Email from My Sister
I heard an interview with a French person yesterday. They pronounced ”Happy” as “Appy.” Do they not have the “H” sound we have when it is at the beginning of a sentence? How do they ever say “Woo Hoo!!”?
8 Responses to “Email from My Sister” »»
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lol. no they don’t! my french colleagues say ‘hall’ and ‘all’ same way!!
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when i went abroad for the first time i was teaching my french penpal faux pas mots and vice versa and i remember having a difficult time teaching her how to say “whore” which she pronounced it “OAR”… ahh funtimes.
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Pity she didn’t ask how they pronounce ‘happiness.’ You could have told the famous yarn about Yvonne DeGaulle at the dinner table. LOL. (or MDR)
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What is the famous yarn???? It’s not so famous here in Cincinnati, Ohio. But I could start telling it.
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Ah well, Julie, a phonetic joke and impossible to do justice to in writing, but here’s an approximation:
The de Gaulles are at a State Dinner near the end of de Gaulle’s presidency. Mme. de Gaulle is seated next to Harold Macmillan, the British PM. Macmillan, making polite conversation, asks Mme what she is looking forward to most in retirement from political life. She replies “A penis.” As Macmillan chokes on his foie de gras aux truffes, de Gaulle interrupts “Yvonne, ma chère, I zink zat word eez pronounced ‘appiness.”
Good luck with it at Cincinnati dinner parties…..
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Hi,
French people say “crac-crac” for “woo hoo” in french :p
Pronounce it “crrrac crrrac” and not “cwac cwac” like in english way, of course :p -
A friend of mine is from the south of France, and the first time he heard me try to speak French he said, “Wheel, your Franch eeze not zo gude.” My reply? “Bummer, Vince, your English is impeccable!”
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‘Woo hoo’ as an expression of happiness would be ‘youpi’ – my best try on 5 hours sleep
Don’t take my word for it though, I speak English more than I speak French these days, living in Australia and all!
Another good expression of happiness would be ‘chouette’ (which means ‘owl’). That’s all I got tonight.