"RER"---how do you say it?
 

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!)

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

'AIRRR-'EUH-'AIRRR

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

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

Yes, hard.

Thanks, all. I'll work on it.

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

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

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.

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."

Air-er-air

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.

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

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.

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. :)