Is the name “Jennifer” easy or difficult for a French-speaking person to say?
Well, I’m not fluent in French, but it depends on what you mean by “easy”.
“J” is pronounced more like “ZH”, so a native speaker would have difficulty getting that very first sound right. OTOH, “ZH” isn’t terribly different from “J”, so an English speaker woudn’t be all that confused by it.
And the final “r” wouldn’t sound too much like an English “r”, but many forms of English drop a final “r” anyway, so that might not matter much either.
Otherwise, the rest of the word wouldn’t be “difficult” at all.
Many years ago, Donovan had a song out caleed Jennifer Juniper. One verse was sung in French, and he had no trouble with her name (of course he’s Englich, but his French sounded very good).
English. Wish we had spell check.
My MIL is a native francophone and she has no trouble with it, although she also has mastery of English (and Arabic). I have had a couple of French friends who have no trouble with my name (begins like Jennifer), as would be the case with any French speaker who has learned English.
A French speaker who does not speak English would deal with it as John Mace described, something like zhen-ni-fair with that swallowed R.
Well… I can easily pronounce “Jennifer”, and any other french speaker can. It’s not an unheard of name. The problem is “do we pronounce it like an english speaker would expect it to be pronounced?” Probably not. Could we do so easily? I’ve no clue, because actually, I don’t know how it should be pronounced in english.
Interesting graphic here on the number of kids who’ve been given that name in France. Suffice it to say that the name is not unknown there, though the popularity has fallen off in the last few years.
In “Jennifer” or, say, “Jane”, “John” (but not with the french “Jeanne”, Jean", etc…), we pronounce the “j” as if it was written “dj”.
The “r” is sounded, too…
Just like it’s spelled. Duh.
It’s like those French have a different word for everything!
Very thoughtful, that. How do you pronounce “Paris”?
Awesome, thanks!
I’m moving to Cameroon. My last name is a common noun that is easy enough to deal with, but I was wondering if now would be a good time to pick up a new nickname- Jennifer kind of a long and cumbersome name and I don’t want people to be annoyed whenever they say it.
I didn’t figure it’d be a problem. I remember a guy in a remote village in Nepal’s face lighting up when I said my name- “Ah…Jennifer Lopez!”. But I’m making the email addresses I’m gonna use for the next couple years and wanted to make sure.
Depends. Paris, France, or Paris, Texas? 
I always thought that Jennifer was a very American name, like Tiffany, until I saw somewhere that it is derived from Guinevere. :smack: /dim bulb turns on
You may be surprised by how many people speak English there, even in the francophone part. I don’t think “Jennifer” will give them any trouble.
You could try using Geneviève. It’s French, sounds a bit like Jennifer, and IMO is the sexiest name there is.
Well good, because my French sucks. (I may well end up in an English speaking area- or a non-French non-English speaking area. Who knows!)
Do you have experience in Cameroon, Sal?