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HelpHuh
in reply to a message by Elinor
My sister goes to a French immersion school, but I didn't get that luxury and have never really been exposed to French, aside from Sesame Park (the Canadian version of Sesame Street) and brief snippets of the local French channel. I admit that I basically have no clue how "proper" French is pronounced.
And I still don't quite get how "é" is pronounced in French. Like "eh" in English? So is Aimée like "eh-meh"?
I've been told re-NAY is incorrect for Renée, that it should be re-né. But I've never heard re-né, only re-NAY. It's probably an accent thing common among Western English speakers, since it's hard for many here to not emphasise syllables... I know it is for me, at least (I tried saying eh-meh just now, and it came out eh-MEH for Aimée despite my trying not to).
Miranda
And I still don't quite get how "é" is pronounced in French. Like "eh" in English? So is Aimée like "eh-meh"?
I've been told re-NAY is incorrect for Renée, that it should be re-né. But I've never heard re-né, only re-NAY. It's probably an accent thing common among Western English speakers, since it's hard for many here to not emphasise syllables... I know it is for me, at least (I tried saying eh-meh just now, and it came out eh-MEH for Aimée despite my trying not to).
Miranda
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You're right, it's very difficult for English speakers to avoid stressing one syllable over another, because we always do. One way of mastering it is too imagine the syllables are making up part of a list: if you said "green, white, blue" you'd stress those three syllables equally. The same can be done with "aimé(e)". It's just very hard to explain in writing!!
The French "é" sound lies somewhere between "eh" and "ay". Again, it's a sound of its own. No one expects
You're right that the normal English-speaking pron. of René is reh-NAY. And I didn't mean to suggest you shouldn't use that pron. or that it's "wrong". I just have to nitpick about its being the French pron., which it isn't - reh-NAY is just the American rendering of it. So when there is *another* normal English-speaking pron. of a French name (eg Aimee = AY-mee), it might not be correct in French, but then eh-MAY is not really correct either so to use it when it isn't the norm, would be strange. If that makes sense :-/
A common on in British English is REH-nay, with the first syllable stressed as English speakers naturally do. (Often you notice this pattern ... We say KA-fay for "café", while the Americans, and presumably Candians too, say "ka-FAY".)
Sorry this is so incoherent ... Listening to native French speakers is really the only way, but I hope I've made a little bit of sense.
The French "é" sound lies somewhere between "eh" and "ay". Again, it's a sound of its own. No one expects
You're right that the normal English-speaking pron. of René is reh-NAY. And I didn't mean to suggest you shouldn't use that pron. or that it's "wrong". I just have to nitpick about its being the French pron., which it isn't - reh-NAY is just the American rendering of it. So when there is *another* normal English-speaking pron. of a French name (eg Aimee = AY-mee), it might not be correct in French, but then eh-MAY is not really correct either so to use it when it isn't the norm, would be strange. If that makes sense :-/
A common on in British English is REH-nay, with the first syllable stressed as English speakers naturally do. (Often you notice this pattern ... We say KA-fay for "café", while the Americans, and presumably Candians too, say "ka-FAY".)
Sorry this is so incoherent ... Listening to native French speakers is really the only way, but I hope I've made a little bit of sense.
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it is eh-meh. you got it:)
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