zou

See also: Appendix:Variations of "zou"

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑu̯
• IPA^(key): /zɑu̯/

Verb

zou

1. singular past indicative of zullen

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Occitan zo, onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zu/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -u

Interjection

zou

1. (colloquial, chiefly Meridional) shoo, let's go!

   Synonyms: en avant, hop

   • 1869, Alphonse Daudet, “Le poète Mistral”, in Lettres de mon moulin [Letters from My Windmill]‎:

     La mère va rentrer de la messe; nous déjeunons, et puis, zou! nous allons voir danser les jolies filles…

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Further reading

• “zou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Middle High German zuo, from Old High German zuo, from Proto-Germanic *tō.

All monosyllabic function words in -éi, -ou (déi, méi, wéi, sou, wou, zwou) have an unstressed pronunciation in [i], [u]. These are normally not reflected in the spelling. The forms zou (adverb) and zu (preposition) are an exception, probably because of the contractions zum, zur, and the corresponding German zu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tseu̯/, [t͡səʊ̯]

  Rhymes: -əʊ

Adverb

zou

1. adverbial form of the preposition zu (“in, at”)
2. closed, shut

Derived terms

• zoumaachen
• zouweisen

Related terms

• ze
• zu

Mandarin

Romanization

zou

1. nonstandard spelling of zōu
2. nonstandard spelling of zǒu
3. nonstandard spelling of zòu
4. nonstandard spelling of zóu

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.