French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "lire" in French?

leer — a light "l", a pure "ee", and a throat "r". One tight syllable.

lire /liʁ/

One syllable. Note the family resemblance with "dire": same shape, same ending, and the two verbs conjugate along similar lines — "je lis", "je dis".

Listen: lire

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

Sound it out

li A light, forward "l" plus a tense "ee". Keep the "l" bright — English uses a dark "l" before back vowels, but French never does.

re A uvular "r" with a silent "e", fully pronounced as in all -re infinitives.

Hear it in a sentence

J'aime lire le soir.

I like reading in the evening.

Listen: J'aime lire le soir.

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

"J'aime lire le soir" stacks a conjugated verb and an infinitive with no preposition between them, which is what "aimer" requires. "J'aime" is elided, one word to the ear. "Le soir" means "in the evening" as a general habit — French uses the bare article where English needs "in the". "Soir" ends in "wa" plus a throat "r".

Where English speakers slip

The English word "leer" gets you close but the "r" ruins it: the American version curls the tongue and pulls the vowel into an "ee-uhr" glide. In French the "ee" stays absolutely steady and then the throat makes a separate rasp. Learners also sometimes soften the "l", but it needs to be crisp and forward, made with the tongue tip against the ridge behind the upper teeth.