[Amy Armato]

Help! How do you pronouce the french word for cabbage "chou" Does it sound more like "shoe" or "show"?

Thanks!
Amy

[bess]

Shoe!

[clotilde]

Definitely closer to "shoe", or perhaps more accurately: "shoo".

[Judy]

Okay, now how do you pronounce 'choux' as in pastry?

Is there a subtle difference between pronunciations of chou and choux?

Perhaps we should name this thread "French Pronunciation 101"
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[clotilde]

No phonetic difference whatsoever between "chou" (singular) and "choux" (plural): the "x" is silent.

As a rule, the "s" that is added in French at the end of a noun to mark the plural is always silent: "tomates" is pronounced the same way as "tomate", etc. Perhaps there are exceptions, but they're rare enough that I can't think of them this late in the night.

[Judy]

merci, mademoiselle
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Liking what you do is happiness

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[madameshawshank]

Our dear granddaughter is so happy saying "agapanthus"...she loves pointing them out...I now address her as "Mademoiselle Agapanthus"
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[Judy]

That reminds me of a childrens' story - Naughty Agapanthus
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Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

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[Griffin]

Ha! I like that, but surely that should be Princess Agapanthus, because every little girl is a princess. I always thought an Agapanthus was the Latin for a panther with an Aga oven...!

Hey Jude,

... tell us about the Naughty Agapanthus wouldja! Awww, puh-leeeze, pretty please with cellophane an' a ribbon an' everyfink...!

'Chou!' is what you say to the cat when he/she is eye-ing up your dinner. As in, 'Chou! va t'en tu!' That way you get to tell the cat to scram and call it a cabbage at the same time.
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Confusion comes fitted as standard.

[Judy]

Umm, Griffin, I don't remember anything about it apart from the name, but it got an Honourable Mention in the 1967 Picture Book category of the Childrens' Book of the Year Awards. Interestingly, there was no winner in that category. I wonder why Naughty Agapanthus didn't just win.

Here's what a Google search turned up ...

"Macfarlane, Barbara, Naughty Agapanthus, 1966. I am not familiar with this Australian book, but it was the only older children's book that came up in my search for the word Agapanthus: "Agapanthus, a naughty little girl, would not dress warmly and learned a valuable lesson when she became ill and disliked her medicine." From other posts I've seen about it, she fell in a pond."
_________________
Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

www.cupcakerecipebook.com.au

[Griffin]

Ha! Sounds like the poems of Hilaire Belloc or the Struwwelpeter (sp?) poems. I want to know even more about it now!!

My mum used to read us a short book by the cartoonist Papas called, 'The mouse who wanted a frying pan' or as we called it, 'Theodore's hot dog'. It was similarly funny and charming at the same time.
_________________
Confusion comes fitted as standard.

[foodislife]

""" Sounds like the poems of Hilaire Belloc or the Struwwelpeter (sp?) poems. I want to know even more about it now!! """


Griffin,
I had not thought about Struelpeter (sp) myself until just reading your post!
My parents had a copy and we were read to from this classic , but very scary book often! The story of the boy who caught the curtains on fire.. OH MY! what a crazy book that was! Thanks for the memory!

nancy

[minty]

Struwwelpeter ! bravo Griffin !