French phrases

[toadgirl]

I don't speak French and I only did an A-Level in French many moons ago, so I am not claiming to be an expert here.

However, here are a couple of examples that drive me crazy:-

Fox paws (faux pas)
Percy or per say (per se)

It's le I think Berries.

It's 'une' personne, therefore 'la'. Unless it's someone's surname perhaps? As in 'Le Trust de Pierre Personne'. Just guessing.

Sorry you're right Magz

We pronounce 'filet' and 'valet' the French way too in most circumstances but there is a word fillet we use too which I presume is the pronounication you were thinking of Seneca. Herb is H erb but being Irish H is haitch so that is perhaps not surprising.

Yes, fillet and filet are pronounced differently IMO. Filet-o-fish in America is funny as surely it should be filet-au-poisson OR fillet-o-fish? At the mo it's a mix of French and English (I'm just being facetious btw)

Filet filet filet. Lost all meaning now!

Americans pronounce Italian words correctly - orEgano instead of oregAno. I love that. I also love that they use logical spelling like 'prolog'. It makes more sense than our adaptation of Frencg spellings imp. I say this as a French speaker.

I live in the US. It still confuses me that they say 'filet' the French way, but 'valet' with the T.

So fil-ay-of fish (which should have the T because of the vowel), but they get a car val-et-ed.

Grrr.

And they pronounce the German ei and ie the opposite way from how I was taught when learning German at school.

But where does one draw the line? Surely referring to Par-ee sounds a bit wankerish?

Local night-club 'Rendez-Vous' - everyone (including me) calls it Rendy-voooos.

Tbf, you'd get laughed at if you pronounced the right way.

Filet-o-fish is fine just as you would say a filet of steak in the US. Americans increasingly don't differentiate between filet and fillet and they are both almost always pronounced fi-lay.

Americans pronounce "valet" as va-lay. Has the British pronunciation changed for a manservant in the UK? At least on Downton Abbey, it's val-et with the t pronounced. Of course, I imagine that no one other than Prince Charles actually has one these days. The primary use of the word in the US is for valet parking.

Seneca - round her (MI) it is definitely a fil-ey of fish from McDonalds, no T.

And when getting a car cleaned it is valeT.

Can't remember about parking - I think we just say 'I'm getting my car parked'.

I would always say a French word ending in 'et' to rhyme with ballet. But then I grew up in Kent and we used to go to France for day trips so maybe I'm out of touch with how the rest of England says things.

Just remembered - forces always talk about being billeTed, don't they? We're horribly inconsistent about how to say foreign words.

Double Entendre annoys me, to.
And the American for Notre Dame

Oh, and 'Filet' is said more f'-LAAAAY than FI-le(t). It's almost becoming a different word.

I have never heard anyone pronounce the final t in fillet or filet in the US anywhere. Where I live "valet" is always with no "t" sound no matter the context.

I live in the South and lived in New Orleans for several years while young so that has affected my pronunciation of French words.

Hmm I say 'Le Croo-zay' because that's how my ils pronounced it years ago when they first started going on about buying it. Would like to know the correct pronunciation as well though. 'Le Crer-zey?'

I say Le Creuset like this

www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=how+to+pronounce+le+creuset

I had to correct soneone's cv when he claimed to be ofay with some procedures.

Bless him for trying but really .............

toot-suite

I get annoyed by:

• "on route" rather than "en route"
• fiancé/fiancée errors (and was silently gutted when now-DH got me a Valentines Card addressed to "my fiancé"...think card manufacturers should make it clearer for purchasers which gender such cards are for!)
• beau/belle - e.g. "she is so beau" - cringeworthy franglais phrase as it is and then they've not even got the right version of the word.

Grrrr

Today I saw 'bone apple tea'...

No you did NOT lei!!!

Surely that was some kind of purposeful pun, as 'bone apple tea' sounds disgusting...? I hope no-one actually thinks that is the correct phrase!!

What's it meant to be

overthehillandroundthemountain I'm French and I say "le crerr-zay" with the stress on the first syllable of creuset.

One that makes me chuckle is "mano a mano" (hand to hand - Spanish) used to mean "man to man".

BerriesandLeaves Yes it's une personne (also personne means no one but then it doesn't have a le or la).

I couldn't understand what La Roux was when I first heard it (turned out to be a singer with a made up pseudonym. Very confusing for those who are slow on the uptake like me).

Bon appetit! I had to say it a couple of times before I worked it out.

Bendy maybe it's the next home bone broth...