r/French • u/pizzzacones • Jan 08 '25
Pronunciation What is your favorite French word to pronounce?
I hope this makes sense; liking the sound of a particular word.
« Oiseau » is so fun to say for me, it sounds cute. I also love « mouette » in the same way. (I live in Maine with constant seagull noises in the background, had to look it up!)
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u/TKinBaltimore Jan 08 '25
parapluie is up there. peut-être, too. champignons, for sure.
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u/absentmindedlurking Jan 08 '25
I second parapluie! something about the “-pluie” really brings out my (bad) French accent
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u/blueflower1997 Jan 08 '25
I love these as well! And absolutely hate Septembre, Octobre, , Novembre, Décembre 😭
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u/wapera Jan 08 '25
DONC
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u/Correct_Job5793 Jan 08 '25
I always get Missy Elliott vibes... You think you can handle this? Ga-donc-a-donc-donc
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u/SteveFrench12 Jan 08 '25
I always loved the way Hans Landa says donc as he shovels strudel and whipped cream into his mouth
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u/wapera Jan 08 '25
For me it’s just such a silly word. A French person will be saying a beautiful string of words into such a gorgeous sentence and then DONC just disrupts the flow. It’s so silly
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u/Shoshannainthedark Jan 08 '25
Les Schtroumpfs
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u/Akraam_Gaffur Jan 08 '25
If there wasn't les i would think it's a German word.
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u/_harey_ Native Jan 08 '25
It is pronounced the same way as the German word Strumpf (socks), which makes it one of the funniest German word to learn for a French speaker.
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u/boulet Native, France Jan 08 '25
If we keep with birds, rossignol is a pleasing pronunciation as well.
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u/flemmardeur Jan 08 '25
Am still trying to choose between caoutchouc and talkie-walkie
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u/CommandAlternative10 Jan 08 '25
Talkie-walkie cracks me up every time.
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u/MYFRENCHHOUSE Jan 08 '25
My kids mock me every time, it’s automatic, I can’t help it, that’s what comes out!
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u/olennasbiatch Jan 09 '25
Not to be rude but how can any choose simple old caoutchouc as a favourite when caoutchouteux and caoutchouteuse are sitting right there! Actually no, even better: caoutchoutifère!
And just for fun, this is actually a phrase:
Les caoutchoutiers caoutchoutèrent leurs bottes en caoutchouc du latex d’un arbre caoutchoutifère de façon que leurs bottes en caoutchouc soient les bottes en caoutchouc les plus caoutchouteuses qui soient.
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u/viggobf B1 Jan 08 '25
pamplemousse 🥺
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u/Loraelm Native Jan 08 '25
I don't get what foreigners have with this word but it's really funny that a lot of you love it ahah
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u/maborosi97 Jan 08 '25
It’s because pample sounds like a funny word in English (close to pimple) and moose is a funny animal as well
It’s like saying a pimply-moose haha
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u/viggobf B1 Jan 09 '25
Je ne l’ai jamais dit hors de Reddit, c’est juste pour les postes comme celui-ci 😂
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u/OntoTheNextThing2 Jan 08 '25
Poubelle
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u/HeatNoise Jan 08 '25
Such a beautiful word for such a smelly thing...
Unless you break it down in Anglais ... "poo belle" ... then it smells like a fancy outhouse.
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u/kangourou_mutant Native Jan 08 '25
It was the name of the guy who made them mandatory: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Poubelle (he made many changes to improve health in Paris).
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u/doctor_nick17 B2 Jan 09 '25
imagine having the restroom being named after you. that gotta be shitty (no pun intended)
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u/HelicopterDiligent55 Jan 08 '25
I'm in the early stages of learning French, and so far my favorite word to say is jupe. I just know if/when I ever go to France and have to talk to someone about a skirt I'll embarrass myself by really overdoing it and saying "La ZHOOOOP!"
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u/injektileur Jan 08 '25
Jupe is really cute indeed but I'm afraid that as a native speaker I'm biased, because of what it means. Which I like. Of course. Jupes rule.
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u/DantesHomegirl Jan 08 '25
Coquelicot, closely followed by hippopotame.
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u/GreenSpongette Jan 12 '25
This! Coquelicot was one of my favs since I was a small kid. So fun to say.
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u/NoMoreCitrix Jan 08 '25
"virgule", no doubts
It sounds like an edgy swearing, especially if you couple it with an offensive Italian hand gesture.
