Things you were shockingly old when you learned

gilet

(unless you say "gillit" like me because you are """funny""")

also bidet

See also “garage”

Gerard, Bernard...

I can never remember how french pronunciation works and end up firmly questioning myself if I'm in a french-speaking area before I finally just pronounce a menu item american english-style and point at it and look sorry

The final T is always pronounced in UK English

cachet, crochet, buffet

― ogmor, Friday, May 25, 2018 2:00 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You people are just weird.

For not pronouncing the final T in those words?

Paging Alison Moyet

i mean, sometimes you pronounce the T in buffet...

we've gone full circle back to Keeping Up Appearances

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashet

I meant the final T in turbot.

lol

I don't know why I never knew before today that Allan Arbus and Diane Arbus were, you know, married.

So I was sure that it is "chaise longue" in Canada but I checked the sites of a few big furniture stores and they all spell it "chaise lounge" so I guess I'd been mentally substituting or something.

Wait some people pronounce it "tur-bott"?

All Ts are silent fyi.

I discovered this "forte is supposedly pronounced as one syllable" thing a while ago. I've never heard anyone say it either. Looking in Collins dictionary, I see it now claims it's an American pronounciation.

Chambers, more sensibly, does give the one-syllable pronunciation first but says that it's usually now two, and distinguishes between stressing the first or second syllable. I think stressing the second is what sounds silly and a bit 'Hyacinth Bouquet'.

Talking of which, I guess I use the dictionary when it suits me because someone on Twitter was outraged that his girlfriend pronounced floret what I consider to the correct way: stressing the first syllable, rather than the second, which sounds like a pseudo-French affectation to me. The dictionary agreed, but unfortunately most of his followers did not.

Grillin' with some urbo

prefer Halibu myself

Glass of Malibut and some Haribot sweeties after.

deliciou

Be my lil' haliboo

I used to think, on the basis of fillet/fillay and not much else, that Americans liked to frenchify things more than us, but actually I think it's a total mix. Nougat is one that seems more frenchy over here; Notre Dame is the reverse, etc.

Wait, what am I talking about? Notre Dame falls in the direction. Trying to think of another turbot-esque example now.

Falls in the direction = falls in the same direction. Why do I try to make sense on my iPhone it never works.

'erbs

Nodur daym is hilarious to me, chase lounge too

I asked my wife how she says turbot and she pronounced the t fwiw.

Chaise lounge is some bullshit yes

it’s funny because it makes it sound like “chaise lounge” is some sort of fancy chair for lounging when in fact a lounge is a long chair and “chaise longue” means.... long chair

it’s just misunderstanding on so many levels, I would bet “chaise lounge chair” is not an uncommon construction

What other words do UKers pronounce less Frenchly than USers? Stressing the first syllable of café is one.

Mentioned earlier but garage

Herb, vase, envelope?

Croissant?

Not vase surely?

I thought "vays" was more British and "vahz" was more American but that could be wrong. I hear both.

Vase is one I heard both ways growing up, although the ahhh version I heard as more a snooty Kennedyism as opposed to an attempt at a French pronunciation. Same people who would say take a bahhhth.

No-one in the UK would ever say vayz.

Yeah I’ve never heard that from a Brit

Ah, I probably had it backwards then. These things can go either way in Canada sometimes.

Someone once gave a coworker directions to pick up something at the porte-cochère. She didn't ask what that meant and tried to repeat it back to me to help figure it out. I had no clue either. We asked the security in the building, they had no clue. After it was figured out (and she got into trouble for not going to the right place) I got really mad at the requestor for using porte-cochère in the US. I mean, this isn't a common term, right???

Never heard of it.

Ha

I remember in a Seinfeld episode where George calls someone “pretentious” for saying papier-mâché, which is a v ridiculous and Georgesque position to take (why is papier “pretentious” and mâché normal? “Paper mâché” sounds silly, at least go full nodurr daym and call it paper mash if you’re gonna be “unpretentious”)

So it's not paper mâché then. Yeah, I knew that.

Don't mind. Just updating my bedroom suit with chester drawers.

So, more Frenchy in Britain:

Chaise longue
Nougat
Cafe
Notre Dame
Clique
Foyer
Vase
Garage

More Frenchy in America:

Fillet
Turbot
Valet
Pastel
Herb

The "US-style' garage and valet are actually heard more over here than their alternative. Croissant is a funny one because Americans stress it in the same way as the French, but the British follow the French in not pronouncing the t.

Café should be in the second list

Add coupé to the UK list.

And route.

Café should be in the second list

Oh yes, oops!

And garage!