19 July, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Though my French skills are rusty, I can usually always figure out how to pronounce any French word that I’m faced with.  Once you learn the rules of pronunciation, it’s pretty easy to figure out how to say things.  French is pretty consistent in that way.  What actually comes out of my mouth may not sound correct, but in my mind I usually know how something is pronounced.  I don’t think English is consistent in this way. For example, a non-native speaker asked me why “go” and “do” don’t rhyme.  I had never thought about it before and didn’t have an answer for her, but she’s right that it makes no sense that “go” rhymes with “dough,” not “do.”  And why doesn’t “dough” rhyme with “tough”?  Insane.

Anyway, all of this is my extremely long-winded way of saying that as I prepared to visit the French city Caen, capital of the Basse-Normandie region, I could not for the life of me figure out how to pronounce it.  This doesn’t happen often, where I have no clue how to say something. My guess was kay-en (with the “n” not really pronounced), but I was wrong.  The pronunciation, to me, sounds exactly like the French word “quand.”  (I’m sure it doesn’t sound like this to a French person, whose ears are trained to decipher imperceptible differences in sound.)  It’s nearly impossible to write Caen phonetically in English, but it’s sorta like “kahn” but you don’t say the “n” – it stays on the roof of your mouth.  Luckily, despite this butchered pronunciation, I bought the right train ticket and ended up in the right place.

Since I arrived here on a Sunday, nearly everything (and I mean everything, except McDonalds and a couple cafes) was closed.  Also, there are a lot of scary white guys around here with shaved heads.  I hope there isn’t some sort of neo-nazi convention going on.  There were sevearl scary dudes on the train up here, one with an enormous, vicious-looking dog that kept patroling the aisles.  Still, even with skinheads and vicious dogs, it was a more pleasant journey than anything offered by South West Trains. [Sorry, that joke is really just for Londoners - and too bad it's not really a joke.]  On the train there were separate bathrooms for men and women, which is odd, given how many unisex public bathrooms there are here.  I’ve never seen anything like that on a train.  Anyway, in the women’s loo, there was a toilet with a PINK seat!  I can only surmise that the pink seat is meant to shame and humiliate any man who dares to use the women’s loo.

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1. Lulu Says:

   July 20th, 2009 at 10:02 am

   Caen sounds like “quand” indeed. It’s called a diphtongue. It’s like Laon, which is basically pronounced like Caen, but with a “L”. Too funny!
   I think I can always spot an English-speaker when they talk in French, because they never pronounce the letter “u” correctly. It always sounds like “ou”.
   Anyway, have fun in Caen!

2. Anglofille Says:

   July 20th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

   Ahhh, so Caen and “quand” do sound alike! How can two words with such different spellings sound alike?! As for “ou” and “u,” I’d pronounce those exactly the same way.

3. Jan Says:

   July 24th, 2009 at 6:49 pm

   I need to disagree with your South West Trains joke. Ever tried Southern (to Brighton / Gatwick) or First Capital Connect through Southall? That is an adventure!

4. Anglofille Says:

   July 25th, 2009 at 12:25 am

   Those are nothing compared to South West!

5. Deb Says:

   August 29th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

   thanks for this, we are off to visit Laon in a few weeks, staying near St Quentin and i have been searching for the pronunciation! One of the posters here has given it to me. I heard one online that said it was Lown (as in town)