How do you pronounces the word genres?

Answer 1

Genre (a literary or other grouping or category) is normally pronounced in the US as "JHAHN-ruh", the jha similar to the sound in measure or the Americanized name Zsa Zsa Gabor.

You can also compare the sound of the G to the sound in the -sion (ghun or zhun) in the words cohesion and adhesion.

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The pronunciation is difficult because the word is borrowed intact from French.

In Webster's Collegiate it is given as ZHAN-re, where the a is a-umlaut, as in father or cart, and the e represents the schwa or neutral vowel sound, something like the average value of ah, uh eh and oh. Think of the neutral or nondescript sound of 'a' in abut, or the first 'a' in banana [see note below]. For the value of zh, think of the words Parmagiano [the gi part, but without the 'i' sound], or the second z in Azarbaizan, not pronounced with a hard zee as in zebra, but like a soft zh. This is like the vocalized part of j and dg in judge [after the plosive 'd'].

It could be argued that this is really a one-syllable word, and it is possibly considered such in the French. In English, I think most speakers render this as two syllables, with the '-re' really trailing off, almost as if it is unspoken.

NoteYou can have some fun with the idea of the schwa, or neutral vowel sound, if you are skeptical. The first a in banana is unstressed, so it will be a good example. Try speaking the following words normally, without any effort to force the sounds: banana, benana, binana, bonana, bunana, bynana, and use the same stress that you would use for banana. Unless you force the word, you'll see that the first vowel sound is about the same, whatever vowel you insert. This is the neutral vowel sound, called schwa. Some argue that many or most unstressed vowel sounds in English can be correctly rendered with this neutral schwa sound.

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Answer 2

A genre is a particular type or category of literature or art, things such as music. It is pronounced like Jon-ruh.