French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "ici" in French?

ee-SEE — two pure "ee" vowels with a hissing "s" between them, and the weight on the second.

ici /i.si/

i-CI, weight on the second syllable. English would stress the first, so this needs a conscious shift — and both vowels stay full, with no reduction to a schwa.

Listen: ici

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

i A tense, pure "ee" opening the word, unstressed.

ci "c" before "i" is soft, so "see". The second vowel is identical to the first, which is what gives the word its chiming quality.

Hear it in a sentence

Viens ici !

Come here!

Listen: Viens ici !

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Viens ici !" is an imperative in the "tu" form, dropping the "-s" that the present tense would have. "Viens" is one syllable, /vjɛ̃/, with a "y" glide into a nasal vowel. The command runs straight into "ici" with no pause, so it sounds like three syllables: vyan-ee-SEE.

Where English speakers slip

Learners give the first "i" a schwa or an English short "ih", producing "uh-SEE" or "ih-SEE". Both vowels are identical, tense, and clear. The other error is stressing the front. It also helps to know the contrast set: "ici" is here, "là" is there, and "là-bas" is over there — and French uses "là" much more loosely than English uses "there".