French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "le monde" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce le monde in French?

le monde is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /lə mɔ̃d/. It means “world.” luh MOHND — a nasal vowel with a real "d" after it, and no "n" consonant.

luh MOHND — a nasal vowel with a real "d" after it, and no "n" consonant.

le monde /lə mɔ̃d/

The phrase peaks on MONDE, one syllable. It is the same noun that appears inside "tout le monde" (everyone), where the meaning shifts from "world" to "people" entirely through the fixed phrase.

Listen: le monde

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Sound it out

le A light "l" plus a weak schwa.

mon An "m" plus the nasal vowel /ɔ̃/ — rounded lips, air through the nose, tongue never rising to make the "n".

de A dental "d", kept audible by the silent final "e". So the word ends on a real consonant even though the vowel before it is nasal.

Hear it in a sentence

Je veux voyager dans le monde entier.

I want to travel all over the world.

Listen: Je veux voyager dans le monde entier.

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"Je veux voyager dans le monde entier" ends with a liaison: "monde entier" links the "d" into the vowel, so you hear /mɔ̃.d‿ɑ̃.tje/. "Entier" is two syllables ending in a "y" glide plus "ay", with the "r" silent: ahn-TYAY. "Voyager" has a "y" doing double duty and a silent final "r".

Where English speakers slip

The vowel gets a real "n" before the "d", producing "mond" as an English reader would say it. The trick is that the "n" is silent but the "d" is not — so the nasal vowel runs straight into the "d" with nothing in between. Learners also confuse the phrase-level meanings: "le monde" is the world, but "tout le monde" is everybody, and "beaucoup de monde" is a lot of people.