Comments on: Fiancé, Fiancée: How Do You Pronounce Them?

By: English Speaker

English Speaker — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 02:21:29 +0000

In reply to Anonymous2. So dumb, that the world has adopted English as it's favorite 2nd language. (2nd to the speaker's mother tongue.)

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 07:17:47 +0000

In reply to Anonymouse. …and just like everything else, America took it and improved it. Wait, what? LoL Have a great day.

By: Michael Oliver

Michael Oliver — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 07:01:18 +0000

Since there are 3 acceptable American English intonations and one French and since it IS a French word I’ve decided to pronounce the feminine as the French do, fiancee` and the intonation as (fee-ahn-SAY) with the accent on the third syllable and spelled with the extra “e”(fiancee`). Therefore, the masculine as finance` and 1 “e” at the end and an accent on the second syllable (fee-AHN-say).

By: Judy

Judy — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:08:16 +0000

I have been searching for the pronunciation of Fiance & Fiancee. At a recent social gathering I pronounced Fiance as Fee-ontz. I was corrected by a girlfriend. Is there someone from France who can verify

By: Chris Young

Chris Young — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:06:33 +0000

Strangely enough, throughout our extended family (split between New York, Chicago, and San Diego), there is a difference in the stress/accent that distinguishes the two words for us — Fiancé = fee-AHN-say where as Fiancée = fee-ahn-SAY.

By: some guy

some guy — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 21:26:37 +0000

many modern linguist actually believe that American English is more similar to Victorian English or the English of Shakespeare than British English is, in particular the English spoken in what is often considered very red neck areas of the Appalachian and Ozark mountains and that in general, British English has changed more since the time of the American Revolution than American English has. I don’t think either is more correct than the other and quite frankly, both countries have “raped” the language and some of the worst offenders are here in Britain. Really, some of the absolute worst English I have ever heard spoken has been in England or in either more urban areas of the US or what is referred to as “the deep south.”

By: Vincent

Vincent — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 14:28:00 +0000

PS I was wrong. The French say lan-zhree, the second syllable being shortened to the point of inaudibility.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 14:22:25 +0000

Americans imitating the French put the stress on the last syllable but the French don’t do that. In general they stress the long syllable equally.

It is also troubling that the American imitation-French pronunciation of “lingerie” is catching on here in England. “LonjerAY” is quite wrong. “Lan-zhair-ee” with equal stress is a better approximation.

By: DeterGent

DeterGent — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 11:47:57 +0000

I think the general practice of pronouncing words according to their country of origin can be a useful one, but how many people who say they go with the French pronunciation of ‘fiance(e)’ will refer to that country’s capital as ‘Paree’?

(Interestingly (well, perhaps not), ‘dumb’ isn’t generally a word used in Britain to denote lack of intelligence, though it is proliferating with the increased popularity of American culture.)

By: Anthropologirl

Anthropologirl — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 23:59:49 +0000

Ah, wow. I was curious as to whether any difference exists in the pronunciation, and this chat came up as a first search result…

Opinions being what they are, as a trilingual graduate student I must agree that the French retain the right to establish the pronunciation of their own word, which they do so specifically via the Academie Francaise…

I must shout out to Ms. Australia for her comment- I agree entirely, darling. And if I may risk a cultural generalization, I have yet to meet an Australian who wasn’t an absolute joy to speak to. Though I have been sharply rebuked by more than one New Zealander for guessing, wrongly, that they were Australian. I’m not sure the nature of the tension there, but will try and educate myself about possible past conflicts between the two cultures??

Having only come on here to figure out what to call myself and my now prometido significant other 🙂 , I had to chime in, being an anthropologist and all. None of you are wrong except those ignorantly bashing what they do not care to understand. And though I find the British accent to be lovely to the ear in all its regional varieties, I do believe that each English speaking culture has its rights to unique variants in pronunciation and lexicon, as long as they follow the basic constants of the language’s grammar.