Ok.....Mo-ay or Mo-ette for the champagne name

[bruceb]

Now, the poncy among us will say it's 'Mo-ette' as the French do say "Mo-ette ay Chandon" (phonetic-ish spelling), but the poncy are WRONG.

They're wrong, as are the bleedin adverts on this one, because the 't' is only pronounced because the 'et' follows. The 't' is effectively inserted to make the words work 'in the mouth'.

So, if you are not saying the 'et Chandon' bit, you should just say 'Mo-eh' or 'Mo-ay' (anglicised version).

At least, that's what my French training suggests......

Pedants, please contribute.

Well that's what I'd have thought: ''Moay ay Chandon' (pardon my pronunciation) wouldn't work, but you'd expect it to be 'Moay' on its own.

I don't move enough among the poncy to know what the fashion is though.

I solve this by ordering something else - Moet is vile

No - the Moet bit comes from a German name, so the t is always pronounced.

Actually, a Dutch name now that I've refreshed my trivia memory via google!

Agree Mrs B, though have recently been thrown into a panic about pronouncing Taittinger ....

Yey MrsBadger Most champagne is poo. The best is organic cremant; far less acid.

(sorry to triple post but I'm sure fellow pedants will understand) Having googled a little more, it also seems that everyone who has gone to where it is produced has heard only the Mo-ett pronunciation. The founder was Claude "Mo-ett", not "Moay".

yup, dh has been and it is indeed pronounced mo-ett. I still feel like a prat saying it though!

I have always called it moay, never heard it referred to as anything else!

This is what it says in Wikipedia

"Various mispronunciations of Moët are known, including "mo-way" and "mow-ee". The correct pronunciation is "mo-wett" or "m-wet" (IPA: [moɛt]), as the name is originally Dutch, not French"

The french always pronouce the t even if not saying the rest of the name

Well my French degree is obviously just loo roll then......

Perhaps a lesson here - don't post in anger after seeing an advert.....

I saw...

It is generally accepted that French words drop the ?t? but when the word is followed by a word starting with a vowel the ?t? is usually pronounced, which is another theory people tout as the reason for it being ?Mo?wett?.
However, in this case the general rule does not apply says Myreille Pawliez, senior lecturer in French at Victoria University.
?Proper nouns in French, which include names of people and places, don?t follow the general rule and because there are so many exceptions it can get confusing,? she says.

Well, well, well. We live and learn.

When I went on a tour of the Moet cahmpagne house in Epernay where it's produced the guides all pronounced it "Mow-ett"

From the horses mouth so to speak.

I always thought the umlaut made it possible to pronounce the T but don't know why.

But actually thinking about it, you don't generally pronounce ts before et. EG un haricot et un petit pois would still be un haricoh. Or indeed any words beginning with e. Eg you would say in the same way, un haricot est une legume. I think.

An old boss of mine used to call it moat

I know where you're coming from, bruceb... I did a French degree too and we went over and over the rules of pronunciation in class... didn't prepare me from going over there and finding that actually loads of surnames and placenames did pronounce the final 't' or 's' etc., and there was no way of knowing which! Silly French That reminds me of my "favourite" surname to pronounce - Deshayes, pronounced "Dé". Grrr.