Pet peeve: mispronounced French
 

I get a giggle out of Americans who think they're being oh, so urbane when they spout <i>lawnzheray</i> or <i>chase lounge</i>.

I notice many don't seem willing to pronounce the final consonants of <i>armwah</i> or <i>conesyair</i>.

Can you say <i>poseur</i>?

Do you have any particular favorites?

Zee pronunciation she ees vairy hard, n'est ce pa?

Mine is <i>au revoir</i> either misspelled as <i>ovoir</i>, or pronounced as it's spelled <i>oh revwah-rrr</i>

Another is when someone is attempting to speak French by speaking with a French accent!!! The suddenly fake (et tres mal) Inspector Clouseau accent annoys the hell out of me with the nasally <i>oh oh oh, zee French ees een zee house!</i> stupid talk

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Ever been to Britain - know you have and the way they pronounce French words that have come into English is much more weird:
buffet - &quot;buffy&quot; instead of boo-fey
can't think offhand but there are many.

Lawnzheray and chase lounge are perfectly good American words. Now Franglais, that is another story. If put in book form it would be a best-sell-air

PalQ
I'm working twice per week with a speech therapist and today I was working about French words with --ff--.

In the case of buffet is usually pronounced by most people is like you mentioned-boo fey. In true correction, it should be broken down to buf fet. Both letters of f is pronounced.

I have a lot of other words which I've been mis-pronounced for years. Who ever thought an old dog can learn new tricks.

Blackduff

Personally I think we ought to give credit to people who at least try to learn and pronounce a little of any foreign language (and French is esp dificult since there are sounds we simply don't have in English). Better to do this than just to stick to English and yell louder and louder.

As Mark Twain once mentioned, &quot;Those foreigners spell OK, but their pronunciation is bad&quot;. (or something like that)

What the heck is &quot;conesyair&quot;

&gt;Can you say poseur?
Sure - poseur.

((I))

<i>concierge</i>

Don't get me started about &quot;bruschetta&quot;!

<i>Wah-lah!</i>

I shutter everytime i hear that American Tour de France announcer say &quot;ter de frans&quot;

I would shutter up the TV, too.

((I))

While we are complaining about French pronuciation - I don't think that the French schools are doing all that well teaching the younger generation their own language.

((I))

Schools don't teach basic language - parents and mass media do that - schools try to refine but in actuality the street French is the real language in my opinion - a living language. Verlain, very popular with youth, is to me just as French as that spoken by the &quot;immortals&quot; of the hotty-tottie group that are arbitrators of proper French, whose name escapes me.
I shudder at the thought of schools teaching language!

BTW, the final &quot;r&quot; in &quot;armoir&quot; is very subtle, if it is pronounced at all.

((I))

Which French regional dialect are we referring to...

Do you shudder and shutter when a European might misspeak American English?

Wow, live and let live...sheesh

Street French is actually quite rare; anomalies like verlan are spoken only by small and constantly shifting groups that are trying to create or maintain a separate identity. The average French person on the street speaks a quite standard French, if he has any education at all.

Correct French pronunciations are as follows:

buffet = /byfɛ/ (double consonants are not pronounced separately in French)

lingerie = /lɛ̃ʒʁi/

chaise longue = /ʃɛz l&otilde;g/

armoire = /aʁmwaʁ/

concierge = /k&otilde;sjɛʁʒ/

poseur = /poz&oelig;ʁ/

au revoir = /o ʁəvwaʁ/

voil&agrave; = /vwala/

I can't help twitching when someone pronounces &quot;forte&quot; as &quot;foretay.&quot;