# Foy-er, foy-yay, or fwa-yay?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 22, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190 "2014-10-22T20:52:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/1 "2014-10-22T20:52:57Z")
I learned the word ‘foyer’ in elementary school. We were taught it was pronounced ‘foy-yay’ (or ‘foy-ay’ or ‘fo-yay’ – you get what I mean). Whenever I hear the word now (e.g., British TV shows, and CNN just now), I hear it pronounced ‘foy-er’.
What is the most-accepted pronunciation for English-speakers?
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### Author:  [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/2 "2014-10-22T21:28:17Z")
This question might have to go to IMHO. M-W lists both pronunciations as valid.
Like you, I was taught foy-yay, but more frequently nowadays hear foy-er.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/3 "2014-10-22T22:00:02Z")
In my experience, in my neck of the woods (Chicago), if “foyer” is used, it’s “foy-er,” not “foy-ay.” This is not to say that I don’t occasionally hear “foy-ay,” but it seems to me popular usage where I’m at has shifted towards “foy-er.” I do remember hearing “foy-ay” much more as a kid in the 80s. To me, now, it kind of sounds affected. I say “foy-er,” myself.
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### Author:  [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/4 "2014-10-22T22:01:31Z")
Here in America it is most often pronounced, “hall-way”.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/5 "2014-10-23T01:41:03Z")
The OED offers foy-ay and fwa-yay, but doesn’t offer any pronunciation with a voiced -r at the end.
Curiuosly, this seems to be a reversal of the usual US/UK distinction, in which loan-words from French tend to be given a “frenchified” pronunciation in the US (fillay, vallay, garaahz) but an “anglified” pronunciation in the UK (fillet, vallet, garridge).
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/6 "2014-10-23T04:20:43Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#):
>
> Here in America it is most often pronounced, “hall-way”.
Just be on the lookout for a bunch of chess players standing around bragging about their skill. There’s nothing more annoying than chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/7 "2014-10-23T04:32:33Z")
Let’s go out to the Foyer, let’s go out to the foyer and buy us …
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### Author:  [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/8 "2014-10-23T04:45:43Z")
I learned foy-yay as a kid, in upstate New York where French was the second language taught in schools and Sesame Street. Sometime after I moved away from there and I got older, it morphed in to foy-er and that’s how I hear those around me saying it. We have a small foyer/vestibule at work, necessary for what we do, so it’s said often enough and everyone here says it the same. So in my small neck of the woods, my answer is foy-er is the most common used.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/9 "2014-10-23T14:45:27Z")
Don’t forget the fourth option, heard only in Massachusetts: foy-ah.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/10 "2014-10-23T16:04:36Z")
I guess I’d say FOY yay, unless it would sound pretentious under the circumstances, in which case I would say FOY er.
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/11 "2014-10-23T16:06:24Z")
FOY-er is the generally accepted pronunciation here in the Midwest, where I have always lived. People who are in the process of criticizing McMansions use the rhyme “lawyer foyer.”
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/12 "2014-10-23T16:54:36Z")
It’s not often used here, probably only a cinema would have one. If forced to say it I think many people would chicken out and it would sound like foire. No vestibules either - we generally have a reception or a hall.
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### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/13 "2014-10-23T17:33:43Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> The OED offers foy-ay and fwa-yay, but doesn’t offer any pronunciation with a voiced -r at the end.
>
> Curiuosly, this seems to be a reversal of the usual US/UK distinction, in which loan-words from French tend to be given a “frenchified” pronunciation in the US (fillay, vallay, garaahz) but an “anglified” pronunciation in the UK (fillet, vallet, garridge).
I’ve noticed that generalization too, in words like “valet”.
I had an interesting book called “I Hear America Talking”, which was about how American English was distinct from the rest of the world, with lots of etymologies and explanations for how the differences happened. One point made very early in the book was that shortly after the American Revolution, it was unpopular to sound British, and the language deviated very quickly, especially in pronunciation.
If so, I wonder whether this common distinction was due to the British having earlier abandoned the French pronunciation, and Americans re-adopting it after the revolution. Or whether both are a more recent phenomenon.
If anyone has any good ideas on how to armchair/web research that hypothesis, I’d appreciate it!
Meanwhile, yeah, I’m also surprised to learn that the OED has “foyay” and not “foy-er”), simply because it bucks the trend. But or course natural languages aren’t consistent!
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### Author:  [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/14 "2014-10-23T20:03:28Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#):
>
> Here in America it is most often pronounced, “hall-way”.
Yeah, I think foyer is kind of pretentious, something you’d see in a McMansion with a giant chandelier and “water feature”.
I pronounce it “front hall”.
And wipe your shoes on the mat!
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*jtur88 \*\*
> Don’t forget the fourth option, heard only in Massachusetts: foy-ah.
I like this option and may staht to use it. 😃
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/15 "2014-10-23T20:16:25Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#):
>
> Yeah, I think foyer is kind of pretentious, something you’d see in a McMansion with a giant chandelier and “water feature”.
Huh. To me, it’s completely unremarkable. Must vary by region. (And I don’t live in a McMansion part of town, and have no idea what “water feature” is supposed to mean. Is that a fountain?)
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/16 "2014-10-24T01:09:11Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#):
>
> Yeah, I think foyer is kind of pretentious, something you’d see in a McMansion with a giant chandelier and “water feature”.
>
> I pronounce it “front hall”.
>
> And wipe your shoes on the mat!
Private houses don’t have foyers. Theatres do.
Indeed, private houses don’t have front halls, unless they are large enough also to have back halls, great halls or servants’ halls. At most, they generally just have a hall.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/17 "2014-10-24T01:19:13Z")
The house I grew up in had a short hallway from the front door to the living room.
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### Author:  [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/18 "2014-10-24T01:42:46Z")
> [@jtur88](#):
>
> Don’t forget the fourth option, heard only in Massachusetts: foy-ah.
Massachusetts and Australia 🙂
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/19 "2014-10-24T02:50:09Z")
And the other great architectural-linguistic debate: atrium - ahtrium or aytrium?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/20 "2014-10-24T07:54:17Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> And the other great architectural-linguistic debate: atrium - ahtrium or aytrium?
Hmm. I have never heard anyone user the former pronunciation.
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