LingoDrop
French · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "le pont" in French?
luh POHN — one nasal beat, with both the "n" and the "t" silent.
The phrase peaks on PONT, one nasal syllable that fades into air. Four letters in the noun produce two sounds — a fitting last word for a language whose spelling records far more than it pronounces.
Listen: le pont
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Hear it in a sentence
On traverse le pont à pied.
We cross the bridge on foot.
Listen: On traverse le pont à pied.
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"On traverse le pont à pied" uses "traverser" with no preposition — French says "we cross the bridge", exactly as English does. "À pied" is the fixed phrase for on foot, with a silent "d". "Traverse" ends in a silent "e" that keeps the "s" audible, and its "r" is a throat rasp: tra-VERS.
Where English speakers slip
English speakers pronounce the "n" and the "t", producing "pont" as spelled. Neither sounds: the vowel is nasal with rounded lips and nothing closes. It is also worth distinguishing this /ɔ̃/ from the /ɑ̃/ of "pendant" and the /ɛ̃/ of "pain" — three nasals, three different mouth shapes, and by this point in the course you have met all of them many times.