French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "long" in French?

lohn through the nose — a light "l" plus a nasal vowel, with the "g" completely silent.

long /lɔ̃/

One nasal syllable ending in open air. The feminine "longue" is /lɔ̃ɡ/, one extra consonant, so gender is audible with this adjective.

Listen: long

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Sound it out

l A light, forward "l" with the tongue tip on the ridge behind the upper teeth.

on The nasal vowel /ɔ̃/: rounded lips, air out through the nose, tongue low and unmoving.

g Silent. It reappears in the feminine "longue", where it becomes a hard "g" — the "u" is added to keep it hard before the "e".

Hear it in a sentence

C'était un long voyage.

It was a long trip.

Listen: C'était un long voyage.

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"C'était un long voyage" uses the imperfect "c'était", /se.tɛ/, with a silent "t" at the end. "Long" comes before the noun, where French puts most short common adjectives. "Voyage" has a "y" acting as a double "i", giving vwa-YAZH, with the soft "g" of "measure" at the end.

Where English speakers slip

The English word "long" is spelled identically and gets substituted with its velar "ng" ending. French has no "ng" sound at all here — just a nasal vowel that stops. The "g" is silent in the masculine and hard in the feminine, so "longue" and "long" differ by a whole consonant. Practise the pair to hear how much the feminine "-ue" ending changes.