Yes, but it’s chowdah, not show-dehr.
Maybe we should ask Brett Favre.
Dr. Havre de Grace?
Okay, bad joke. I’ll atone:
“Hail, Mary, full of grass…”
It’s clear none of you have been to Versailles… (Indiana).
No. But, how about Portage la Prairie, Manitoba? Pronounced Portidge.
Or Cairo, Illinois - pronounced Ka-Ro with a hard “A”.
Or Vienna, IL, pronounced Vy-Anna.
And can we puh-leeeeze use the term for what it was borrowed to mean? It is not synonymous with any final taking of life; it means, specifically, a “mercy killing” in the broad sense. E.g., if you were a knight on the battlefield and had mortally wounded your opponent, who was dying slowly from having his intestines sliced open by your sword or something equally euuch-making, you might grant him a quicker death by, e.g., stabbing him through the heart, as an act of grace – a compassionate ending of his agony. That was the original coup de grace.
Okay, okay, but would some French speaker mind telling us exactly what *coup de grace *means? Besides the “day gra” issue, a lot of people misuse it to mean the last shot in a game, rather than the more grisly meaning. I’m told it means “merciful killing blow,” or something. I don’t parsley view Frank-case, myself.
Oops. :smack: I see Polycarp did that while I was cogitating.
Thank you, Gigi,
and now, can we address “Sauvignon Blanc” ?
It’s pronounced blan, not blonk.
There, I feel better already.
Coup de gras would be what, slapped with a slab of lard?
[/QUOTE]
montypython/ go away now or I shall assault you with an obese fowl a second time/montypython
Then there’s Pend O’reille.
It’s really coup de grâce.
This is why I never try to use furrinner-talk, ‘cuz it’d make me luke stupud. Er. Stupud-er. Sum’pin’.
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.”
montypython/ go away now or I shall assault you with an obese fowl a second time/montypython
[/QUOTE]
Not the coup de foie gras!! :eek: That would be a fowl blow indeed, sir!
Note: If anyone threatens to assault you with an overfed goose, duck!
Is that some sort of old canard?
Let’s not get carried away. Your victory is not a parfait accomplice. When I order wine, “Sauvignon Blanc” is pronounced “this one here.”
“It’s strange that the English don’t have a word for sang froid, and yet the French, who rarely exhibit it, do.” --Robert Wilson, The Company Of Strangers
If I spoke French, maybe I’d know whether the German spy character was insulting the English or the French. If I did speak French, though, the French would always rag on me for my sloppy accent, and my fellow Americans would call me a snob. :rolleyes:
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’.
‘What we have here is a failure…’
I live in Montreal, and still, in a province of French-speakers, I have to hear radio ads for some store called “Lekky-poor”. Took me months to figure out they meant “L’Equipeur”.