When it comes to pronouncing names in other languages—Spanish, Irish, Arabic, etc.—most mistakes made by English speakers can be summed up in one tidy statement: We automatically apply English pronunciation rules where we shouldn’t. You see the French name Eugène, for example, and assume it’s pronounced like its English counterpart: “yoo-JEEN.” As you’ll soon find out, it’s not.
Sometimes, nailing a name in another language requires learning how to pronounce a sound that the English language doesn’t use—like the Welsh “ll.” French has one of those, too: the uvular fricative “r” sound, which you can learn with help from YouTuber MyFrenchStory:
Now that you’re better acquainted with France’s most guttural phoneme, try your hand at the French names below (but don’t worry—most of them don’t contain any r’s at all).
1. Agathe
Ignore the he. It’s “AYE-gat,” with both a’s matching those in cat.
2. Alain
Alain doesn’t sound like Elaine. It’s “A-lah.”
3. Amélie
The title of the 2001 Audrey Tautou–starring film is pronounced “AH-mey-LEE.”
4. Arnaud
Disregard the d. It’s “AR-noh.”
5. Brigitte
Brigitte Bardot’s first name isn’t pronounced like Bridget. It’s “BREE-zheet.”
6. Camille
In English, it’s “kuh-MEEL.” In French, it’s “KA-mee.”
7. Claude
The French Claude doesn’t rhyme with awed. It’s more like “KLOHD.”
8. Clémence
The first name of Clémence Poésy, who played Fleur Delacour in the Harry Potter movies, is pronounced “KLEY-mawss.”
9. Edouard
Disregard the final d in Edouard. If you can’t nail the French “r,” it’s best to just skip it in this case: “EYD-wah.”
10. Eugène
Eugène is “oo-ZHEN,” where the “oo” matches the one in good.
11. Geneviève
It’s not “JEN-eh-veev” in French. It’s “zhuhn-VYEV.”
12. Guillaume
Guillaume is “GEE-yohm” with a hard “g” sound like the one in get.
13. Hélène
It’s not “hell-EEN.” It’s “ee-LEN.”
14. Henri
French speakers drop the “n” sound and make the “r” especially guttural, so Henri becomes “aw-REE.”
15. Irène
Paris-born scientist Irène Joliot-Curie, a Nobel Prize winner and the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, wouldn’t pronounce her name “eye-REEN.” It’s “EE-ren.”
16. Jacqueline
Anyone who’s watched The Devil Wears Prada (2006) already knows how to pronounce the French version of Jacqueline, even if they don’t know they know it: “zhak-LEEN.” (Miranda Priestly may loathe French Runway’s Jacqueline Follet, but she wouldn’t deign to botch her name.)
17. Julien
The French Julien is “ZHOO-lee-ah,” where the first syllable rhymes with too.
18. Noémie
The first name of Portrait of a Lady on Fire star Noémie Merlant is pronounced “NOH-ey-MEE.”
19. Olympe
It’s “OH-lahmp,” not “oh-LIMP.”
20. Thibault
Thibault has quite a few silent letters; it’s just “TEE-boh.”
21. Yves
Yves Saint Laurent is one of the most commonly mispronounced brand names in the business. The first part is easier than it looks: It’s just “EEV,” like Eve.
This article was originally published on www.mentalfloss.com as 21 French Names You’re Probably Mispronouncing.
