# It's coup de grace **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 9, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314 "2007-01-09T17:52:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/41 "2007-01-10T04:52:57Z")
[QUOTE=A.R. Cane] Then there’s Pend O’reille. [/QUOTE] I’ve been there. Very pretty lake in Idaho. And no, not one of my brighter moments. Saw the name of the lake, then saw some of the local real estate advertising for “Pond-o-ray Estates” or something. Never made the connection, still found myself asking the nice lady at the visitor’s center, “Say, what’s the proper pronunciation for this place?” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/42 "2007-01-10T13:33:02Z")
[QUOTE=arseNal] I’ve always wondered if I should care when someone says “pree fee” for “prix fixé.” Or maybe even, “pricks ficks.” [/QUOTE] I thought it was “prix fixe” (no accent) and pronounced pree feeks, pretty close to the French? Pricks ficks would be an abomination. [QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Couldn’t figure out why people in Vermont didn’t understand me saying Montpelier. Didn’t realize that a couple hundred miles turned ‘Mohnpellyay’ to ‘Mawnt - PEEL - yer’ :eek: Then I’d hear ads for ‘Ben-OYT’ car dealers. Spelled, of course, ‘Benoit’. [/QUOTE] Yes, I had to adjust my thinking when I moved here and ran into folks with French last names with less-than-French pronunciations. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/43 "2007-01-10T13:54:09Z")
Took me three years to figure out that a “biwi” (or bigüi if you’re Hispanic) was a Buick. I do think the inkmakers’ industry must have cousins in the Academie de la Langue Francaise, but heck, at least they’re consistant about dropping final letters. ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/44 "2007-01-10T15:28:13Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] I thought it was “prix fixe” (no accent) and pronounced pree feeks, pretty close to the French? Pricks ficks would be an abomination. [/QUOTE] Hey, you’re right. Good thing I never cared that much, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/45 "2007-01-10T16:28:47Z")
[QUOTE=arseNal] There’s a current KIA commercial where the actress is supposed to be singing “adieu, adieu, adieu adieu adieu” but she sounds more like she’s saying “a-deew”. Not only is it mispronounced french, to my cantonese ears it sounds almost exactly like she’s saying “aw fuck, aw fuck, aw fuck aw fuck aw fuck.” [/QUOTE] In case you care 😉 she’s copying the stylized ad-yeuh of the The Sound of Music song first delivered by a kid. It’s pretty close to the French, though. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/46 "2007-01-10T17:29:57Z")
I’m never going to attempt a new city name again. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/47 "2007-01-10T17:57:37Z")
[QUOTE=mrklutz] Yes, but it’s chowdah, not show-dehr. [/QUOTE] Yes, and it’s _vichyssoise_, not vi-shee-SWAH. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/48 "2007-01-10T20:02:56Z")
[QUOTE=arseNal] I’ve always wondered if I should care when someone says “pree fee” for “prix fixé.” Or maybe even, “pricks ficks.” There’s a current KIA commercial where the actress is supposed to be singing “adieu, adieu, adieu adieu adieu” but she sounds more like she’s saying “a-deew”. Not only is it mispronounced french, to my cantonese ears it sounds almost exactly like she’s saying “aw fuck, aw fuck, aw fuck aw fuck aw fuck.” [/QUOTE] The line is ‘adieu, adieu, to you and you and you-a’. But I like your version better. ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/49 "2007-01-10T22:33:29Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] The line is ‘adieu, adieu, to you and you and you-a’. But I like your version better. [/QUOTE] Bah! Ok, I guess I didn’t listen that carefully. And I can see how they would try to pronounce ‘adieu’ to rhyme with ‘to you’, then. I lose. Back to lurking. Still sounds like aw fuck tho. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/50 "2007-01-10T22:35:55Z")
[QUOTE=arseNal] Bah! Ok, I guess I didn’t listen that carefully. And I can see how they would try to pronounce ‘adieu’ to rhyme with ‘to you’, then. I lose. Back to lurking. [/QUOTE] STAY, dammit, your arse and all. I was wondering if they were going to keep the obnoxious “yeuh, and yeuh and yeuh” (instead of you and you and you) from the original song but they did change that part. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/51 "2007-01-11T01:02:50Z")
But how do you pronounce \*trompe oeil \* or however that’s spelled. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314/52 "2007-01-11T02:15:02Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] But how do you pronounce \*trompe oeil \* or however that’s spelled. [/QUOTE] _Trompe l’oeil_ comes out more or less as “tromp loy” (but the o of “loy” is a little more like a “uh”, sorta) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-coup-de-grace/387314.md?page=2)