How would you pronounce Frances?

[JessicaBearx]

I would pronounce it FrARNces. Is this how most pronounce it or do you pronounces in Fran ces?
Asking because i don't want to pick a name we are pronouncing "wrong". Thanks

Fran-sis.

Yes like millions and millions of other people I say Ba-NA-na. It rhymes with Hannah.

I know several Hannah's who were called 'Hannah Banana' as children. The appeal of the NN is that it rhymes.

There is nothing right or wrong about accents. Yours is not wrong and mine is not wrong. Different == wrong. Even being in a small minority (which you are, on a worldwide scale) doesn't make you wrong.

Ireland is a hotbed of Hannah banana rhyming...

Irish accents I can see. But no English ones

I've heard people say "Hannah Banana" and it rhyme before, but I always thought it was a joke.

I didn't think anyone seriously rhymed banana with Hannah when saying it independently.

Jesus H Christ. This thread. Mumsnet is apparently full of people who never leave their own regions and don't watch television, listen to the radio or go to the cinema.

DIFFERENT PEOPLE PRONOUNCE THE SAME WORD IN DIFFERENT WAYS. NO ONE WAY IS THE CORRECT WAY.

Fran-sis

Dragons Hannah and banana rhyme in all Scottish accents.

math is that also true of accents throughout ROI? Any idea about NI? I can't sound it out but I am just so interested in this now

Indeed, Bookworm.

AgentCooper - yes. There is no Irish accent that I am aware of where Banana would have the Home Counties 'ahh'.

More specifically, there is no Irish accent that I am aware of where two different pronunciations of that A would be found in the same word (eg. ban-AH-na). In northern parts of Ireland all the As would have more of an O pronunciation. The furthest divergence from the flat A would be in the end vowel pronunciation, which would be a schwa (Honnuh bon-ON-uh). That O is not a Home Counties O however. It sounds more American. The Home Counties O requires a rounding of the lips that is not done in Ireland (or the US as far as I have observed).

In southern parts of Ireland the As would all be flat.

Interested to hear how people pronounce Hand and Band.

(Weirdly the word Pasta is pronounced with the Home Counties AH in the US, whereas it seems to have a flat A in Ireland and maybe in parts of England too.)

Thanks math! Pasta is definitely a flat A in Scotland too.

I remember Gwyneth Paltrow saying something on a cooking programme about how irritating she found it when people 'mispronounced' pasta with a flat A instead of the long, round A. That made me chuckle, considering it has a flat A in actual, real Italian

It's a name in my family and as far as I'm aware it's always been pronounced Frarnsis
Although an Irish relative always pronounced it Fransis.
Think it depends where you're from to be honest.

It doesn't matter were you're from or what your accent is, you pronounce people's names the way they pronounce them. It's common courtesy.
My first name has a long vowel sound for the second syllable. I have had people try to pronounce it with a short, hard vowel sound. One bloke arrogantly told me that I pronounce my own name incorrectly!
It's not a widely used name, but not 'made up' or unheard of. It crops up in two movies that I know of - each time the character is a hooker :D But at least they pronounce it the same as me!
P.S. - not named after the hooker characters as the movies came out in the 1980s and I came out in the 1960s :)

AgentCooper I'm in NI and have a Belfast accent - I know lots of Hannah Bananas , I am in possession of my very own Anna Banana. I remember having a discussion on MN over the fact that I couldn't see how Anna could rhyme with spanner - apparently I was deffo in the wrong

It doesn't matter were you're from or what your accent is, you pronounce people's names the way they pronounce them. It's common courtesy.

Not really. I'd sound like I was taking the piss if I said Frances in a SE England accent. Because it would jar with my actual accent.

It doesn't matter were you're from or what your accent is, you pronounce people's names the way they pronounce them. It's common courtesy.

We've already had that debate upthread, re Mandy / Mand-eh.

It just doesn't work like that. People's accents still come into play. If I say Fran-cis, it will just sound like I'm taking the piss out of the person's accent.

simiisme

Ok then. I have a Mancunian friend - let's call her Sally (not her real name, but close). Next time I see her, by your logic, I should say 'Hi Salleh!' because that's how she pronounces her name, despite the fact that it would sound completely ludicrous in my posh, RP Home Counties accent.

Do you see how ridiculous that argument is?

Yeah if I changed my accent for people's names it'd just make me and them uncomfortable

Frarn cess ....it's my name. Anything else drives me nuts.

Cess? As in cesspit?

France-iz - girl
France-is = boy

I'd pronounce it Fraaancess as I'm a confirmed yokel carrot-cruncher.
In my past living up north days it would have been FrANcess (an like Anne). Never Frarnces though. Not posh enough for that.

Half the time with the long a and half the time with the soft - I grew up in south east England, but have lived a lot of years in Scotland, and that part of my accent is a mess!! I would probably try to follow the lead of the person whose name it was though.

However you pronounce it you'll never find a mug/pencil/keyring with it on

So if an Irish Frances and a Frances from Surrey met, the Irish one would have to call the other one Frahnces and the one from Surrey would have to go against every single natural instinct she had in her and use the flat A?

FrAHN- siss. I'm from the south, st my middle name