yeux

From Middle French yeulx, yeux, from Old French ieuz ~ ialz, plural form of oeil ~ oil ~ ueil ~ uel. A regular outcome of Latin oculōs, the accusative plural of oculus (the source of œil). Mildred Pope explains its phonetic development as becoming * > * > * via regular sound changes, followed by a regular dissimilation of to (see for example Latin locus > * > Old French lieu, iocus > * > Old French gieu > jeu). The resulting then becomes modern .

Old and Middle French present many variant forms of this plural, including, from Godefroy's Dictionnaire du Moyen Français: ialz/yalz, yolz, olz/ols, uelz/uels/eus, ils, oulz.

• IPA^(key): /jø/

• Audio (Paris); :

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• Audio; “les yeux” :

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• Audio (Paris); “les yeux” :

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• Rhymes: -jø

yeux m pl

1. plural of œil, eyes

   Il a les yeux bleus. ― He has blue eyes.

   Il a de beaux yeux bleus. ― He has beautiful blue eyes.

• Unlike most words beginning with a consonantal ⟨y⟩ /j/, this word triggers liaison with valid preceding words. For example: les yeux /le.z‿jø/, beaux yeux /bo.z‿jø/.
• Since the spoken form /jø/ is always plural, its occurrence without a preceding /z/ is rather rare. When it happens, speakers are likely to say /zjø/ nevertheless. For example: beaucoup d’yeux /bo.ku d‿jø/ is often said /bo.ku d(ə) zjø/. This phonemenon is more widespread in modern French, but it is particularly frequent with this word.