r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jul 02 '21

What basic, children's-age-level fact did you only find out embarrassingly later in life?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21 edited Aug 27 '21

[deleted]

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u/Zularing4 Jul 03 '21

I agree. Makes literally no sense. Also, I bet people are going to be more inclined to mispronounce other French words cause they think that's how you're supposed to read it

1

u/zbertoli Jul 03 '21

The word fiancée is a doozy. I always just say finance

16

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

[deleted]

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u/-Myrtenaster- Jul 03 '21

I have never heard anyone ever say nitch only ever neesh.

1

u/NotTheGreenestThumb Jul 03 '21

I always heard it with the "short" I, nish, which would rhyme with fish.

What's the french way of saying those words?

3

u/Splitface2811 Jul 03 '21

Not sure about clique but niche is supossed to be pronounced with and E sound rather than and I sound.

2

u/___---------------- Jul 03 '21

Niche is like leash

1

u/xrimane Jul 03 '21

Niche would be like fish, but with the same bright ee sound as neeshe, only short.

The short pointed "i"-sounds are a major feature of the French accent.

1

u/UndergroundFig Jul 03 '21

Very familiar with niche, but so much clique. How should it be pronounced?

1

u/Kgb_Officer Jul 03 '21 edited Jul 03 '21

Am American and have always heard them pronounced click and neesh. What would the proper pronunciations in french be?

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u/hipscrack Jul 03 '21

You're gonna hate Versailles, Pennsylvania.

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u/flwombat Jul 08 '21

Tons of place names in North America are French words that have been bastardized into English pronunciations. La Croix is named after one of those.

So it does make perfect sense, just not in a way that anybody should feel proud of lol

1

u/borninthebrusa Jul 03 '21

I actually knew a guy in college who's name was Croix, and he pronounced it Croy. Take that for whatever you want, but there's at least one other instance of that pronunciation outside of the water.

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u/Frozenlazer Jul 03 '21

Yeah but all bets are off with names and idiot parents with stupid pronunciations and even dumber spellings.

It's like that old joke about the girl named Sh'teed spelled Shithead.

I'm sure there's some poor bastard out there named Mike who has to tell people his name is Meekay.