How to pronounce Bien in French?

Updated: June 5, 2021 by Mylene in How to Pronounce  ▪  

how to pronounce bien in french

Bien in French

The word bien in French is usually an adverb. It means well in English or it can be used to stress something. You can use it to describe how the action of the verb is.

Example:

  • Tu vas bien ? Are you ok?
  • Je me suis bien amusée: I had a good time.
  • Ta soeur arrive bien demain? Your sister is coming tomorrow, right?
  • Mes parents ont bien travaillé: My parents worked well.

How to pronounce “Bien”?

In French, the word bien is pronounced /bjɛ̃/. In details:

  • /b/ sound: Your lips are closed and placed against one another. Vibrate your vocal cords, and push air out of your mouth against your closed lips. Release the air in one moment, as your vocal cords continue to vibrate.
  • /j/ sound: The tongue is slightly more forward. It is the same sound like the beginning of the English word “yes”.
  • /ɛ̃/ sound: The mouth is slightly open and stretched horizontally, the tip of the tongue touches the front lower teeth.

If the word bien is followed by a vowel, you have to pronounce a liaison. For instance bien entendu is pronounced like bien.N.entendu. The liaison is pronounced /n/.

This Instagram video from @masteryourfrench will show you how to pronounce the word bien. Click the link to listen to this video or directly play the video shown below.

Get a better French pronunciation

The French language contains a large number of words that are difficult to pronounce. To learn the right pronunciation of French words check our article on the pronunciation of French words.

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french pronunciation of the word bien

Using Bien in French

The word bien is used in many expressions to express feelings, quantity, opposition as well as other meanings. You’ll find below a list of expressions in French that include the word bien.

Bien to express feelings

Bien can be used to express how you feel.
Comment vas-tu? Je vais bien merci.
How are you? I’m fine thank you.

Whether you like something or someone a lot you can use bien.
Mes frères aiment bien me taquiner: my brothers like to bother me.

You can use bien if you’re satisfied with someone or something.
L’anniversaire de Paul était bien: Paul’s birthday was nice.

Bien can be an adjective. In this case, the adjective is invariable. It means that someone or something is comfortable and all right.
Je suis bien dans cette voiture means I’m comfortable in this car.

Before a verb, bien means something is well.

  • Tu as bien choisi: You chose well.
  • J’ai bien mangé: I ate well.
  • Je sais bien que tu l’as fait: I know perfectly well that you did it.

“Aimer bien” is not the same as aimer. Bien can serve to weaken the meaning of the verb aimer. The French verb aimer can be equivalent to love or to like. But if you add the word bien, it’ll mean: to like.

Ironic expressions with bien

In the following bien is used in ironic expressions:

  • C’est bien beau: it’s all very well.
  • C’est bien beau ce discours mais il faut agir maintenant: it’s all very well but you need to do something!
  • Bien envoyé: well said!
  • Bien fait!: Well done!
  • C’est bien le moment!: Great timing
  • C’est bien ma chance! That means no luck.
  • Ca commence bien!: means it’s not a good start.

Bien to indicate quantity and measures

The adverb bien can be used alone such as:
Il faut bien trois heures pour aller au bord de la mer: You need a good three hours to get to the see.

Or the adverb bien can be used with the preposition “de”. Bien de/des means quite a few.

  • Ma mère a connu bien des soucis: My mother had quite a few problems.
  • Il a eu bien de la chance: He had a lot of luck!

Bien can be used in a lot of expressions.

Bien with que forms the concessive conjunction meaning “although”, it’s followed by a subjunctive verb.
Bien qu’il m’ait appelé, je ne suis pas sûre de venir: Although he call me, I’m not sure to come.

Bien au contraire is used to say something is quite the opposite.
Bien au contraire je n’avais pas pensé à cette solution: Quite the contrary I didn’t think about this solution.

Bien entendu and bien sûr mean of course.
Bien entendu je vais assister à ton spectacle.: Of course I’ll see your show.

Bien can be a noun that means good in the general sense, and biens means goods.
Les biens immobiliers: The real estate.

At the end of a letter or an email you can write bien cordialement if you know well the person.
Bien cordialement means kind regards.

More expressions with bien

Let’s see some examples below:

  • Bien sûr tu as raison, of course you’re right.
  • Bel et bien means well and truly.
  • Mes collègues étaient bel et bien en danger: my colleagues were truly in danger.
  • Bien assez: quite enough.
  • Il a bien assez bu: He drank quite enough.
  • Le bien et le mal: Good and evil.
  • Le bien-être means the well-being.
  • Ca tombe bien: that’s perfect timing!
  • C’est bien parce que c’est toi: as it’s you!
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