Nantes - pronounce the 's' or no?
#1
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Nantes - pronounce the 's' or no?
Hey - just a simple question. I speak French and I know that there are several words like this where some people pronounce the 's' and some don't - is this one of those? How do the people from Nantes pronounce it? I don't need any commentary on the rest of the word - just 's' or no 's'.
Thank you!
Thank you!
#4
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A few years ago I was taking the TGV from Paris to Anger.
A small child near me was intently listening to the conductor announce the two upcoming stops. When he said, "Anger, Nantes" the child giggled.
Does that sound like something funny in French?
No big deal, just curious.
A small child near me was intently listening to the conductor announce the two upcoming stops. When he said, "Anger, Nantes" the child giggled.
Does that sound like something funny in French?
No big deal, just curious.
#7
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We were in Nantes last summer, but I can't remember a single person in town saying the name to us...it never came up in conversation. However, in Angers, which is not that far away, everyone we talked to when planning our trip there (the hotel staff, the woman at the SNCF boutique who sold us our TGV tickets, etc.) pronounced without the s.
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TC-- that is simply not credible. The final T is not pronounced in <i>content</i> but would be in <i>contente</i>. In other words, normal French pronunciation would pronounce the T in Nantes. If the S is pronounced, it usually after a vowel sound such as in Sens, but Nantes ends with the T sound. Finally, the N used to designate a nasal vowel such as AN is not pronounced.
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Is it a rule?
If the local football team are doing well, does absolutely every French person keep the Nantes "s" silent in the headline "Nantes en premiere place"?
In spite of 200 years of centralising monomania and the country's bizarre delusion that governments can tell people how to speak their own language, French still has dialects, and arcane special-case pronunciation conventions.
If the local football team are doing well, does absolutely every French person keep the Nantes "s" silent in the headline "Nantes en premiere place"?
In spite of 200 years of centralising monomania and the country's bizarre delusion that governments can tell people how to speak their own language, French still has dialects, and arcane special-case pronunciation conventions.
#17
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As Joelle and the other forumites said, we don't pronounce the "s" at the end of "Nantes", "Tours", etc., thus, no "liaison" can be made between "Nantes" and a word starting with a vowel (in the sentence "Nantes est une belle ville", the "s" in Nantes is not heard).
BTW, my in-laws live in Nantes and I lived there for almost 2 years after getting married, it's a very pleasant and lively city, much more lively than my native town, Rouen Marie
BTW, my in-laws live in Nantes and I lived there for almost 2 years after getting married, it's a very pleasant and lively city, much more lively than my native town, Rouen Marie
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Ooh, what a can of worms !
Michael : "If the S is pronounced, it usually after a vowel sound such as in Sens, but Nantes ends with the T sound."
It could be argued that the 'n' in Sens just as much a consonant as the 't' in Nantes, innit ?
Intrepid1 : "A general rule of French pronunciation is that a final s is never enunciated" What about Reims ?
Marie007 : "we don't pronounce the "s" at the end of "Nantes", "Tours", etc., thus, no "liaison" can be made between "Nantes" and a word starting with a vowel (in the sentence "Nantes est une belle ville", the "s" in Nantes is not heard)." But what about Les Arcs ?
I can see where TC is coming from - since there is a 't' and an 's' at the end, I can imagine either one being pronounced - but not both.
Michael : "If the S is pronounced, it usually after a vowel sound such as in Sens, but Nantes ends with the T sound."
It could be argued that the 'n' in Sens just as much a consonant as the 't' in Nantes, innit ?
Intrepid1 : "A general rule of French pronunciation is that a final s is never enunciated" What about Reims ?
Marie007 : "we don't pronounce the "s" at the end of "Nantes", "Tours", etc., thus, no "liaison" can be made between "Nantes" and a word starting with a vowel (in the sentence "Nantes est une belle ville", the "s" in Nantes is not heard)." But what about Les Arcs ?
I can see where TC is coming from - since there is a 't' and an 's' at the end, I can imagine either one being pronounced - but not both.