'Ugly' French Words

While French is a beautiful language (for example factory is usine, choco-lit is chocolat, etc.) can anyone tell me of some 'ugly' French words - ones that sound horrible in spoken word?

Reply 1

sssh

10

Souhaiter

It means "to wish"; looks alright on paper, but it's pronounced like "sweat". Spoils the idea of wishing for me, so I avoid using it!

"Je souhaite"

Reply 2

Duck and Cover

15

Any form of the verb frapper often gets a few giggles in the classroom...

Let's see, ugly words...surely dégustation comes under that category??

Reply 3

Manatee

14

Grenouille.

Sounds very harsh to me, and I've never been quite sure how to pronounce it correctly - the stress is not where I would expect it to be.

Incidentally, I like the way in which both je souhaite and dégustation roll off the tongue... It's all individual, I suppose! :smile:

Reply 4

gringalet

12

What about my username? I think it's quite pretty for what it means, at least.

Reply 5

kikzen

14

Manatee

Grenouille.

Sounds very harsh to me, and I've never been quite sure how to pronounce it correctly - the stress is not where I would expect it to be.

Incidentally, I like the way in which both je souhaite and dégustation roll off the tongue... It's all individual, I suppose! :smile:

greun-oiie i thought?

Reply 6

Manatee

14

kikzen

greun-oiie i thought?

Thanks, I have the general idea - I just seem to remember that when I heard French people say it, it was subtly different from the way I pronounced it (more to do with the stress than the sound, if that makes sense). I haven't had an opportunity to use it for a long time, though...

Reply 7

brimstone

OP

7

sssh

"Je souhaite"

Ew.... what a lovely word (!). It does roll off the tongue tho...

Reply 8

BovineBeast

meurtre is an ugly word. (see what I did there?)

But seriously, anything with an 'r' in it. Especially if it follows (or precedes) a consonant. So, most of the '-re' verbs. Erm, so, yeah. Meurtre.

But I don't know how people call French beautiful and German ugly whn French has that horrible r-sound. German has it too, but at least German drops it half the time.

Entschuldigung, aber ich bevorzuege Deutsch.

Reply 9

rockthecasbah

2

Gamma

When they try and introduce English into their language and it ends up looking ridiculous, e.g. J'aime faire le zapping en regardant le tele.

I agree.

Me being the bad tourist that I am and going to McDonalds in France, I resorted to asking for 'un sheezbourgeur' and for a child 'un appeh mael'.

Reply 10

Duck and Cover

15

Eurgh, I hate it when you have to pronounce English things in French!! When I went on work experience I often ended up doing all the ordering (every1 else was too afraid 2 go the bar...!) Like "Southern Comfort"...to be honest in the end it was smuch easier to just point, like a real tourist :smile:

I HATE -re ... prendre...and that (c)hrh sound...tRouver...groupe...

I love souhaite!!

Reply 11

Ludivine

I love the 'r' sound in French, even if it can be difficult to pronounce it without sounding a bit like I have a hairball. I think I've kind of got the hang of it by now though! I like the sound of "souhaite"- in the context of French it actually never even occured to me that it sounds like "sweat". I don't like "puer" though. "Ça pue" sounds awful.

Reply 12

milady

9

sueur i don't particularly like. and crever (with a circumflex, I think) looks rather ugly when written, at least.

there are plenty of nasty nasal sounds in french*, but what i really don't like are the 'euille' words (like feuille, ...um, i'm sure there are others i just can't think of now), mainly because i have difficulty pronouncing them. :frown:

Things with lots of 'r's are bad for the same reason.

*yes, it's a beautiful language, etc, etc, but it is nasal.

Reply 13

Lazlow

The worst French word (as I'm still unable to pronounce it!) is "préférerais" (conditional of préférer), as I can't get my uvula around all the Rs!

Reply 14

Gammon

ameliorerais is similarly also hard to pronounce.

Reply 15

Jammertal

3

les beurs... when pronounce it you can "deine Seele aus dem Hals würgen".

Reply 16

mooncheese89

10

I think the word "accueil" sounds horrible, ironic seeing as it means 'welcome'...it's just that my French teacher sticks her chin out in an annoying way when she says it, to elongate the 'ueil' part...nasty.

Reply 17

Ludivine

mooncheese89

I think the word "accueil" sounds horrible, ironic seeing as it means 'welcome'...it's just that my French teacher sticks her chin out in an annoying way when she says it, to elongate the 'ueil' part...nasty.

I guess it's just how it sounds like "oi". But again, in the context of French I never notice the similarities these sounds have to English, so I don't even think of it. I think accueil actually sounds nice. :redface:

Reply 18

oceane

10

rockthecasbah

I agree.

Me being the bad tourist that I am and going to McDonalds in France, I resorted to asking for 'un sheezbourgeur' and for a child 'un appeh mael'.

Reply 19

BovineBeast

Jammertal

les beurs... when pronounce it you can "deine Seele aus dem Hals würgen".

What does 'wuergen' mean, exactly? (sorry about the lack of Umlauts)

'Ugly' French Words

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