtts.com/#product)