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Brandon Robshaw: English Usage #27



How do you pronounce "lingerie"?

Not longeré. This is of course a very common mistake but I still can't get used to it. In French the sound in rhymes with pang (sort of) and -ie rhymes with wee. So the whole word would rhyme with...

Do you know, I just went on Rhymezone and tried it out and I was given options such as overstay. Truly. So now this mispronunciation is so entrenched that it's actually an official rhyme. Whoever compiles that website really does think that -ie (in French) is pronounced -ay.

Of course, that's bollocks. Lingerie ought to rhyme with canopy (sort of).



Dr Brandon Robshaw lectures for the Open University in Philosophy, Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. He has written several children’s books including a philosophical YA novel, The Infinite Powers of Adam Gowers. He and his family starred in BBC2’s Back in Time for Dinner. You can find his website here.

1件のコメント


Jane Hudson
Jane Hudson
2021年5月22日

The canopy of my lingerie

lingers long enough

do I have to say it

don't my tent pants speak loud enough

they say my lingerie

you overstay

my stays stay

いいね!
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