# 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:** 2
### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/21 "2014-10-24T07:56:02Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#):
>
> Here in America it is most often pronounced, “hall-way”.
Entry or Entry Hall, maybe, but a foyer is not a hallway.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/22 "2014-10-24T15:16:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Hmm. I have never heard anyone user the former pronunciation.
Nor have I.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/23 "2014-10-24T15:40:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Hmm. I have never heard anyone user the former pronunciation.
Me neither. It’s always been “long a”/AY as I’ve heard it.
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### Author:  [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/24 "2014-10-24T15:56:15Z")
I pronounce it fo-shizzle, but I think I might be doing it wrong.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/25 "2014-10-24T16:46:44Z")
The apartment I grew up in (in Queens, NYC, in the 60s/70s) had a foyer, a room into which the outside door opened. We pronounced in “foy-er.”
My Canadian wife pronounces it “foy-ay.” She’s not from Quebec, not a French-speaker.
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### Author:  [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2014, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/26 "2014-10-25T08:24:38Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> 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.
Especially at Christmas time 😉
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2014, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/27 "2014-10-25T12:19:55Z")
I’ve seen the word, and if forced to pronounce it I’d say “FOY-er,” but I don’t know what it means.
Our little house, built in 1895, has a small room between the front door and the living room. We call it the “mud room.” It’s where you take off your shoes (my wife was born in Asia), and besides the shoes and a chair there’s just enough room for a container holding an umbrella and some child’s sports equipment.
Is that a “foyer”? Seems like a highfalutin’ term for such a modest space. I like “mud room” (I might have picked up that term from my Alaskan cousins).
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/28 "2014-10-25T14:18:38Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> I’ve seen the word, and if forced to pronounce it I’d say “FOY-er,” but I don’t know what it means.
>
> Our little house, built in 1895, has a small room between the front door and the living room. We call it the “mud room.” It’s where you take off your shoes (my wife was born in Asia), and besides the shoes and a chair there’s just enough room for a container holding an umbrella and some child’s sports equipment.
>
> Is that a “foyer”? Seems like a highfalutin’ term for such a modest space. I like “mud room” (I might have picked up that term from my Alaskan cousins).
I think that’s technically a foyer, but when I use the word, it signifies a much larger space, often in a public building. It’s similar (if not synonymous) in meaning to a lobby or vestibule. For example, my high school had a foyer (and called such), and it was basically what you might think of as a lobby were it in a hotel or theatre (at least that’s how I think of the difference in my version of US English, but I think those words can be used interchangeably.) It’s a large entry room, maybe 1000 square feet, with the school hallways, offices, etc., branching off it.
So, in high school, we quite often referred to the “foyer,” but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call the small entryway you describe as a “foyer” in normal conversation, even if it technically is one. Come to the think of it, I don’t know what we usually call that room here. I think I just say “entryway.”
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### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/29 "2014-10-25T23:46:04Z")
I would call that room (the space immediately inside the front door) the hall.
The mud room for me is a space immediately inside the _back door_, between the back door and the kitchen. Which makes sense because people with muddy boots wouldn’t be coming in the front door.
The only time I use or hear the word foyer (and I’ve never heard it pronounced with an r sound) is the foyer of a hotel or other large public building. I would be more likely to refer to it as the lobby or reception area, however.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/30 "2014-10-26T00:18:16Z")
Around here, the /fo ˈje/ (fo-YAY) pronunciation would be considered oddly affected and pretentious, kinda like those old ads where the Glade air freshener is pronounced /glɒ ˈde/ (glah-DAY). The authentic French pronunciation, /fwa ˈje/, would just get you blank stares.
(Yeah, I’m leaving that last one untransliterated. I think you can figure it out.)
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/31 "2014-10-26T00:31:40Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> The apartment I grew up in (in Queens, NYC, in the 60s/70s) had a foyer, a room into which the outside door opened. We pronounced in “foy-er.”
>
> My Canadian wife pronounces it “foy-ay.” She’s not from Quebec, not a French-speaker.
I doubt you’d find anyone in Canada who did not pronounce it as “foy-ay.”
For obvious reasons.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/32 "2014-10-27T01:32:00Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I doubt you’d find anyone in Canada who did not pronounce it as “foy-ay.”
>
> For obvious reasons.
