# Curious about the pronunciation of Canal+ . **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692 "2011-08-30T23:23:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/1 "2011-08-30T23:23:19Z")
I am curious about the pronunciation of the name of the French TV channel Canal+ . [Canal+ - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal%2B). I don’t know how one handles pronunciation on a forum such as this. Links to audio perhaps or using those little squiggles that the dictionaries use. I would be curious in the French pronunciation and in how Americans would be expected to pronunciation it. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/2 "2011-08-30T23:40:47Z")
From various visits to France, they pronounce it as “Canalplus” – the words almost kind of run together. (if you’re not familiar with French pronunciation, it’s like “Canalploo”) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/3 "2011-08-31T00:09:34Z")
I usually say it as _can-AL-ploos_, with a soft _s_ on the end like the English _plus_, and more or less as one word. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/4 "2011-08-31T00:27:05Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I usually say it as _can-AL-ploos_, with a soft _s_ on the end like the English _plus_, and more or less as one word. I’d say it something like that too. It used to advertise a lot, years ago, with that as its name pronounced that way. Saying it like it were English words would make it sound like it was a really big canal. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/5 "2011-08-31T15:39:18Z")
Here’s a [commercial](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ2B-0KO1ec)for Canal+; the narrator says the name at the end of it. It’s pretty much how I’d pronounce it, though there might be a slightly different stress on the “u” sound between French and Québecois (to my ear, at least). It’s a very minor difference though. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/6 "2011-08-31T18:59:15Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > It’s pretty much how I’d pronounce it, though there might be a slightly different stress on the “u” sound between French and Québecois (to my ear, at least). It’s a very minor difference though. Quite similar to how I’d pronounce it as well. As for the slight difference you’re detecting, are you sure it’s a question of stress? I’d suggest it might be a slight difference in how the phoneme is being realised in European and Canadian French, something like [[y](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_rounded_vowel)] in Europe vs. [[ʏ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-close_near-front_rounded_vowel)] in America. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/7 "2011-08-31T19:36:18Z")
Too late to edit the previous post, but I should point out that (as in the commercial **mnemosyne** linked to) the ‘s’ is audible in “plus”. So **Hello Again** is wrong about this. As for the ‘u’, we pointed out two slightly different ways to pronounce it, but it’s not a sound that’s found in most standard varieties of English. You can turn it into “oo” and be understood, but that’s not how it’s pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/8 "2011-08-31T19:46:23Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > Too late to edit the previous post, but I should point out that (as in the commercial **mnemosyne** linked to) the ‘s’ is audible in “plus”. So **Hello Again** is wrong about this. As for the ‘u’, we pointed out two slightly different ways to pronounce it, but it’s not a sound that’s found in most standard varieties of English. You can turn it into “oo” and be understood, but that’s not how it’s pronounced. I was going off memory of visits in southern France; I did watch the commercial and realized that the “s” is voiced. Compared to the ordinary English-language “s” though, it is barely audible. By the way that commercial was pretty funny 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/9 "2011-08-31T21:32:00Z")
In fairness, there are cases where the ‘s’ in “plus” isn’t pronounced. Especially in the expression “ne […] plus” meaning “no more”. But when it means “more”, unless I’m forgetting some exception, the ‘s’ can be heard. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/10 "2011-09-01T01:09:30Z")
Of course – but you really need to have it in your ear to know when to sound the ess and when to not. FWIW, not a big TV watcher in France, but /caenalplys/ (don’t remember the IPA or care enough to bring out the character map) – that’s the way I always heard it. I guess definitive proof has already been given, hum de dum, just trying to keep the conversation going, is all! ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-the-pronunciation-of-canal/594692/11 "2011-09-01T01:17:56Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > Quite similar to how I’d pronounce it as well. As for the slight difference you’re detecting, are you sure it’s a question of stress? I’d suggest it might be a slight difference in how the phoneme is being realised in European and Canadian French, something like [[y](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_rounded_vowel)] in Europe vs. [[ʏ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-close_near-front_rounded_vowel)] in America. Stress, phoneme, whatever…I ain’t no linguist! All I know is the sound is slightly different, but I’ll defer to you and more knowledgeable Dopers to explain _why_. 🆒