Le montant retenu est élevé.

Montant usually means an amount, especially a sum of money. In administrative, legal, banking, or accounting French, it is a very common word for a financial amount.

So in Le montant retenu, montant is the noun, and the rest of the phrase describes which amount we are talking about.

Retenu is the past participle of retenir.

In this kind of context, retenu often means kept, selected, accepted, withheld, or used/retained, depending on the situation. The exact English translation depends on the context, but grammatically it is functioning like an adjective here: it describes montant.

So le montant retenu means something like the amount retained/kept/used/accepted.

Because here retenu is not being used to form a tense like the passé composé. Instead, it is being used like an adjective after the noun.

French often uses past participles this way:

• la somme versée = the amount paid
• les documents demandés = the requested documents
• le montant retenu = the retained/selected amount

So retenu is simply modifying montant.

In French, many adjectives and participle-based modifiers come after the noun. That is what is happening here.

So:

• le montant retenu
• literally: the amount retained

This is very normal French word order. English sometimes does the same with longer modifiers, but French does it much more often.

Because montant is a masculine singular noun.

The past participle/adjective must agree with the noun it describes:

• masculine singular: retenu
• feminine singular: retenue
• masculine plural: retenus
• feminine plural: retenues

For example:

• Le montant retenu
• La somme retenue
• Les montants retenus

Not usually in natural English. In this sentence, élevé means high or large.

So when talking about prices, costs, amounts, rates, and numbers, élevé often means:

• high
• considerable
• large

Examples:

• un prix élevé = a high price
• des frais élevés = high fees
• un montant élevé = a high amount

So although élevé is related to the idea of something being raised, the natural meaning here is simply high.

Both can relate to the idea of height or being high, but they are not used in the same way.

For amounts, prices, rates, levels, and figures, French usually prefers élevé:

• un montant élevé
• un prix élevé
• un taux élevé

Haut is more often used for physical height or position:

• une montagne haute
• en haut
• un mur haut

So Le montant retenu est élevé sounds natural, while using haut here would not.

Le is the definite article, meaning the.

It shows that the speaker is referring to a specific amount, not just any amount. So:

• Le montant retenu = the retained/selected amount
• Un montant retenu would mean a retained/selected amount, which would be less specific

In many formal or administrative sentences, French uses the definite article this way to refer to something already identified by the context.

Yes. The sentence breaks down like this:

• Le montant retenu = subject
• est = verb (to be)
• élevé = adjective

So it is a very standard French sentence pattern: subject + être + adjective

Similar examples:

• Le prix est élevé.
• La somme est importante.
• Le délai est court.

The adjectives/participles would agree with the feminine noun.

For example, with somme:

• La somme retenue est élevée.

Notice both changes:

• retenu → retenue
• élevé → élevée

That is because both words describe a feminine singular noun.

A careful pronunciation is approximately:

Le montant retenu est élevé
luh mohn-tahn ruh-tuh-new ay tay-luh-vay

A few helpful points:

• montant has a nasal vowel in -an
• retenu ends with -nu, pronounced like new
• est is pronounced ay here
• élevé has three clear vowel sounds: ay-luh-vay

In normal speech, French pronunciation will sound smoother and more connected than the English-style approximation.

Yes, it sounds fairly formal or administrative. Words like montant and retenu are very common in official, legal, financial, and bureaucratic French.

In everyday conversation, someone might choose simpler wording depending on the context, but this sentence is perfectly normal in written French, especially in documents, invoices, reports, or official explanations.