How to Pronounce 'Bonjour': French Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce bonjour in French?

bonjour is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /bɔ̃.ʒuʁ/. It means “hello / good morning.” bohn-ZHOOR — but with a nasal first syllable where you never actually touch your tongue to make an "n", and a throaty "r" at the end.

How do you pronounce "bonjour" in French?

bohn-ZHOOR — but with a nasal first syllable where you never actually touch your tongue to make an "n", and a throaty "r" at the end.

bonjour /bɔ̃.ʒuʁ/

Two syllables with the lift on the second: bon-JOUR. This is the classic French pattern — weight at the end of the word. English speakers instinctively want BON-jour, which immediately marks the accent as foreign.

Listen: bonjour

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Sound it out

bon A nasal vowel. Start to say "bone", but let the air come out of your nose while your tongue stays down and never touches the roof of your mouth. The "n" is a signal to nasalize, not a consonant to pronounce.

j The buzzy consonant from "measure" or "treasure" — soft, with no "d" in front of it.

ou A rounded "oo" as in "soup", made with the lips pushed firmly forward.

r Made at the back of the throat, not with the tongue tip. Think of the gentle scrape at the start of a gargle, or the "ch" in Scottish "loch" with the voice on. Never curl your tongue back the American way.

Hear it in a sentence

Bonjour, comment allez-vous ?

Hello, how are you?

Listen: Bonjour, comment allez-vous ?

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"Bonjour, comment allez-vous ?" hides a required liaison: "comment allez" is said /kɔ.mɑ̃.t‿a.le/, with the normally silent "t" of "comment" waking up and attaching to the front of "allez". You get ko-mahn-tah-lay-VOO as one smooth stream. The whole question is a single rhythmic group climbing to the final VOO.

Where English speakers slip

Two things go wrong here. First, learners pronounce a real "n" in "bon", making it sound like the English "bon" in "bon voyage" as spoken by an English news reader — the tongue must not touch anything. Second, the "r" comes out as an American "r", turning the word into "bon-ZHORE". Neither is fatal to being understood, but together they are the single most recognizable English accent in French. Nasalize the first half, gargle the last.