menage-a-trois

[thedaffodils]

Her disdain for convention once scandalised society when she lived in a menage-a-trois with two men who were the best of friends.

Read more: Ayton Castle in Berwickshire hit by tragedy of George de la Rue's death | Mail Online

Hello!

1. I wonder how to pronounce menage-a-trois, which is a word from French. I think "s" is mute in trois as it is mute in trois in French, but I don't know especially how to pronounce "menage" here.

2. Do most native speakers know this word?

Thank you!

[5jj]

You can hear the pronunciation here: Menage a trois | Define Menage a trois at Dictionary.com

[Tdol]

2 Probably- it's a common term

[BobK]

2 Probably- it's a common term

Yes indeed. It's hard to talk about social life without using French borrowings: 'I was having a tête-à-tête with a friend (whose dress was to die for [this phrase looks English enough, but it's a word-for-word translation of à-en-mourir - meaning 'extremely attractive'] when we had a bit of a contretemps.'


b

[Barb_D]

She must have a certain je-ne-sais-pas to attract two such influential men!

[raindoctor]

Read more: Ayton Castle in Berwickshire hit by tragedy of George de la Rue's death | Mail Online

Hello!

1. I wonder how to pronounce menage-a-trois, which is a word from French. I think "s" is mute in trois as it is mute in trois in French, but I don't know especially how to pronounce "menage" here.

2. Do most native speakers know this word?

Thank you!

debris is a french word; in this word, 's' is not pronounced in English
menage is like garage, barrage, etc.
'oi' sound in trois is like that in 'repertoire' and 'reservoir'

There is a nice book let "French phonics for Americans" by Giauque, Gerald S. This booklet uses many words that are common in French and English to get a grip on French patterns.

[Barb_D]

Dang. I meant "je ne sais quois." Oh well.

[Raymott]

menage is like garage, barrage, etc.

That depends a lot on how you say 'garage' - and I'm not simply referring to those who stress the first syllable (rhyming 'garage' with 'disparage')
I use 'dzh' /ʤ/ for 'garage, and would use 'zh' /ʒ/ for 'menage' (if I ever had call to say it).

[BobK]

Dang. I meant "je ne sais quoi." Oh well.

It's OK - 'a certain je ne sais pas' is one of the misquotes that a famous British comic comes out with - I thought you were quoting him knowingly.

b

PS To spare your blushes I lost the errant 's' - For the record, students, it's 'Quoi', pronounced (in English phonemic script, /kwʌ/)

[BobK]

That depends a lot on how you say 'garage' - and I'm not simply referring to those who stress the first syllable (rhyming 'garage' with 'disparage')
I use 'dzh' /ʤ/ for 'garage, and would use 'zh' /ʒ/ for 'menage' (if I ever had call to say it).

Yes - raindoctor was talking about the commonest Am Eng pronunciation. This underlines the general problem of 'sounds like....' descriptions of pronunciation, especially in a polyglot forum like this.

b

PS Autobiobraphical note: Having a Lancashire-born father, a Scottish-born mother raised in Wales and living in England, and 20 years experience working in an American company, I use all three of the pronunciations you describe.