JeanneB

OK...confession first. I've been reading these boards for years and, of course, have come across many references the "RER". Well, from the get-go, in my mind, I've read it as the "Ruhr".

And then, last weekend, I finally got up the nerve to actually use the system and was appalled when I realized I was saying it all wrong---they looked at me funny!

So. How does one pronounce it? (Please give me phonetics, as I couldn't understand how the French were saying it!)

sandypaws3

Jeanne,
Seems that I just recently saw this somewhere, and we've started to try to remember to pronounce it correctly. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's pronounced like Air - OO (as in book and look)- Air, with a little trill on the r.

Sandy

usbeauty

'AIRRR-'EUH-'AIRRR

usbeauty

It stands for Réseau Express Régional.
You pronounce the initials of the abbreviation.

sandypaws3

Jeanne,
This is a better guide to pronouncing the French R than I gave you by saying "Air". It's a little more in the throat:

http://tinyurl.com/jd9ug

Click on the letters "R" and "E" to hear how they're pronounced:

http://tinyurl.com/p5so5

Hope this helps I think the R is hard to say.

Sandy

Sandy

JeanneB

Yes, hard.

Thanks, all. I'll work on it.

Travelnut

I keep a tiny notepad/pen in my purse, just in case. RER written down is still RER..

Underhill

If you trill the R, people will assume you're from Marseille.

JeanneB

It's funny you say that. Somewhere in the Dordogne we met 3 men from Marseille. I was struck by their adding an "-uh" onto their words.

Mar-sayl-yuh.

A dwah-tuh. (A droit)

Etc.

Now your post leads me to think I wasn't imagining things.

Underhill

That's typical Provençal pronunciation--like adding a G sound to the end of words ending in N. For more on that, read Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence."

kerouac

Air-er-air

Danna

Good question. I realized when I was spelling my last name in Paris THAT I didn't know how to say 'e'. This makes a big differnce when one has 2 es in your name.

Binthair

So how do you pronounce Tuileries, Louvre, and Chartres?

Hagan

SO FUNNY! We were trying to ask about the RER on a shuttle at CDG, and the poor Frenchman just looked at me like I was from another planet. I finally wrote the letters and showed him, and he went, "OH, ER -EH- ER" and nodded that we were on the correct shuttle. We still laugh about it.

kerouac

Tuileries = tweel-ree
Louvre = loov
Chartres = shart

(I am just giving the closest approximation as to what the French will understand with no problem even if pronounced with a completely American accent. Total accuracy is not required.)

Hagan, if the guy at CDG said er-eh-er, I would understand that as e-é-e as a French speaker.