French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "on" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce on in French?

on is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɔ̃/. It means “we (informal, standard in speech) / one.” A single nasal vowel — rounded lips, air through the nose, no "n" consonant at all. Same sound as the end of "bon".

A single nasal vowel — rounded lips, air through the nose, no "n" consonant at all. Same sound as the end of "bon".

on /ɔ̃/

One unstressed nasal beat before the verb. It takes third-person singular verb forms even when it means "we", so "on va" and "il va" share the same verb shape.

Listen: on

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

Sound it out

o Round your lips as if for "oh" and hold that shape. This is where the vowel starts, and your tongue stays low throughout.

n A spelling cue rather than a consonant: it tells you to drop the soft palate and send the sound out through your nose. Nothing in your mouth closes, so the word ends on open air.

Hear it in a sentence

On y va ?

Shall we go?

Listen: On y va ?

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

"On y va ?" is three tiny words that run together as /ɔ̃.ni.va/, because the "n" of "on" links straight into the "y". That liaison is obligatory: "on y" is /ɔ̃.n‿i/, so you hear a real "n" here even though "on" standing alone has none at all. The rising intonation on VA is what turns the statement into a question.

Where English speakers slip

The word looks like English "on" and gets said that way, with a full "n" and an open unrounded vowel. Both parts are wrong: round the lips and route the air through the nose without closing anything. The exception is liaison, as in "on a" and "on y", where a real "n" does appear — so the same word swings between having no "n" and having a clear one, depending on what follows.