Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Glass of Malibut and some Haribot sweeties after.

deliciou

Be my lil' haliboo

I used to think, on the basis of fillet/fillay and not much else, that Americans liked to frenchify things more than us, but actually I think it's a total mix. Nougat is one that seems more frenchy over here; Notre Dame is the reverse, etc.

Wait, what am I talking about? Notre Dame falls in the direction. Trying to think of another turbot-esque example now.

Falls in the direction = falls in the same direction. Why do I try to make sense on my iPhone it never works.

'erbs

Nodur daym is hilarious to me, chase lounge too

I asked my wife how she says turbot and she pronounced the t fwiw.

Chaise lounge is some bullshit yes

it’s funny because it makes it sound like “chaise lounge” is some sort of fancy chair for lounging when in fact a lounge is a long chair and “chaise longue” means.... long chair

it’s just misunderstanding on so many levels, I would bet “chaise lounge chair” is not an uncommon construction

What other words do UKers pronounce less Frenchly than USers? Stressing the first syllable of café is one.

Mentioned earlier but garage

Herb, vase, envelope?

Croissant?

Not vase surely?

I thought "vays" was more British and "vahz" was more American but that could be wrong. I hear both.

Vase is one I heard both ways growing up, although the ahhh version I heard as more a snooty Kennedyism as opposed to an attempt at a French pronunciation. Same people who would say take a bahhhth.

No-one in the UK would ever say vayz.

Yeah I’ve never heard that from a Brit

Ah, I probably had it backwards then. These things can go either way in Canada sometimes.

Someone once gave a coworker directions to pick up something at the porte-cochère. She didn't ask what that meant and tried to repeat it back to me to help figure it out. I had no clue either. We asked the security in the building, they had no clue. After it was figured out (and she got into trouble for not going to the right place) I got really mad at the requestor for using porte-cochère in the US. I mean, this isn't a common term, right???

Never heard of it.

Ha

I remember in a Seinfeld episode where George calls someone “pretentious” for saying papier-mâché, which is a v ridiculous and Georgesque position to take (why is papier “pretentious” and mâché normal? “Paper mâché” sounds silly, at least go full nodurr daym and call it paper mash if you’re gonna be “unpretentious”)

So it's not paper mâché then. Yeah, I knew that.

Don't mind. Just updating my bedroom suit with chester drawers.

So, more Frenchy in Britain:

Chaise longue
Nougat
Cafe
Notre Dame
Clique
Foyer
Vase
Garage

More Frenchy in America:

Fillet
Turbot
Valet
Pastel
Herb

The "US-style' garage and valet are actually heard more over here than their alternative. Croissant is a funny one because Americans stress it in the same way as the French, but the British follow the French in not pronouncing the t.

Café should be in the second list

Add coupé to the UK list.

And route.

Café should be in the second list

Oh yes, oops!

And garage!

I grew up in a fairly bilingual city and went to French immersion high school but I've never heard anyone pronounce "papier" in the French way when saying "papier-maché" in English.

So, unless you speak French as a first language, it could seem a little pretentious to say it that way. And "paper mash" is just not a thing that anyone says.

I've heard both. I would definitely say papier.

Heh well I have no use for “pretentious” ftmp, just marvelling at the quirks of usage that would randomly change papier to paper but leave mâché intact

I think more people over here say paper maché than they used to, but probably worth adding to a corrected and updated list:

So, more Frenchy in Britain:

Chaise longue
Nougat (plenty of people say it as 'nugget', but not the US way, I don't think)
Notre Dame
Clique
Route
Coupé
Foyer
Vase
Papier maché *

More Frenchy in America:

Fillet
Turbot
Café
Valet *
Garage *
Pastel
Herb

* means I hear the "American" pronunciation a lot too in the UK. With valet, it's even predominant.

Bee Gees confusing matters with this weird song from their 'lost years'...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTEwAqqd74

Bee Gees confusing matters with this weird song from their 'lost years'...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTEwAqqd74

... I thought you couldn't post the same thing twice anymore?

How is pastel pronounced in UK?

I’d put an asterisk on café too, quite a few brits (including me) say it the “American” way

(xp) Pastil

I'm not talking of caff vs CAfe, I'm talking about CAfe vs CaFE. Would you really stress the second syllable?

Pastel is also mainly about stress: in Britain we stress the first part.

Makes sense, I was imagining something wild like paysteel.

Now I'm doubting myself: where *do* the French put the stress on café?

Now I’m doubting myself and I’m genuinely not sure how I pronounce it after saying it aloud to myself a few times - I just said “ballad of the sad café” and it’s def the last syllable I’m stressing but the title invites that

Lol xp

I don't think French really has lexical stress in the same way that English does? I would raise pitch a bit on the second syllable of café but I would try not to pronounce either syllable more strongly. There are native French speakers here who could probably explain better than I could.

talking of uk cafés, i only recently realised that the coffee chain was called caffè nero and not café nero

(it will always be café nerd to me in my heart)