monter le son
To turn up the volume in French is to say monter le son.
The phrase is used to increase the loudness of a device's audio output. While monter le son is the most common idiomatic way to express this, you can also use monter le volume to mean 'raise the volume' or augmenter le son to mean 'increase the sound'.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase monter le son literally means 'to raise the sound', composed of the verb monter (to raise/go up) and le son (the sound).
Which one should you use?
While monter le son is the most common idiomatic way to say this, monter le volume is also perfectly acceptable and understood. To express the opposite action, or to lower the volume, you would use baisser le son.
How does it change in a sentence?
When giving a command to a single person informally, use the imperative form monte le son. When giving a command to multiple people or using the formal 'you', use the imperative form montez le son.
Did you know?
- In French, the word son can refer to either 'sound' or 'bran', which is the outer coating of a grain. This happens because the word for bran stems from a completely different Latin root than the word for sound.
- The verb in monter le son shares its ancestry with the word for 'mountain', as both stem from the Latin 'montem'.
- While son means 'sound' in this phrase, it can also be a possessive adjective meaning 'his', 'her' or 'its' depending on the context of the sentence.
Examples in context
- Pouvez-vous augmenter le volume, s'il vous plaît? Le son est trop bas.Turn up the volume (in a cinema context)
- Serait-il possible d'augmenter le volume? La musique est un peu faible.Turn up the volume (at a party context)
- Peux-tu monter le son, s'il te plaît ?Can you turn up the volume, please?
- Je vais monter le son de la télé.I am going to turn up the volume of the TV.
- Il faut monter le son pour mieux entendre.We need to turn up the volume to hear better.
Example conversation
Lucas and Manon are listening to music in the living room.
- LucasManon, peux-tu monter le son ?Manon, can you turn up the volume?
- ManonD'accord, je vais le faire.Okay, I will do it.
- LucasC'est mieux comme ça, non ?It's better like this, isn't it?
- ManonOui, on entend très bien maintenant.Yes, we can hear very well now.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries le, monter, son, CC BY-SA 4.0.
