French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "gentil" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce gentil in French?

gentil is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʒɑ̃.ti/. It means “kind (f. gentille).” zhahn-TEE — a soft "j" sound, a nasal first syllable, and a silent final "l".

zhahn-TEE — a soft "j" sound, a nasal first syllable, and a silent final "l".

gentil /ʒɑ̃.ti/

gen-TIL, weight on the second syllable, which ends on a bare "ee" because the "l" is silent. The feminine adds a whole extra sound, so the two forms are noticeably different by ear.

Listen: gentil

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Sound it out

g "g" before "e" is soft: the buzz of "measure", with no "d" in front.

en The nasal vowel /ɑ̃/, open and through the nose, tongue lying still.

ti An unaspirated "t" plus a pure "ee".

l Silent — genuinely unusual, since final "l" is normally pronounced in French. This word is an exception, and the feminine "gentille" turns it into a "y" sound instead: /ʒɑ̃.tij/.

Hear it in a sentence

Il est toujours gentil avec moi.

He's always nice to me.

Listen: Il est toujours gentil avec moi.

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"Il est toujours gentil avec moi" links the pronoun into the verb, /i.l‿ɛ/, and ends with "avec moi" where "avec" keeps its final "c" as a hard "k". "Toujours" has a silent final "s" and two rounded vowels: too-ZHOOR. Note that French says "gentil avec" for being nice to someone, not "gentil à".

Where English speakers slip

The silent "l" surprises everyone, because "l" is one of the four consonants that normally survive at the end of a French word. Here it does not. Learners say "zhahn-TEEL", which is close to the feminine but not quite it — the feminine is "gentille", with a "y" sound. The other error is the English "g" of "gentle", which adds a "d" the French sound does not have.