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

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Read more: Ayton Castle in Berwickshire hit by tragedy of George de la Rue's death | Mail OnlineHer disdain for convention once scandalised society when she lived in a menage-a-trois with two men who were the best of friends.
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!
You can hear the pronunciation here: Menage a trois | Define Menage a trois at Dictionary.com
Last edited by 5jj; 06-Nov-2011 at 15:39. Reason: typo
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
She must have a certain je-ne-sais-pas to attract two such influential men!
I'm not a teacher, but I write for a living. Please don't ask me about 2nd conditionals, but I'm a safe bet for what reads well in (American) English.
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.
Dang. I meant "je ne sais quois." Oh well.
I'm not a teacher, but I write for a living. Please don't ask me about 2nd conditionals, but I'm a safe bet for what reads well in (American) English.
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/)
Last edited by BobK; 08-Nov-2011 at 12:09. Reason: PS added
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.![]()
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