French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "le téléphone" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce le téléphone in French?

le téléphone is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /lə te.le.fɔn/. It means “phone.” luh tay-lay-FON — three beats, two closed "ay" vowels, and a real "n" at the end.

luh tay-lay-FON — three beats, two closed "ay" vowels, and a real "n" at the end.

le téléphone /lə te.le.fɔn/

le té-lé-PHONE, weight on the final syllable. English stresses the first — TEL-ephone — and reduces the middle, so the French version needs all three vowels restored and the beat moved back.

Listen: le téléphone

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

té An unaspirated "t" plus a closed "ay" from the accent aigu.

lé A light "l" plus another closed "ay". The two accented vowels are identical.

phone "ph" is simply "f" in French, then a short open "o" and a real "n" kept audible by the silent final "e".

Hear it in a sentence

Mon téléphone est déchargé.

My phone is dead.

Listen: Mon téléphone est déchargé.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Mon téléphone est déchargé" uses "déchargé" for a dead battery — literally "discharged", which is the natural French word. "Téléphone est" runs together across the vowels. "Déchargé" has "ch" as "sh" and a soft "g" giving a closed "ay" at the end: day-shar-ZHAY.

Where English speakers slip

Near-identical spelling drags the English pattern across: front stress and two hollowed-out vowels. French keeps every vowel full and clear and puts the weight at the end. The final "-one" also gets nasalized by learners over-applying the nasal rule — the silent "e" keeps that "n" a real consonant.