to pronounce the champagne Moet mow-ett as opposed to Mow-ay and have a ridiculously stupid mini-row about it?

[GetOrf]

Disclaimer - I am not a poncetastic twat. Get that in before you lot accuse me.

At MILs last night, couple of SILs there. My MIL loves champagne, it was a distinct luxury when she was younger and I don't think she bought a bottle until she was in her 40s. Now she is making up for lost time and I always buy her a decent bottle for her birthdays, mothers day etc.

We were talking about different brands, and she was remembering the different ones she has tried, I said that a cheapish one which I had bought from Sainsbos (Charles something) was rated in the Sunday Times as being better than the more recognised brands such as Moet etc.

At which point my SIL laughed scoffingly and said 'I would have thought you would have known that the French don't5 pronounce the t on the end of the word, it is pronounce Mow-AY' (said in full on condescending terms).

I said fuck off dicksplash 'no it is pronounced Mo-ETT, theword is Dutch anyway'

She carried on 'no it's not, champagne is French not dutch, next you will be saying Edam comes from Wales'

She really got on my tits.

I think with Valet you're allowed both.

Ford Ka - I pronounce it the Jeremy clarkson way, where it sounds like you've not quite completed the word. like Ka'
or something (can't write it down, but imagine the rest oft he word is stuck in your throat)

It's mo-ett, your sil is numpty OP

It is correct that in French you drop the last consonant of a word (so if it was just Moet it would be pronounced Mo-way). BUT, if the next word begins with a vowel, you have the "liaison" which means that you do pronounce the final consonant. So, if you're pronouncing it in the Frenchy way, you say "Mo-ett e Chandon".

For the other words, the same applies. If you were speaking French, it would be "va-lay" unless the next work began with a vowel. But, then the consonant is pronounced more like it belonged to second word. For e.g. "vous avez" is actually pronounced "vu zaveh"

And, apparently the more of these liaisons you use, the posher you sound.

Intermediate in French, lives with native Frenchspeaker.

My dh pronounces it pyoojow.

even with my hands around his neck.

M'wett.

We've just got a Peugeot which DH says is pronounced, "Per-zh-oh"

I used to call them Pewgotts as a child

peugeot is pur-zho (imagine a french jo)

Yay it is definitely 'Mo-ett', had this argument on my birthday so tis nice to be proved right :)

ex's mum pronounces it it pyoo-zho.
drives me bloody mental.

My mother in law is French. It is a silent 't.'

Just drink Bollinger, darlinks - no dispute there...

Puh-zyo

Scots memebrs of the family: Poo-Jo to rhyme with the mad dog Kujo.

abs that sounds fascinating - wish I could speak french

mrsdistinclty that is a great idea - MIL would LOVE Epernay. I will have a look.

My stepmother taught someone high up in Moet English when I was a teenager - so I always knew the correct pronunciation... I was a very pedantic teenager, I loved correcting people who said "Moayy"

I may be wrong but I don't think that if you spoke French you would say it with a soft T as the vowel sounds don't work - I think that's called a liaison... but my French A level was many years ago!

You can always get round the embarrassment when ordering by going for a decent Champagne like Bollinger instead

I know it's Mo-wett but I find is so difficult to say it outloud. It seems wrong.

Talking fo cars... we have a Nissan Note and FIL insists on calling it a

"Nee-san Not-ay"

AFAIK Nee-san is kinda the right pronunciation but Not-ay???

X post with Abs - glad some of my French a level sunk in!

Oooh, please, please say you're going to text your sister a link to the Wiki pronunciation guide for Moet!! [stirs for a bunfight at GetOrfs house]

Valet - either way is OK (personally, I'd say val-et parking, but vall-ay for a 'butler'). Usually in France it would be vall-ay but there is a town called Vallett, pronounced Va-let, emphasis on 'let'.

Peugeot - per-jo (but with a very soft 'j', like Jean in Spanish).

Ka - what's wrong with Ka-ay? I get the pun but it's so tiresome to say 'car' and then everyone gets confused about whether you're talking about the model or the fact that you didn't arrive by pushbike.

Ah, zyo! was trying to figure how to explain that sound!

Merlot = mer-lo

Moët & Chandon champagne is pronounce Mwet-ay-Shondo, shortened to Mwet.

Do you really need an excuse to clout your SIL?

I'd like to clout mine.

Both of them.

And MIL and FIL.

And loads of other fuckers actually

With regard to the Porsche pronunciation, people sound like nobs when they pronounce it in the German way when they are speaking English. Do those same people say Paree instead of Paris, then? How do they pronounce all the different car company names? Do they say bay-em-vay for BMW? or mair-tsay-dez? Or fow-vay for VW? Didn't think so. Just pronounce it the English way. When they say Porsh-uh on Top Gear it makes me mad.

With regard to the Moet thing, only found out after a few years that you pronounce the end "t". Obvious really, cos of the trema.

Acksherlly you're all wrong, Moet is a Dutch name and "oe" in Dutch is pronounced "oo" - so it's actually "Moot" - although if you start saying that you'll sound like both a ponce and a twat all at the same time.

Just call it 'poo and flap your upturned collar.

It is MOW-ETT. The silly cow.

Although when I order it in from Waitrose by the crate, I always tell the staff to put the MOW-AY away rather than the MOW-ETT.

this is because the staff are dense.

See, now this, THIS, is why I love Mumsnet. Such useful things to be found on here. Things that really matter in life, and will assist my parenting efforts tenfold.