# FOY-urr or foy-YAY **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 12, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659 "2010-02-12T04:10:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/61 "2010-02-14T23:37:40Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > I say foy-yay, but I also hear foy-yurr and occasionally “fwa-yay”. > I just looked up foyer in my Oxford dictionary, and it lists all 3 pronunciations. I had this same thought, and looked it up in the OED. That dictionary only gives the two frenchy pronunciations (ˈfɔɪjeɪ, fwaje). ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/62 "2010-02-15T02:12:13Z")
You should’ve qualified this question with "English speakers (except Canada), ". Obviously, anyone posting from France is going to say “Foy-YAY”, and Canada is going to probably lean in that direction because of the large number of French speakers there. I’d really be curious to see this again, just with people from the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/63 "2010-02-15T02:23:55Z")
Cool! I made a perfect tie! ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/64 "2010-02-15T06:22:13Z")
We were too poor for a fancy FOR-yer. We had a front porch (covered) and a back porch (screened). The house I live in now has a very open floor plan and we just call it the entryway. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/65 "2010-02-15T20:35:17Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Currently poll results at 82 to 81. I have to say I’m surprised by how remarkably even the division is. I suspect the Canadians (and Brits?) are skewing it, if we had only Americans responding we’d see a majority for foy-urr. And it’s now 95 to 93, still surprisingly close, IMO. I wonder how the vote breaks out by home country, as I just assumed _FOY-ur_ was the widely accepted U.S. pronunciation. This is why we don’t have bidets here. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/66 "2010-02-15T21:09:38Z")
No difinitive answer here. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/67 "2010-02-15T22:42:43Z")
Last time I came to the thread it was 45-45. I just checked in for an update and it’s 95-95. Pretty eerie. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/68 "2010-02-16T00:11:51Z")
It’s neither; the stress is on the first syllable of ‘FOY-eh’. We watch a good deal of home improvement shows at my household; a host saying ‘foy-err’ is guaranteed to get a laugh. Montreal-born, though. I don’t think you’ll ever hear a rhotic R on that word in Canada. However, on a visit to Pittsburgh once my brother told me to ‘turn on Fort Du-kwes-nee’. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/69 "2010-02-16T00:19:19Z")
Brit here: definitely the latter. Never heard anybody pronounce it the former way. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/70 "2010-02-16T00:39:03Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I was in college in the 80’s, when one of the political issues was Nicaragua. It always drove me mad the way that people would speak in a flat American accent, and then pronounce _Nicaragua_ in that tonguerolling fashion as though they had just teleported from _Managua_ moments before. Same for people who say _Paree_ for Paris when speaking in English. Kind of like your comment regarding Bleu cheese. English is chock full of loan words, and you could pronounce them all appropriately to their home language if you wanted, but one would sound a bit odd. Agreed. But if I hear anyone say “foyer” I’d look at them much the same way the other characters looked like Elizabeth Berkeley when she said “Vur-saise” in _Showgirls_. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659/71 "2010-02-16T00:49:31Z")
You know, now that I think about it, I realize that I find foYAY pretentious is because the people I’ve heard say it use a fake-posh accent. But in places where people normally say foYAY, it sounds perfectly natural, because they don’t overemphasize it. I wonder if those of you thinking FOY-yer sounds hickish are the same way. I mean, you can pronounce it without extending the R (FOR yrrrrr). It can sound like a normal word. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foy-urr-or-foy-yay/528659.md?page=3)