How to pronounce "croque-monsieur"?
 

My mouth is watering in anticipation of once again diving into one of these delicious sandwiches during our March visit to Paris. However, in the past I've pronounced it "croke", and today I read that is the wrong pronunciation, but no correct one was given. Help, please?

Let's see if I can do it without phonetics symbols , it would be something like crok mesie (the first "e" like the one in english "mess" and the second the same, and the "i" like in english "in")

So the first part would be pronounced "crock, as in crocodile"? I really HAVE been saying it wrong, if that's the case!

no, sorry i forget the "o" :) It is like the "o" in "boil"

Oh god, I hate these transliteration things, but here goes a feeble attempt:

It's about half-way between CROCK and CROAK, a slightly elongated "o," but not much. It's definitely not CROKE.

Monsieur is harder. Can you mimic a kind of euh sound, like you're not sure what you're going to say next in the middle of a sentence, as in, euh, euh....? If you can, do that, and follow it with an identical "syeuh" sound.

Jeez, I'm always tempted to give people my phone number and say call me and I'll just say it for you.

You might try logging onto Travelang.com and seeing if the French site has some dialogue where they use the word Monsieur so you can hear it first-hand.

Bonne chance!

I can't speak French, so I don't know how accurate this is, but I thought it would be helpful for you to hear someone saying the term. Follow this link:

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/html/voc/05.html

About halfway down the page, click on the speaker icon next to "au cafe"...a small new audio window should open and a woman will speak all the terms in the list (you just have to wait a bit until she hits croque monsieur).

Hope it helps!

Thanks SO much for the link to the translation site - that's really a fabulous learning tool. Just great.

Once in Paris I asked for " monsieur
croque" by mistake. I thought the waiter was going to fall on the floor - he was laughing so hard!

what's a "croque" anyway..?

From the About: cuisine website:

"The origin of the name "croque-monsieur" is shrouded in mystery. The word croque comes from the verb croquer which means to crunch or to munch, thereby the translation frequently given as "crunchy mister" or "crunchy sir" or "mister crunch".

Sounds more like a candy bar with those descriptions - thanks!

If you can't pronounce "croque monsieur", you could order a croque madame instead - it's the same but with an egg on top.

Nbujic -

thanks for a good laugh !

-Kevin

A friend of mine had enjoyed sirop in France, but completely forgot the French for it.
She thought of it as a kind of concentrated fruit essence.
When she asked for "essence" in a cafe, the waiter told her between giggles that he didn't think that she really wanted to drink petrol

Someone should write a book of these things.

Here's one, not food related, but funny anyway:

we had friends one time who were searching for the Gare de Lyon in Paris. They stopped someone on the street to ask directions saying "Ou est la guerre?" He pointed vaguely east and replied, "En Iraq Madame, et bon voyage!"...

-Kevin

I was in Spain with my boyfriend of the time - who speaks many languages but no Spanish. We went to get petrol in a garage and the guy there filled up the car for us. (Big hairy old guy). The boyfriend was paying the guy and he shouts hurriedly in through the window at me "how do I say thanks?" so I say
'yo te quiero'.He repeats it perfectly and very sincerly to big hairy old guy.......what a look!

Hi H,

You can hear it pronounced at www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

((I))

Yes, I love these linguistic errors. I was once in a French restaurant with husband who speaks fluent French. I wanted a hot goat's cheese salad which is un chevre chaud. Unfortunately, I asked for une chevre chaude, and when husband and waiter had picked themselves up from the floor, they explained that I had just asked for a female goat on heat.

Another try with Ira's link which is badly displayed. Search for Alain/French, I think Juliette has a very slight accent on "monsieur"
http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/ (then click on the big grey link)

The dialogues Slow W mentioned are said by a French native (I put it in my favorites, just in case :-) )
Bonne chance!
coco

The problem you are having is that the vowel in "croque", doesn't exist in American English. You do not have the the short "o", giving you the options of "Croke" or "Crahk"

It is exactly the same vowel that you will find in 'hot, pot, shot' in English English, if you are a good mimic.

Like many French vowels, it is pronounced with kissy lips.

monsieur,

"meu" to rhyme with "the"
"syeu", again to rhyme with "the"

The last syllable of the phrase is stressed.