How do you pronounce "que" ?

[fan_of_small_world]

My DD has always since she learned about Sleeping Beauty called her Sleeping Booty.

My DD4 did something similar for a while...except she called her "Sweepin' Booty!"

I went to college in DC and I had a roomate from the "Norfolk" area of VA.
I would occasionally ask about things in "Norfolk" (I pronounced the "folk" part as "How are you folks doing"?). One day, she told me that no one in Norfolk actually says Norfolk. They leave the "l" completely out of it, and their "o" sounds way more like a "u".
I didn't want to be rude and mispronounce her hometown, so from then on it was Nor***. It just felt like swearin' to me though.

This reminds me of a fake cheer we used to do in high school. We called it the "Puritan Cheer."

WE DON'T DRINK!
WE DON'T SMOKE!
NORFOLK!
NORFOLK!

OK, so I'm originally from Maryland, went to college and lived in Pennsylvania for a total of 7 years, lived in Illinois for 3 years, and now live in New Jersey. For me, it is...

"sub," not "hoagie"
"sprinkles," not "jimmies"
"bag," not "sack" (as in "do you need a bag for your groceries?)
"lollipop," not "sucker" (I made sure my kids didn't start saying sucker, either!)

and, it used to be "coke" but my college friends finally somehow got to me and now I say "soda" (I never picked up on "pop" like everyone else said in Illinois, though).

Also, for a major pet peeve...I HATE it when I hear someone say "yous" (as in "Are yous going to the mall?"). Arrrrgh!!!!! (This is strictly a PA and NJ thing...I never heard it in MD or IL.) I will freely admit, though, that I both say and even write "y'all!"

 

[krismas29]

This reminds me of a fake cheer we used to do in high school. We called it the "Puritan Cheer."

WE DON'T DRINK!
WE DON'T SMOKE!
NORFOLK!
NORFOLK!

Totally OT but that reminded me of a cheer we used to do in HS too.

ICE COLD BEER
MAKES ME WANT TO CHEER!
ICE COLD GIN
MAKES ME WANT TO WIN!
ICE COLD DUCK
MAKES ME WANT TO ..... SCORE!


I can't believe my school let us do that cheer at football games.

Anyway, back to regionalisms. I have been thinking about some unique things my grandparents used to say (both from Boston). My grandfather called his front porch a verandah. Both grandparents would occasionally call a sofa a 'divan'.

I was also recently told by a friend in NY that saying 'elastic' is wrong, apparently its a 'rubber band'. I am less sure about this one as I have always said elastic and never knew there was a thing wrong with it!

 

[U2_rocks!]

Totally OT but that reminded me of a cheer we used to do in HS too.

ICE COLD BEER
MAKES ME WANT TO CHEER!
ICE COLD GIN
MAKES ME WANT TO WIN!
ICE COLD DUCK
MAKES ME WANT TO ..... SCORE!


I can't believe my school let us do that cheer at football games.

Anyway, back to regionalisms. I have been thinking about some unique things my grandparents used to say (both from Boston). My grandfather called his front porch a verandah. Both grandparents would occasionally call a sofa a 'divan'.

I was also recently told by a friend in NY that saying 'elastic' is wrong, apparently its a 'rubber band'. I am less sure about this one as I have always said elastic and never knew there was a thing wrong with it!

A rubber band is that thing that you can use to make ponytails, slingshots etc. Elastic is what you sew into waistbands to make them stretchy!

 

[Imzadi]

How many people have a duvet on their beds & know how to pronounce it as: due-VAY? As uncultured as it sounds, I just call mine a comforter cover, as everyone knows what that is.

I sometimes waiter for cousin's catering company. Sometimes, to be a smarty, I'll say I'm going to be serving the "HORZ dovers", or putting out the "crew-dyte" or setting up the "buf-fet" instead of the way hors d'oeuvres (or durves), crudite (CREW-di-tay) and buffet (buf-FAY) are pronounced. One time the Captain nearly had a cow when she heard me pronounce them like that!

No rules for names.

Koch can be pronounced as Coke.
Macleod pronounced MaCloud.
Pall Mall pronounced Pell Mell.
Takei pronounced Tukay.
Sean pronounced Shawn.
Sade pronounced Shaw-DAY (or Shar-DAY).
Robo pronounced RAW-Bow (or ROW-Bow).

I had an ex-roomate from Long Island who is Jewish. Between those two accents combined, she used to talk about her friends "The Cones." But she'd write to me about these people, "The Cohens" like I should know who she was referring to. It took me forever to realize they were the same people. I pronounce it KO-hen like George M. Cohen.

 

[Imzadi]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the French pronunciation for que which is "keh" as in C'est ce que? meaning What is it?

In France they say Paree instead of Paris. I always thought that was odd. Why wouldn't we pronounce countries the way the natives say it?

Also, don't native people from Quebec pronounce it as Kaybec, whereas we say Kwebec in the U.S.?

And don't come to NYC and ask a cab driver to take you down to Houston Street. Here we pronounce it as Howston. And Greenwich Village is Grennich Vilage.

 

[monetnj]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the French pronunciation for que which is "keh" as in C'est ce que? meaning What is it?

In France they say Paree instead of Paris. I always thought that was odd. Why wouldn't we pronounce countries the way the natives say it?

Also, don't native people from Quebec pronounce it as Kaybec, whereas we say Kwebec in the U.S.?

And don't come to NYC and ask a cab driver to take you down to Houston Street. Here we pronounce it as Howston. And Greenwich Village is Grennich Vilage.

Que is pronounced the same way in spanish.

 

[LucyR]

The French pronunciation for 'que' is a hard c followed by either a schwa(sp?) vowel which is the same as the e in 'the', or a short oo, which is the same vowel sound as in the word 'book'. I can't think of a good way to type that phonetically without special characters. I have heard Quebec pronounced koo-BEK (using the short oo vowel sound) by newcasters. I grew up quite close to the Canadian border, and their weather forecasts were often better for our area than the local stations. It would be a good question for a CM at the Canadian pavillion.

 

[LucyR]

I often say 'horsey do-overs' instead of hors d'oeuvres, just to be silly.

 

[js]

I often say 'horsey do-overs' instead of hors d'oeuvres, just to be silly.

LOL
I say something similiar.

 

[zookeeper]

The French pronunciation for 'que' is a hard c followed by either a schwa(sp?) vowel which is the same as the e in 'the', or a short oo, which is the same vowel sound as in the word 'book'. I can't think of a good way to type that phonetically without special characters. I have heard Quebec pronounced koo-BEK (using the short oo vowel sound) by newcasters. I grew up quite close to the Canadian border, and their weather forecasts were often better for our area than the local stations. It would be a good question for a CM at the Canadian pavillion.

How a Canadian pronounces Quebec depends on where in Canada they are from and what their native language is (English/French). Que in French is pronounced as above with the hard c followed by the schwa sound as in book. Qu'est-ce que c'est?? is how you would say "What is it? in French". Quebec, in French, has an accent on the first e which makes it sound like "KAY-BECK". I have heard almost every pronunciation of Quebec going from kwi-beck to kwee-beck to ke-beck. I grew up right next to the American border so I'm the opposite of you.We always watched American TV stations growing up so even though we do Celsius for temperature here I find I still have to do the math and covert to Farhenheit (sp?) to figure out what the real temperature is?!

 

[Imzadi]

Eeps! Thanks for gently pointing out how I mangled "Qu'est-ce que c'est??" Obviously I barely remember my high school French.