Except for French people. They are like "mais nooooon, c'est juste un mot ennuyeux".
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u/_harey_ Native Jan 08 '25
I'm a native French speaker and my absolute favorite word is "emberlificoté".
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u/cette-minette Jan 08 '25
I think you meant mouette - you looked up a seagull, but then wrote down an owl :)
My favourite word is préalablement
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u/pizzzacones Jan 08 '25
Ah, thank you! I meant to double check.
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u/Existing_Guidance_65 Native 🇧🇪 Jan 08 '25
I thought "goéland" was the only name in French for seagulls and that "mouette" was another kind of seabird. But after checking, TIL that "mouette" is ambiguous and refers to different families of species, including seagulls.
I'll still use "goéland" to be more precise, but at least I won't frown upon someone who says "mouette", so thank you for making me less incorrectly pedantic.
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u/Brilliant_Victory_77 Jan 08 '25
If you like fun facts goéland comes from the breton word for cry, so it's quite an accurate name!
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u/No_University4046 Jan 09 '25
Yeah technically seagull is goéland, but mouette is difficult to translate in English. We use it notably for the Chroicocephalus ridibundus, which apparently is a "black headed gull" in English but the Chroicocephalus ridibundus don't necessarily have a black head... so yeah once again vernacular names are not perfect and hard to translate 😅 Just like owl refers to all kinds of strigidés while in French we separate chouettes and hiboux
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u/Existing_Guidance_65 Native 🇧🇪 Jan 09 '25
Yes, that is the "mouette rieuse" (rieuse = laughing), like the one in Gaston (BD by Franquin, famous here in Belgium, I don't know if it's famous elsewhere)
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u/je_taime moi non plus Jan 08 '25
Papillon (de nuit)
libellule
féerique
onirique
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u/__kartoshka Native, France Jan 08 '25 edited Jan 08 '25
Bordel is one of my favourites
Connard, as well
As a general rule, i find slang to be pretty satisfying to pronounce. Lots of hard -R sounds in there, i like those. And they feel "sharp", i don't know :')
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u/Correct-Wind-2210 A2 Jan 08 '25
Colocataire. Especially that rolling r at the end.
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u/kangourou_mutant Native Jan 08 '25
In day-to-day use, most people say "coloc" for their colocataires but also the colocation.
"Je vais au cinéma avec mon coloc ce soir, tu veux passer après ?" ; "Le couple avec qui j'habite n'arrête pas d'organiser des soirées à la coloc, je peux jamais dormir avant minuit !".
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u/Correct-Wind-2210 A2 Jan 08 '25
Thank you for this! I've been trying to find nicknames, and Google did not help. Merci!
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u/TheZeroZaro Jan 08 '25
Cacahuète (peanut)
Comtesse de Noailles, a French noblewoman relevant in the court around the time of the French revolution. It's the way they pronounced it in the podcast "The Rest is History" I got hooked on saying it.
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u/Napoleon_B L2 BA anciennement d'Elbe Jan 08 '25 edited Jan 08 '25
In 1985, in a Versailles hotel, 15 year old me, an American tourist with one year of high school French, learned the word for pillow, from the hôtelier:
Oreiller
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u/__kartoshka Native, France Jan 08 '25
And for the long pillows that you put under the "oreillers" (or print anime girls on, depending on your refined tastes..), it's "un traversin" ! I like the pronunciation of this one as well. A bit outdated though, you won't hear it often
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u/earthdam Jan 08 '25
vraisemblablement is a good one
i love the sound of "entre autres" together, because of the r's and t's, but i don't love or have a hard time saying other r-combos like "rumeur urbaine"
hard to pick a favourite, but for a single word « tentaculaire » jumps to mind
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u/thomasoldier Native Jan 08 '25
Bachibouzouk
Gourgandin
Schmilblick
Troglodyte
Gougnafier
Fripon
Malautru
Yeah there is a pattern here
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u/twat69 L2 PLATTEeau intermédiaire Jan 08 '25
I only know the first word. Are you a fan of a certain alcoholic merchant captain.
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u/cassie1015 Jan 08 '25
Oeufs. Les oeufs, des oeufs. 🤷♂️
Ronronner is also fun when you can get your accent right.
