# Double letter endings in French **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546 "2025-01-28T19:40:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/41 "2025-01-31T22:49:26Z")
Yeah. I remember that song for my kids, along with Petit Escargot. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3Islf7AROIQ/hqdefault.jpg "Petit Escargot") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Islf7AROIQ) That extra vowel as syllable is very common in francophone church hymns. Otherwise the rhythm would not work. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2025, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/42 "2025-01-31T23:30:09Z")
In the name of the city “Aix-en-Provence”, the “x” is pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2025, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/43 "2025-01-31T23:50:07Z")
But only in liasion with the following “en”. The French name for the German city Aachen is Aix-La-Chapelle, where the ‘x’ is silent. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/44 "2025-02-01T02:26:22Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > The French name for the German city Aachen is Aix-La-Chapelle, where the ‘x’ is silent. This surprised me because I always heard the x pronounced in English, so I assumed it would be in French. I know x is very often silent at the end of French words (prix, roux, voix) but it’s not usually silent in learned borrowings from Latin and Greek (larynx, vertex, climax). There are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to proper nouns. The x’s in Bordeaux and Montreux are certainly silent. But the x in Aix-la-Chapelle is not silent according to [wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Aix-la-Chapelle) and [French Wikipedia](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aix-la-Chapelle). It certainly doesn’t sound silent at the beginning of [this short YouTube video in French](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OiWd9M-Qv8). Do you have some other information? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/45 "2025-02-01T02:51:19Z")
I once dated a French girl named Silenn, with the final double consonant pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/46 "2025-02-01T03:00:10Z")
Another one from the classical music world: composer/conductor Pierre Boulez pronounced his last name “boo-LEHZ,” not “boo-LAY.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/47 "2025-02-01T03:02:52Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > But the x in Aix-la-Chapelle is not silent according to [wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Aix-la-Chapelle) and [French Wikipedia](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aix-la-Chapelle). It certainly doesn’t sound silent at the beginning of [this short YouTube video in French](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OiWd9M-Qv8). Do you have some other information? No, sorry, I was just going from memory, and obviously my memory was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/48 "2025-02-01T15:31:36Z")
Yes, there are lots of Breton names ending with double-n and other non-silent final consonants. Gwenn, Yann, Katell, Solenn. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/49 "2025-02-01T23:20:02Z")
I had always heard the x in Aix-La-Chapelle. On the other hand there is a small Swiss town in Canton Vaud named Chateau D’Oex, pronounced rougnly Chateau Day. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/50 "2025-02-01T23:31:11Z")
Ha! I must have a thing for them. I fell for a Katell in third grade. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/51 "2025-02-02T18:40:32Z")
All the various Aixes trace their name back to Augustus, both the name of a particular Roman emperor and, after him, the one of the titles used by subsequent Roman emperors. It indicates a town founded under imperial rule. And because of that link to Augustus, you’d expect the x to be pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/52 "2025-02-02T18:56:26Z")
We (Switzerland) have a town called Bex that does not pronounce the X. And on the other end of Lac Léman is the French town of Gex that does pronounce the x ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2025, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/53 "2025-02-02T23:02:41Z")
French placenames are their own thing when it comes to pronouncing final letters. And Swiss-French placenames are their own own thing because of the odd way Arpitan spelling uses “-az” “-oz”, “-ix”, “-ex” and similar endings. In general it’s impossible to guess whether a final consonant is pronounced in a placename even where it would definitely be silent in a normal word. How do you pronounce “Anglet”? What about “Le Vast”? “Vitrac”? “Morcenx”? “Brix”? Could go either way, right? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2025, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/54 "2025-02-03T01:46:46Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I don’t speak French but I did just try a few words in the Google Translation search and the word Stress seems to be the same in both languages. Punching way above my weight, I once tried Wordle in French, and the word turned out to be STRESS. You would think that made it easy, but the opposite was true because I wasn’t expecting an English loanword. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/55 "2025-02-03T20:06:09Z")
The cycling GOAT Eddy Merckx pronounced the ‘x’ in his last name, iirc. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/56 "2025-02-04T08:53:13Z")
Correct, but that’s a Flemish name, so the rules are different. Typically, final letters are pronounced in Dutch. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/57 "2025-02-04T16:12:15Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Another one from the classical music world: composer/conductor Pierre Boulez pronounced his last name “boo-LEHZ,” not “boo-LAY.” Hector Berlioz is pronounced BARE-lee-ohze, with a definite final Z sound The R in Hector is also kinda-sorta-mostly pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/58 "2025-02-04T18:15:09Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > And because of that link to Augustus, you’d expect the x to be pronounced. The late-summer month must have missed that memo! ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/59 "2025-02-05T01:53:23Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > All the various Aixes trace their name back to Augustus, both the name of a particular Roman emperor and, after him, the one of the titles used by subsequent Roman emperors. It indicates a town founded under imperial rule. And because of that link to Augustus, you’d expect the x to be pronounced. Are you sure of that? I had always heard that Aix-en-Porvence, at least was originally called Acqui-sixtus for 6 waters. The inhabitants are called Aquisextains. Aixois can also be used. Amusingly, the inhabitants of Trois-Rivières in Quebec are called Tri-fluviens. ---
**Author:** ![FrenchDunadan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frenchdunadan/32/5449_2.png) [@FrenchDunadan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrenchDunadan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546/60 "2025-02-05T20:24:45Z")
Aix is derived mostly from Latin aquae meaning “water” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-letter-endings-in-french/1013546.md?page=4)