Pronouncing “début”
Pet Peeve 1. Lots of antipodeans (particularly sports commentators) persist in pronouncing “début” as “dayboo” yet they pronounce “débutante” correctly. Occurs 2 or 3 times in every broadcast on Sky TV. I now mute the sound otherwise my teeth would be ground to dust.
Kat
July 7, 2012, 11:54am
Yeah, I would think so. In french it's kind of a "yeuh" sound. I've always said day-bew.
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Mediator
July 6, 2012, 10:14pm
Check on www.forvo.com
The French pronunciation is definitely closer to 'daybew' than 'dayboo', as is the normal English pronunciation.
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Perfect Pedant
July 6, 2012, 10:09pm
"but" in French is closer to 'bew' than 'boo', so it would be 'daybew' not 'dayboo'.
It's not often the Aussies get it right, but they've got it wrong again.
My god! they can't even get cricket scores the right way round!
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Sam Hattz
July 6, 2012, 12:53pm
They're actually pronouncing it closer to the correct pronunciation (i.e. how the French say it) than we are.
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