LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la vie" in French?
lah VEE — two syllables total, with the "e" at the end silent.
The phrase peaks on VIE, one syllable. Two words, two beats, with the article light and the noun taking the pitch.
Listen: la vie
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
C'est la vie !
That's life!
Listen: C'est la vie !
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"C'est la vie !" is so widely borrowed into English that most people know it, but the borrowed version usually stretches "vie" toward "vee-uh" by sounding the final "e". In French it is one clean beat. "C'est" is the contraction of "ce est", so the whole exclamation is three syllables: seh-la-VEE.
Where English speakers slip
The silent final "e" gets voiced, giving "la vee-uh", which is the commonest error and comes from treating French like Italian or Spanish. French final "e" is silent. The vowel also gets laxed toward "ih". Keep it a long, clean "ee" and stop dead. And do not confuse "la vie" with "la ville" (the town), where the "ll" really is an "l".