zou

See also: Zou, zhōu, zhǒu, zhòu, and zō

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑu̯
• IPA^(key): /zɑu̯/

Verb

zou

1. singular past indicative of zullen

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zu/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -u

Interjection

zou

1. shoo

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.