French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "plus" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce plus in French?

plus is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /plys/. It means “more.” plüss when it means "more" with a quantity — but the "s" goes silent in comparatives, so "plus grand" is "plü grahn". Same spelling, two pronunciations.

plüss when it means "more" with a quantity — but the "s" goes silent in comparatives, so "plus grand" is "plü grahn". Same spelling, two pronunciations.

plus /plys/

One syllable. What varies is not stress but that final "s", and the choice actually disambiguates meaning — "je n'en veux plus" with a silent "s" means "I don't want any more", while "j'en veux plus" with the "s" sounded means "I want more".

Listen: plus

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Sound it out

pl An unaspirated "p" straight into a light "l". No puff of air after the "p".

u The tight French /y/ — tongue in the "ee" position, lips rounded. Not "oo".

s The variable part. Pronounced when "plus" means "more" as a quantity or stands at the end of a phrase; silent before an adjective or adverb in a comparison; silent in the negative "ne... plus" (no longer). This is one of the few French words where the same spelling is deliberately said two ways to mean two things.

Hear it in a sentence

Je voudrais un peu plus de pain.

I'd like a little more bread.

Listen: Je voudrais un peu plus de pain.

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"Je voudrais un peu plus de pain" is the quantity sense, so most speakers pronounce the "s": /ply.s də pɛ̃/. The whole phrase "un peu plus de" is a standard chunk meaning "a little more of". "Pain" ends in the nasal vowel /ɛ̃/ with a silent "n", so it is one beat, not two.

Where English speakers slip

Learners pick one pronunciation and use it everywhere, which produces sentences that are technically ambiguous to a French ear. The vowel is the other issue: "ploos" is the automatic English reading, but this is the tight /y/, so it sounds closer to "plüss". Get both right and you will also stop confusing "plus" (more) with "ne... plus" (not any more), which are distinguished in speech precisely by that final "s".