To ask how would you pronounce this word?

[Pearlsofmadness]

Went to a snobby posh department store in London yesterday and bought a candle called Verveine. Now, as the brand is French, when I asked the assistant to smell it, I pronounced it 'VER-VAYN'. I took French at Uni dropped after a year so was quite confident with the pronunciation.
The assistant looked me up and down, smirked and said 'Oh... You mean VER-VEE-ERN' (as if it had three syllables). He made me feel very silly and small and continued to smirk as though I was stupid. It's only a little thing, I know, but I never go into posh shops and it was such a treat to buy something nice but it feels like it was spoilt a bit now- as if I wasn't 'good enough' to be there.
I just can't see how it's pronounced the way he said it though. AIBU to ask how the hell do you pronounce this word?

I had a sales assistant correct my pronunciation of Aqua di Gio once. I guess you have to admire the confidence! I'd never correct a customer unless I knew with absolute certainty that I was right.

I had a flat mate who used to wear Oscar de la renta and she pronounced it with a French accent, like ronta not renta.

I would say it the same as you OP.

I had a similar experience when I asked in a small posh shop if they had any room fragrancers based on bergamot.

I pronounce it with the 't' at the end but the assistant looked at me as if I'd crawled out of the gutter and said "oh you mean bergamo" (and pronounced it with a silent 't', like the town in Italy)

How would you say bergamot?

A waitress once corrected my Italian husband's pronunciation of pizza siciliana once. I think however it's meant to be pronounced - and I agree with you- the customer is always right!

Like Euro, I'd say ver-vehn.

Bergamot has a 't' sound... it's not a french word.

I would say bergamo without the T but I have never had cause to say it or hear it being said so don't pay any attention to me.

Unbelievable allegretto It does amaze me how confident other people are correcting you. I had my pronunciation of an English word corrected by a German once! (I'm Irish). I tried to explain that not all 'a's are pronounced like a long a even if you're English! But off she went pronouncing Cat like caaaaaaht. And and like aahnd. She wouldn't be told that there are short 'a's even in the south of england!

Vair Venn
Bergamottttt

your pronunciation seems fine to me.

I once ordered a latte in a restaurant and pronounced it rhyming with 'satay' cos that's how I thought it was said. Snooty waitress said to me 'ooh, do you mean laah-tay?'

to this day I wish I'd replied 'no, I mean laaaah-tay'

Pearls I would have pronounced it the same way that you did.

saggy - Thumbs up for your response! and yours, Potato

I am pleased I have learned something (bergamoT), even if I never use the word in my life!

With latte I find if I say lattay the waitress says lahtay and vice versa. Same with scone and scohne.

L'Occitane is often featured on QVC, that's how I know roughly how to pronounce French beauty words.

Well, French with an Essex drawl anyway.

Norbert - Stuff them. You are right to pronounce the "t" on the end.

Some people are too clever for their own good.

A waitress once similarly corrected my MIL's perfectly acceptable pronunciation of latte smurfest, at which my very very snobby MIL just looked at her for a moment and said, slightly condescendingly "You're a waitress". Not sure who behaved worst there!

Hermes is good one to try out on snotty shop assistants. If you say her-meez, they will say, oh, do you mean er-mez!!!!

Confused, latte and satay sound the same to me! I'm scottish so maybe that has something to do with it.

Good for you though OP, if i wasn't sure I'd not have the balls to guess and would have just pointed and said "that one"!

smurfest

I was corrected by the Chinese lady at my local take away... Apparently it is SAR-TAY, not sat-tay!

Years and years ago I bought a lovely pretty little modem for my first laptop made by a company called Pace. DH pronounced it Pach-eh (like Apache). He was most disgruntled when I pointed out the company was from Leeds and was pronounced 'pace' as in 'speed'. I may still tease him about this .

No fashion ones but I have a long standing disagreement with my sister and her insistence on putting a 't' in chorizo. Apparently I'm pretentious for pronouncing it the same way as my Spanish MIL.

Sate ( or satay as it is sometimes spelled) is not chinese.
It is Indonesian. I lived there for a while and it is pronounced like latte. No R.

Asked French ex-housemate, said it's ver-venn. Like seine as has been mentioned. The shop assistant sounds like a knob. If he was as clever as he thinks he is he probably wouldn't be working in a shop. disclaimer, I don't actually think everyone who works in shops are stupid, before I'm flamed...

user1471552005 so she corrected me with a lie!? The witch!

Very the something between ven & vayne

Had to log in specially to give Saggy a

OP:
That sales lackey was wrong. Haha.

It's Ver-Vayn. Short and snappy, with not too many eeeee's.
The shop assistant is wrong. Please say you will return and ask him again, if only to correct him?
He made you feel small. He had no right to, the rude little boy needs to learn some manners and general customer service etiquette.
Oh go on, pleeease.

Was it The White Company OP? I'm quite partial to that candle misses point of thread