On the contrary, you’d find lots of people who’d give it the French pronuncation. For obvious reasons.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/33 "2014-10-27T01:36:06Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I doubt you’d find anyone in Canada who did not pronounce it as “foy-ay.”
>
> For obvious reasons.
> [@UDS](#):
>
> On the contrary, you’d find lots of people who’d give it the French pronuncation. For obvious reasons.
Huh?
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/34 "2014-10-27T01:59:15Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I doubt you’d find anyone in Canada who did not pronounce it as “foy-ay.”
>
> For obvious reasons.
Yes, foy-ay is how I pronounce it.
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### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/35 "2014-10-27T02:29:31Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> The apartment I grew up in (in Queens, NYC, in the 60s/70s) had a foyer, a room into which the outside door opened. We pronounced in “foy-er.”
Did your apartment have the foyer or the building? When and where I grew up in Queens, a foyer (pronounced “foy-er”) was the area in a two through six family house more or less between the front door and the staircase. Larger buildings had “lobbies” and single family houses had the front door opening into either the living room or an enclosed porch.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/36 "2014-10-27T02:47:03Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I doubt you’d find anyone in Canada who did not pronounce it as “foy-ay.”
>
> For obvious reasons.
> [@UDS](#):
>
> On the contrary, you’d find lots of people who’d give it the French pronuncation. For obvious reasons.
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> Huh?
“Foy-ay” is not how the word is pronounced in French. It would be closer to “fwa-yay”.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/37 "2014-10-27T05:38:05Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> I’ve seen the word, and if forced to pronounce it I’d say “FOY-er,” but I don’t know what it means.
>
> Our little house, built in 1895, has a small room between the front door and the living room. We call it the “mud room.” It’s where you take off your shoes (my wife was born in Asia), and besides the shoes and a chair there’s just enough room for a container holding an umbrella and some child’s sports equipment.
>
> Is that a “foyer”? Seems like a highfalutin’ term for such a modest space. I like “mud room” (I might have picked up that term from my Alaskan cousins).
I think of the mud room as inside the side or back entrance, where boots and gear get piled. The foyer is the front entrance which is kept cleaner in case of visitors.
That said, I only started hearing mud room after I moved up here – in my childhood home we had a back room that served this function but didn’t use that term. And we would have called out foyer “the front hall” even though it was a space and not a hall.
Oh, and I say FOYer.
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### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/38 "2014-10-27T16:21:40Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> 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.
I don’t know where you get this idea.
I’ve seen literally scores of houses in Ann Arbor MI built with a very common floor plan for houses built there in the 20’s through the 40’s, with basically four rooms on the first floor: kitchen and dining room in the back, living room and front hall (or foyer) in front, with stairs to the second floor. Often a bathroom behind the kitchen or dining room. These were houses all over the map in terms of price, that being a function of location, but the less expensive well under $100K in say 1990, probably twice that today. I owned one of these for 3 years, built in 1920 by a pavement bricklayer foreman (1200 sq ft). No back hall or servants’ quarters! Nice brick walkway, though.
The house my mother grew up in had basically the same layout; it was built around 1900. My parents’ house, built in the 50’s, has a rather different floor plan, with a foyer or front hall (with stairs) in the center, between living room and dining room. The house I live in is single-story with a foyer, between two small vestibules (one for office/laundry/garage, one for guest bedroom and coat closet) and leading in to a central living room. No back hall or servants’ quarters.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/39 "2014-10-27T17:05:35Z")
> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> I don’t know where you get this idea.
>
> I’ve seen literally scores of houses in Ann Arbor MI built with a very common floor plan for houses built there in the 20’s through the 40’s, with basically four rooms on the first floor: kitchen and dining room in the back, living room and front hall (or foyer) in front, with stairs to the second floor. Often a bathroom behind the kitchen or dining room.
We had the kitchen and dining room toward the back, with a half bath in between. You entered into the front “hall” (foyer) and could see the family room to the right and the guest living room to the left. You faced the stairs, so the “hall” was a space that didn’t lead anywhere. The cool part was the landing in the middle of the stairs up, which led to a half staircase to the back of the house too. A crapload of space was taken up by those stairs but they were cool!
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-er-foy-yay-or-fwa-yay/702190/40 "2014-10-27T20:16:35Z")
I’ve always pronounced it foy-er. In my line of work when I hear foy-yay, I think of [Fourier](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Fourier)
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