My friends have fallen prey to an engagement epidemic. And when you’re the first to know, you want to tell everyone else you know, too.
But spreading the news that your two best buds are affianced can be tricky.
You can look up both spellings to make sure you get the mass mailing right. I was stymied, however, when it came to regular, real-time conversation.
Different on Paper, Same in Speech
If your engaged guy friend is a fiancé, and your engaged girl friend is a fiancée, wouldn’t you expect to preserve that difference when talking to people? At the very least, it would help your grandfather understand exactly what’s going on with your best friend Lindsay Lohan:
Her fiancé’s name is Sam Ronson, you say? Well isn’t that nice, dear.”
Get your grandfather an e-mail address, because without some serious pronoun work on your part, he would understand more by reading about the engagement than he would by hearing it in conversation.
While there are three acceptable American English pronunciations for these French terms, the word sounds exactly the same whether it’s fiancé or fiancée.
So How Do I Say It?
For the record, Webster’s offers a male voice intoning fee-ahn-SAY as the proper pronunciation for fiancé and fiancée. I prefer fee-AHN-say, which Bartleby also deems acceptable.
You’ll just have to use context to get the word out to your friends. That, or cue cards.
Very interesting. My late father, in his inimitable West Virgina fashion, used to refer to both as a “fi-ancy” (”fi” as in hi-fi). But I note that you refer to the English pronunciation. Do you mean English as in England or English as in the U.S.? Is there a difference? We all know the English don’t really know how to speak the language (”Two peoples separated by a common language.”).
“i”……that’s the “i” that was missing from “Virginia”!!
Oho, you’re right Dr. Moss: I meant to say American English there. I’ll be making a change to that now.
Americans are dumb and pronounce the word wrong. It’s actually pronounced “fee-AHN-seh.”
Actually, French tends to stress the last syllable, so it would be fee-ahn-SAY although both are right in English.
By the way, Americans are not dumb
I wouldn’t say that Americans are dumb, but I would say that American English is a raped language. English in general has been rather raped, but American English is super raped, like prison raped.
And I would say that last comment looks very troll-like to me. In any case, if you go back to my discussions of prescriptivism vs. descriptivism, one person’s “rape” is another person’s evolution of language.
Yes, French tends to stress the last syllable, so it would be fee-ahn-SAY although both are right in English.
I tend to respect the pronunciation from the word origin (French). I will agree with fee-ahn-SAY if that is how the French like it. They are sticklers for pronunciation. Yes, Americans are dumb … how did voilà turn into wala? Stupid Americans.
‘Intelligent Person said:
(On 26 July 2009 at 10:12 AM)
Americans are dumb and pronounce the word wrong. It’s actually pronounced “fee-AHN-seh.”’
If you’re what qualifies as intelligent then that is very sad.
‘Sun said:
(On 16 August 2010 at 12:15 AM)
I tend to respect the pronunciation from the word origin (French). I will agree with fee-ahn-SAY if that is how the French like it. They are sticklers for pronunciation. Yes, Americans are dumb … how did voilà turn into wala? Stupid Americans’
Americans don’t say “wala”. I think you are projecting.
Better to be an American than a snail eating, dirty, smelly, yellow tooth, snotty, nose obstructed Fench guy/girl. (the french are discusting, they ivented perfume because they did not bathe) how do you like that hu? Dont jump into conclusions, i bet the average american has a better personality in one finger nail than you do in your whole foul smelling body!
I am an intelligent, well-educated and hard-working American. To say Americans are dumb reveals prejudice. Would you say, “Africans are dumb,” “Mexicans are dumb,” or that Jews are dumb?I hope not. Prejudice is prejudice. I have a hard time respecting the intelligence, judgment, and opinions of people who make sweeping ethnic slurs and generalizations. As for Person123, please correctly spell and capitalize the words you use to make your own inaccurate and insulting generalizations of the French. Notice that the words “American” and “French” are supposed to be capitalized and the word is “French,” not “fench.” Person123 also mispelled the words disgusting and invented. If you are going to insult someone, at least don’t make yourself appear to be uneducated in addition to prejudiced. Now, can everyone just be nice AND spell and capitalize correctly?
Person123, you are not helping the cause. You sound like a dumbass.
Dumb and smart people exist in every country , but only true idiots argue about it on a random website. I mean really - are we all in 4th grade again? Seriously?
Please stop arguing everyone. It’s like we are in Kindergarten. I say FEE-AHN-SAY for both. Correcting grammar is a pain in the ass to me. Polite Person, you sound like a smart-ass. Voice of Reason, thank you for understanding how immature people truly are.
Sun, stop trolling. Americans are not dumb. Most Americans are intelligent. The real dumb-asses are people like you. I’m not arguing, I’m stating my opinion. :P.
Alright people, you need to stop saying American’s are dumb. In fact, most of us are very intelligent…Just because our words are pronounced differently than how you would pronounce them, does not make us dumb.
for real fam we re not in kindergarten again and ii is real rude calling americans are dumb
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