Please don't say 'Hit the Fat'

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’m originally from New Orleans. I have to say, I’ve heard more people mispronounce “Mardi Gras” as “Mardi Grâce” than people saying “Coup de Grâce” as “Coup de Gras”.

 

[TiQuinn]

I’m originally from New Orleans. I have to say, I’ve heard more people mispronounce “Mardi Gras” as “Mardi Grâce” than people saying “Coup de Grâce” as “Coup de Gras”.

I got tied up in a knot trying to pronounce Tchoupitoulas Street.

 

[trappedslider]

"Has there ever been one of your kind and one of my kind who were better friends?"
"Never."
"And if our fathers couldn't break us up, no stupid coupe day… c– coop day…"
"Coup d'état. It's French."
"Well, no stupid French thing will either."

 

[Clint_L]

I often pronounce American last names wrong if they are of French origin, because in Canada we keep the French pronunciation but it the States it is typically anglicized. For instance, they might pronounce it Lambert, rhyming with "hurt" at the end, but I will default to rhyming with "bear" at the end unless corrected.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I grew up near Quebec and I remember visiting Windsor Ontario, looking for a particular bar and we asked some people who told us it was located on Orally street. (this was pre-cell phones so no google maps)

We wandered for almost an hour until we realized they were talking about Oreille Street.

Oreille means 'ear' in french and sounds nothing like Orally. (Oh-rrray is probably the closest way to write the pronunciation) For some reason half the streets in Windsor have french names and nobody there actually speaks french, I guess?

Edit: to be fair, Oreille is super hard to pronounce if you're anglophone so I guess it makes sense to change it.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

 

[Bedrockgames]

Pronunciation of things vary region to region

 

[niklinna]

I grew up near Quebec and I remember visiting Windsor Ontario, looking for a particular bar and we asked some people who told us it was located on Orally street. (this was pre-cell phones so no google maps)

We wandered for almost an hour until we realized they were talking about Oreille Street.

Oreille means 'ear' in french and sounds nothing like Orally. (Oh-rrray is probably the closest way to write the pronunciation) For some reason half the streets in Windsor have french names and nobody there actually speaks french, I guess?

Edit: to be fair, Oreille is super hard to pronounce if you're anglophone so I guess it makes sense to change it.

My French host mum tried to embarass me by asking me to pronounce "grenouille"...which, having taking a whole course on French phonetics before going abroad, I did flawlessly.

I countered with "squirrel".

 

[Ryujin]

I grew up near Quebec and I remember visiting Windsor Ontario, looking for a particular bar and we asked some people who told us it was located on Orally street. (this was pre-cell phones so no google maps)

We wandered for almost an hour until we realized they were talking about Oreille Street.

Oreille means 'ear' in french and sounds nothing like Orally. (Oh-rrray is probably the closest way to write the pronunciation) For some reason half the streets in Windsor have french names and nobody there actually speaks french, I guess?

Edit: to be fair, Oreille is super hard to pronounce if you're anglophone so I guess it makes sense to change it.

I've mentioned this on the board before, but Gaelic place names can really screw people up. I'll definitely say the name of the the road to get to Trinity Bellwoods Park, from Coronation Park, differently to a tourist that a Torontonian (Strachan vs. Strawn).

 

[Bedrockgames]

I often pronounce American last names wrong if they are of French origin, because in Canada we keep the French pronunciation but it the States it is typically anglicized. For instance, they might pronounce it Lambert, rhyming with "hurt" at the end, but I will default to rhyming with "bear" at the end unless corrected.

There is a lot of variation with Italian names around here. My mom's family is mostly Italian and most people around here have pretty Americanized pronunciations of Italian words I think. And this varies a lot in different parts of the north east. I remember when Sopranos aired people started calling ricotta 'ricott' or even saying gabagool instead of capicola or capicol . But I think it struck people as putting on airs. I used to go to an Italian bakery around the corner from me around that time I tried asking for a 'ricotta pie' instead of 'ricotta pie'. The woman behind the counter said "Oh you men you want a RICOTTA pie?" and I could tell I had irritated her.