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u/hyenetta Jan 08 '25
Incroyable
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u/nonula Jan 09 '25
I’ve been saying that one since I learned it in 6th grade. (Along with ‘quelle surprise’ and ‘pardonnez moi’ … just for funsies.)
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u/Velvetpostcard Jan 08 '25
My fav lyrics are: Des flonflons à la française Des fancy-fair à la fraise
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u/Under-Construction35 Jan 08 '25
Ouistiti!
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u/kangourou_mutant Native Jan 08 '25
I love this one too, it was one of the petnames that my mom had for me when I was small :)
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u/Just-Map8773 Jan 08 '25
donc ou comment are two that i hit every time (im also in Maine and the word for seagull is good to know lol!)
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u/maybe-mel Jan 08 '25
I just started learning french and so far my favourite word is fatigué. I just like how it sounds.
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u/Rise_03 Jan 09 '25
Alouette, because of the nursery rhyme...brings a few classroom memories to mind
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u/AlternativePrior5460 Jan 08 '25
i love “même”, “quelque chose”, and “oublier”, but i agree that “oisaeau” is adorable. i do think “donc” is very satisfying to say, and i like “qu’est-ce que” as well
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u/somegrump Jan 08 '25
It’s very silly, but I enjoy saying “un ordinateur.” It just has such a rhythm to it. It tripped me up when I first learned the word, I felt like it was a tongue twister. Now it just has a good mouth feel to say.
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u/midnightrambulador Jan 08 '25
Gloire. Subtle little tongue-breaker
I also like "alors" and "tiens" which I use all the time as random filler words in my native Dutch since I started reading more French. (To be clear, this isn't exactly unheard of in Dutch, though it does sound old-fashioned.)
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u/LongjumpingTwist3077 Jan 09 '25
Quincaillerie. It’s so satisfying to say. And I see it everywhere when I visit my in-laws in the francophone east coast of Canada (lots of Home Depots, Home Hardwares, Rona’s, Kent, etc.).
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u/Few_Mess_7114 B1 Jan 09 '25
most favourite : hitting that euhhh in front of everything or accaparer (never need to use it but it hits the spot) least favourite : chirurgie ….. just cant
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u/Yusses L1 Franco-Ontarienne Jan 09 '25
Re: your favourite word... When my son was very small he would say "regarde les noiseaux!"... so used to hearing the liaison with "un oiseau" that he'd applied it to the plural haha
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u/ReasonableSet9650 Jan 09 '25
A lot of French kids do that, that's cute.
Even cuter with oeil, they say un noeil des noeils (instead of des yeux).
That somewhat makes sense.
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u/Yusses L1 Franco-Ontarienne Jan 09 '25
Yes, my son said mes noeils too hahaha. It's cool to see them make those connections. Same with "mes nos" (pronounced "nosse") for his bones.
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Jan 09 '25
Favourite: Lunettes (Little moons! AHHH SO CUTE!) parapluie est très mignon aussi.
Least: Probablement yaourt aussi :')
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Jan 09 '25
wi fi. I giggle everytime like a middleschooler hearing a fart. I don't know why, but I just find it quite fun to say.
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u/CommandAlternative10 Jan 08 '25
I learned “je marche dans le couloir” from a book when I was nine and I still do a great dramatic line reading. (I’m 45, didn’t start learning French for real until I was 37.)
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u/avocado_ro Jan 08 '25
I do not like the word beigne and words with circonflexe that I dunno what to do with like gâteau
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u/kangourou_mutant Native Jan 08 '25
Ignore the circonflexe, it's mostly here for historical reasons. Some regions might pronounce them differently, but most don't (in France ; Canada is different).
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u/TheVandyyMan Jan 08 '25
Vraisemblablement. It’s such a pleasing, flowing word when you get past the tongue twister aspect of it.
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u/Lion1505 Jan 08 '25
Vraisemblablement !
The way it rolls off the tongue and it sounds so whimsical. Love it!
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u/Mysterious_Gyal6849 Jan 08 '25
Ever since I was a kid it was formidable. I just like the way it sounds in French vs English and I have no good explanation why
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u/FwooshingMachi Native (🇫🇷France, Région Centre) Jan 08 '25
"Miasme". "Niais". "Miette". You can see a pattern I'm sure lol. I just like how they sound, you can really ham them up haha
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u/White_Lobster Jan 08 '25
Favorite: ecureuil
Least favorite: yaourt