How do you pronounce Morges?
 

Going there so would be nice if I could say it correctly.

Say "morzh" with the zh sound like the sound in the English word "leisure."

pronounced morzh

orangetravelcat, you crack me up. And I may be a bit fuzzy in the memory, but I think a couple of the others are Lozahn, Veh-veh, and Cooeee.

LOL JMW,

LO-zahn is about right, VUH-veh would be better for Vevey and I suppose Cooeee stands for Cully, which really cannot be pronounced right by an english-speaker (there is no english equivalent for the french "u"). My best effort would be: CUE-yee.

Hope this helps,

Andre

Hi All,

Hey Andre, maybe you can finally help me get the "Montreux" sound right. I just can't get the rolled "r" and the "truugh." I believe it means "my hole," and I've heard it pronounced a bunch of different ways; I'd dearly love to get it right.

Thanks if you can help!

s

Montreux derives originally from Ménésterol, which derives from the Latin word for monastery in the diminutive form, i.e., little monastery. It has nothing to do with holes - that would be "mon trou," which is unrelated and pronounced differently.

I'll let someone else attempt the transliteration; it's just too hard to think of equivalent English sounds.

Ohhhh Thank you, StCirq! I heard the "my hole" translation from a Swiss-German woman who gave the translation with a snarl and a disgusted wag of her head; for her, Montreux is a real hole!!

And thanks also for confirming that it's a tough one, not just my untrained tonue.

s

swandav, I would not attempt a verbal description of how to pronounce the French &quot;r&quot; (especially with so many fluent French speakers on this board), but I <i>will</i> say that it is not &quot;rolled&quot; (which would involve the tip of the tongue) but rather comes from the back of the throat using the back of the tongue. Oh never mind...I give up!

S,

Indeed Montreux is another tongue-twister for non-native french speakers. My best effort would be:

MON-truh

Many english speakers pronounce it mon-TRUE, which does indeed translate to my hole (&quot;mon trou&quot;).

Lest any of my francophone colleagues get smug, they should ask themselves how they would pronounce Raleigh correctly... :-)

Hope this helps,
Andre

Thanks so much Marilyn &amp; Andre! I *think* what I need to do is to live there for four or five years and practice daily. No other solution, eh?

Thanks again!

s

Now you've got the right idea, swandav!

OK Francophiles How do you say Reims...does it rhyme with France or dance?

Wren:

You're on the right track. It starts with that wonderful, throaty French &quot;r&quot; and goes on to rhyme approximately with &quot;dance,&quot;except that the &quot;a&quot; sound is more nasal and flat and you barely hear the &quot;n.&quot; (Oh! look at that! Period inside the quotation marks!)

If you're from the Northeast of the USA and hang onto that &quot;a&quot; sound in France or dance, so that it sounds like &quot;ants&quot;, that's not right. It's more subtle, more southern, and more nasal and strident all at once.

Try www.travelang.com for some good French pronounciations - don't know if they'll have Reims, but maybe something close.

Thanks St. Cirq, That is one word that has baffled me. I will check out the website you recommended...perhaps it will clear up other pronunciations as well!

See what you started, orangetravelcat?

Now, how about Nyon? Is it &quot;nee-uh&quot;?

Orange:

It's nee-ohn, with the stress on the first syllable - think &quot;neon,&quot; without pronouncing the final &quot;n.&quot;

To St Cirq and others:

French words are NOT stressed on the first syllable, as is frequently the case with English words.

Syllables in French words have equal stress; which to the ears of us English speakers has the effect of the final syllable being stressed.

This applies even to long words like &quot;incompatibilit&eacute;&quot;, where the final [&eacute;] comes across as having the major stress.

Before all you native speakers jump down my throat, have a look at the French transliterations in any reputable F-E dictionary (I have the Collins Robert) and you will find no stress marks given anywhere.

Harzer

I'm afraid that these days, the word &quot;Morges&quot; is correctly pronounced as follows:

&quot;Bring money..and LOTS of it!&quot;