LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la nuit" in French?
lah NWEE — with a "w" made in the French "u" position, tongue forward rather than pulled back.
The phrase peaks on NUIT, a single beat. The "ui" is a glide-plus-vowel unit, not two syllables — do not let it become "noo-EE".
Listen: la nuit
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Bonne nuit, dors bien !
Good night, sleep well!
Listen: Bonne nuit, dors bien !
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"Bonne nuit, dors bien !" is specifically for going to bed, unlike "bonsoir", which is a greeting for the evening. "Bonne" has a doubled "nn", so the vowel is oral and the "n" is real — quite different from the nasal "bon". "Dors" is a "tu" imperative with a silent "s", and "bien" is one nasal beat.
Where English speakers slip
The /ɥ/ glide gets replaced by a plain English "w", producing "nwee" with the tongue back — intelligible but audibly foreign. Feel the French "u" position first, then move. Learners also pronounce the final "t". And the bonne nuit / bonsoir distinction matters socially: saying "bonne nuit" when you arrive somewhere in the evening sounds like you are dismissing everyone to bed.