Pronunciation · Work and business

How to pronounce chauffeur

Chauffeur has two CMUdict forms, show-FUR and SHOW-fer; the "ch" is sh, and the stress can land on either syllable.

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

SH OW0 F ER1

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

Dictionary variant 2

SH OW1 F ER0

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

Check chauffeur 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 chauffeur in context

Chauffeur appears in hotel and event services, period dramas and travel writing, and its French spelling makes readers pause over the ch and the eu. The ch is sh in both CMUdict forms, which differ only in where the stress lands.

The hotel sent a chauffeur to the airport.
Her chauffeur waited outside the theater.

Read the sound tokens

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

SHsound in sheconsonant

OWsound in oatvowel

Fsound in feeconsonant

ERsound in hurtvowel

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 chauffeur

Word: chauffeur
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: SH OW0 F ER1
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 2
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The hotel sent a chauffeur to the airport.
Her chauffeur waited outside the theater.

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: Begin with "show" and choose where the stress goes. Keep the ch as sh in both forms.

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/chauffeur

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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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