French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "le médecin" in French?

luh med-SAN — the middle "e" drops out, and the ending is a nasal vowel.

le médecin /lə med.sɛ̃/

mé-de-CIN on the page, med-SAN in speech, with the weight at the end. The dropped schwa is not optional-sounding here — pronouncing it fully marks you as a learner.

Listen: le médecin

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Sound it out

mé An "m" plus a closed "ay" from the accent aigu.

de A dental "d" plus a schwa that virtually every speaker drops, so the word comes out as two beats rather than three.

cin "c" before "i" is soft, so an "s", then the nasal vowel /ɛ̃/ with the "n" silent as a consonant.

Hear it in a sentence

Je dois voir un médecin.

I need to see a doctor.

Listen: Je dois voir un médecin.

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"Je dois voir un médecin" stacks a conjugated verb and an infinitive, with "voir" as one beat: vwar. "Un médecin" links smoothly across the nasal. Note the article — French requires "un médecin" here, though it drops the article after "être": "elle est médecin".

Where English speakers slip

Learners pronounce all three syllables carefully, giving "may-duh-SAN", which sounds bookish. Native speakers compress it. They also give the nasal a real "n". And the article rule is worth knowing: with "être" and a profession, French uses no article at all, so "je suis un médecin" is wrong.