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Post by Megan on Feb 14, 2008 17:35:10 GMT -5
Whenin Paris in October we made many many many visits to Laduree. My cousin was pronouncing it La Drey I was pronouncing it La Du Ray What is the correct pronounciation As I intend to be a regular visitor once again this year I need to make sure that I am pronouncing it right - especially when I pass out with excitement of being in Paris again I can whisper it to my rescuers as the very shop that will bring me round ( much better than smelling salts )
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Post by Becky (Berkeleytravelers) on Feb 14, 2008 17:38:13 GMT -5
I think you are correct but I will let someone "on the scene" confirm.
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Post by Jody on Feb 14, 2008 19:07:48 GMT -5
I say luh drae.. I know how I say it but I have trouble writing it!
luh draay
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Post by annettecinca on Feb 14, 2008 19:44:52 GMT -5
I've heard it pronounced 2 different ways
loo-drie or low-dree
both with just 2 syllables.
It will be interesting to hear it from an expert, as I've always wondered, too.
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Post by Anne on Feb 15, 2008 2:56:52 GMT -5
Ladurée is pronounced exactly how it is written, except for the last "e" that isn't pronounced : la-du-ré Now, how to describe how "é" should be pronounced For those who are slightly familiar with French, it sounds like "et" (and), "les" (plural the) . I cannot find any word in English with the same sound as "é" ...
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Post by Darcy on Feb 15, 2008 20:28:12 GMT -5
Anne, two English words that are pronounced with the é sound are play and stay
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Post by Anne on Feb 16, 2008 3:03:54 GMT -5
Well Darcy, but there is a "ee" sound (equivalent to French "i") at the very end of these words, isn't there ? Plus I think that the sound just before that is more of an "è" than a "é" ? To understand the difference between "é" and "è", go to Gitte's website, select Juliette and type "évènement", or also "ménagère" .
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Post by phread on Feb 16, 2008 3:36:34 GMT -5
play and stay DO sound like ée to an anglophone ear.
Lah - du - ray is as close as it gets to my ear. Not that I have much of an ear.
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Post by Shoesy on Feb 16, 2008 3:51:16 GMT -5
Thanks, Phread, for clarifying the problems that we Americans have when it comes to differenciating between certain vowel sounds. We tend to hear the sounds as we know them from words in the English language.
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Post by Becky (Berkeleytravelers) on Feb 16, 2008 12:52:07 GMT -5
Gitte & Shoesy - part of the problem in giving these examples, I think, is that there is so much regional variation in accents (at least in the US) that the same word just doesn't sound the same from place to place!
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Post by Megan on Feb 16, 2008 16:23:32 GMT -5
Thanks everyone. Anne I understand what you mean about the pronounciation of the last e. Becky - to make matters worse in New Zealand we clip all our vowels and sometimes drop them all together so a Kiwi speaking french is probably a nightmare to listen to and bears no resemblance to anything remotely spoken in France !. Perhaps i will call it as we would in lowkey country NZ - "the flash cake place on the main road"
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Post by Jody on Feb 16, 2008 16:42:57 GMT -5
I have a terrible time trying to write the "sounds". I never can understand those descriptions in dictionaries!
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Post by Darcy on Feb 16, 2008 22:18:17 GMT -5
Thank you Phread! I'm getting out of this discussion.
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Post by phread on Feb 17, 2008 12:58:22 GMT -5
There are accents in France, too. The "ay" sound is as close is it gets for us Americans.
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Post by annettecinca on Feb 17, 2008 21:16:27 GMT -5
Okay, good to know! Three syllables (making mental note). Can't sound too dumb when I take my little "tour group" in there this October, you know! Someone should send this memo to the Travel Channel!
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Post by arrowcapet on Feb 24, 2008 11:35:08 GMT -5
Whatever accent one might mutilate, the point here is that the word is definitely a 3-syllable word, not two, as Megan was originally seeking clarification on. So in whatever way one might add their own regional twist on the vowel, it is Lah-doo-ray (using your very best French "u" and "r", both of which are impossible to replicate on paper), and should really only ever be pronounced in two syllables by a native speaker who's just cutting things short to speed through the sentence and can get away with saying things in a certain way BECAUSE they're a native. A non-native speaker is more or less "required" to say the word the way it's supposed to be said...in this case, three distinct syllables.
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