lingerie

I like 'Cul-de-sac' - literally 'arse of a bag', and like 'double entendre' not heard from French speakers.

As for rolling your 'r's - Spanish is the tongue for that - take words like 'pero' (but) and 'perro' (dog) - the difference is in how long the 'r' is rolled...

Worse the other way, I think granjura. The French words in English are pretty static, but the number of English words in French seem to grow by the day!

It doesn't help if, like me, you can't roll your rrrrrrrrs!

There is a very long tradition of mispronouncing French words in UK - as the Saxons just couldn't get it right! So much so that many English words are now imbedded in the English language and barely resemble the original lol. Like 'beef' for 'boeuf', or 'plumber' for 'plombier' or even 'mushroom' for 'mousseron', and so many more. 'Cul-de-sac as kept the original spelling, but any French would find it difficult to recognise the English version.

My French students always laugh at the word 'genrE', or 'ménage à trois'. One mistake that does grate (a bit) is the common mixup between 'ménage' (a household/family) and manège (for horses, or a merry go round).

And it goes both ways - I always have to explain to my French and Swiss students that a 'sweatshirt' just cannot be a 'sweet' (which is how the French say it) for obvious reasons.

All good fun and confusion.

Unmentionables... nether garments... why 'trolleys', which I have heard somewhere?

Yes, absent,egzackly.

I wouldn't worry Mollie. It isn't a word I have heard used here, my neighbours tend to talk about sous-vêtements when we discuss such things. Not that we do often, I have to say, but I was making them gasp the other day at the fact that we had to wear brown knickers with our school uniform.

In the lingerie window of Macy's in San Francisco, I saw it coyly described as 'intimate garments'. Would never have thought of that one!

In the scheme of things an 'ee' or an 'ay' doesn't seem that important to me but if anyone overhears me getting it wrong (and I will, and do, frequently, then I apologise. I'll do my best to be polite though...

Reading my early attempt to render it phonetically as lanje-ree, I should perhaps have said that it is a short a, as in flange. I suspect that the posh Anglicised pronunciation might be lonje-eree, which is still wrong, if you want to be pernickety, which I don't!

My Aussie friend refers to pants/knickers etc as 'duds' and Sellotape was durex - not sure if that is still the case - caused awful confusion when they came to stay the first time!!!

"And isn't 'pantyhose' a truly horrible word...?" - For a truly horrible item... males any woman's bum resemble a bank robber's face seen through a stocking mask...

Why people insist on pronouncing 'lingerie' as 'lonjeray' is just one of life's irritating mysteries.

Mollie, it ends in the sound ee, like Brie. I never use the word lingerie either!

Restaurateur, not restauranteur, I think.

And isn't 'pantyhose' a truly horrible word...?

Attagirl gillybob much better. My OH was American (he's been neutralised ) and insists on referring to 'panties' Knickers I tell him, knickers.

Over shoulder boulder holders or knicker crackers for me .

I don't think I've ever used the term 'lingerie' in my life..I could pronounce it should the need arise in the future thankfully

(as you know...)

My post was not a response to yours, Sel!

You can choose your words...

Nothing wrong with knickers and bosom holders Ana I agree, underwear - staid.

How can your thoughts be ordered if your words are disordered?

'Underwear' does sound a bit staid...

This thread made me smile. Can't be arsed getting mad about stuff like that. Isn't the lingerie section where men tend to linger with their partners when normally they hate women's shopping?