My wife and I want to eat some good pot roast in Paris. Can somebody tell me how to say "Boeuf bourguignon" in plain english so those snippy waiters won't giggle at us?

These type of pronunciation questions are always a hoot because everyone has a slightly different way of trying to spell the phonetics, not to mention a slightly different way to pronounce.

Let's start with your question. You DON'T want to say it "in plain English"-you want to say it in plain french!

The sound of the "oeu" is not like anything in English. beuff is the best I can come up with. bore-gin yion (hard "g" as in gator)-don't pronounce the final "n" completely-slide over it.

In this very particular case I suggest it be written down and handed to the snippy waiter and hope for the best..pretend you are a mute.

RE: Intrepid

The last time I gave a note to a french waiter he slipped his home phone number in the back pocket of my gym shorts. I would have knocked his lights out, but got distracted when I suddenly stumbled over a poodle and knocked over several tables before falling through the front door.

I agree it's really hard to transliterate the boeuf sound - all I can think of is start off as though you were going to say "brrrr.." (as in, it's cold outside!), but skip the "r" sound and replace it with an "f."
The "bourguignon" is easier. It's not "bore," but rather boor-geen-yonh (with that last "nh" meaning that you don't give those snooty waiters the full force of your "n," but rather let it taper off before you hit the consontant sound).

I can try, although a couple of those vowels are not easy to explain in writing. However, this dish is nothing like "pot roast" so I suspect you are looking for something else anyway. It is more like beef stew, with wine added.

Can you pronounce anything in French? Because you'd have to pronounce the "boeuf" part on all kinds of things you may order from a menu -- beef, anyway. That's sort of the hardest part to explain how to pronounce. If you pronounced it like the first syllable of the Eng. word "buffoon", that would be close enough to me. Can you pronounce "beurre", the French word for butter? it's like that, only with a b.

The last word is like boor-ghee-nyon.

boor with long oooo sound as in the French word for day, jour

ghee is a hard g (as in guess) then "eeee" as in eek;

nyon is the "gn" as Spanish n with tilde, French word for lamb agneau, "ni" in Eng. word onion, etc -- followed by on. Just say the French word for no (non) only with that ny sound in front instead of a regular n.

There isn't much need for this, in my experience. If you don't know French at all, you can easily just point at it on the menu to order. I do that often when in a foreign country where I don't speak the language.

I suspect others may have their own pronunciation tips, but I also think you are probably joking around when you refer to this as pot roast.

This is a serious question and I appreciate all the help. I think I've got the last part, but not the first part. Which is closest: biff, buff, boof or just beef?

well, I goofed as I meant like beurre only with an f, not r, at the end

actually, I kind of like St Cirq's suggestion of "brrrrrr" without the end.

Maybe they make pot roast differently where I'm from, also, as no one commented on that -- where I'm from, that is a dry roast, surrounded by chopped up potatoes and carrots.

I do want to learn how to order some things in french, but maybe its hopeless for me. In the end, I usually point and feel slightly foolish.

I was joking about the pot roast business. I cooked this great dish last week at home and its time consuming, but well worth the effort.

I hope my tongue in cheek approach did not offend anybody. This forum is filled with great folks that I've learned so much from over the past two years.

I suggest renting Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies for the pure French pronunciations.

RE; jsmith

Once they put a road in, I loved to kick the hound dogs out of the pick up truck and drive thirty miles in to town and watch those great Peter Sellers movies at the drive-in. That crazy Pink Panther jingle still pops up in my head every once in a while.

Degas:

Go to www.travlang.com. Click on French. Turn up the audio on your computer. I haven't been to the site for a long time, but I bet there is somewhere in it the word boeuf, or if not, oeuf (egg), or beurre....once you hear it, you'll understand how it differs from biff, buff, and boof, noe of which are very close.

Peter Sellers huh . . . I can hear it now . . " I want de boeuf . . "

Rich

RE: StCirq

Thanks for the tip. I tried it and its there. You were right, but it sounded like "Biff" was the closest.

It did? Well, then, say "biff" and while doing so, while dwelling on and pronouncing the short "i" sound, close your lips up to a round "O" like a choir boy and you'll have it.
Phew!! These transliterations are murder!

To me the vowel combination in "boeuf" is pronounced as many Americans pronounce wolf (silent L).

As for snippy waiters...are they really CAPABLE of giggling, Degas?

Yes waiters can, will, laugh on occasion.After my first two times in France, trying a few top restauraunts, I was bored not by the food but the ambiance. A few years later, dining at a restaurant two waiters brought the dishes and as they raised those siver domes off our dishes, I said, "voila" in an exuberant voice.
The waiters laughed, the surrouding dinners also. I think I made their night.

Hi

The "oeu" in French is pronounced almost, but not quite, like the Ø in Danish.

Maybe you should just stick to the type of restaurant that has pictures of its dishes on the menu, so that you can point it out?

RE: Tulips (I love that screen name)

The little wife and I have very educated palates and we always aspire to grand culinary delights usually reserved for expensive places with an extensive menu (at least three kinds of hamburgers)written in four or five languages. Would it not be insensitve to ask the French to have five seperate pictures for each menu item?