We tested the effect of local lexical ambiguities while manipulating the type of prosodic boundary at which the ambiguity occurred, using French sentences and participants. We observed delayed lexical access when a local lexical ambiguity occurred within a phonological phrase (consistent with previous research; e.g., '[un chat grincheux],' containing the potential competitor word 'chagrin,' was processed more slowly than '[un chat drogue]' that contains no potential competitor). In contrast, when the lexical competitor straddled a phonological phrase boundary, there was no delay in lexical recognition (e.g., '[son grand chat] [grimpait...],' potential competitor 'chagrin,' was not delayed relative to the non-ambiguous control). These results were observed with two different on-line tasks, word-monitoring and phoneme-monitoring. They suggest that lexical access occurs within the domain of phonological phrases. We discuss the implications of these results for models of lexical access.