American tried to Pronounce The Most HARDEST FRENCH NAMES!

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Leave a comment so we know !
🇺🇸 Chen
/ chenfrombklyn
🇫🇷 Athalane
/ athalane_model

[@henryqu19]

Athalane is a good choice for France , loved her charisma and vibe , Chen is a singular member , either the style or personality ( i love how she says "from NYC )

[@MrStarshaped]

Athalane the black cow ! 🐄

[@undefinedfr-fr]

The previous french persons were nice too. Something that could be interesting is to have people from various regions of france, with various accents.

[@LordSevla]

Athalane is definitely the reason why I watched so many videos in this channel. Really dig her sense of humor.

[@Kolious_Thrace]

Athalane is a beautiful name! Αταλάντη > Atalànti in Hellenic means a + tálanton with many + gifts/talents! The multitalented one. In some myths Atalànti was one of the Amazons.

[@N0Time]

I know the myths about her being taken in by a bear and then raised by hunters because she was abandoned at birth, but not the one about her being an Amazon. But in any case, she is indeed a talented heroine in Greek mythology.

[@sebonnefoy]

Athalane is the perfect choice for France, she's so frenchy 💚

[@SuperLn1991]

Lol as a french I found her very "korean": like she act like most korean tv show host or celebrities, the way she talk, cover her mouth, say "wowowo" and stuff like this.

[@johannlucke4390]

@@SuperLn1991 I don't like yellow people

[@jennifers9389]

Athalane is so patient and kind, and Chen is such a sweet person and tries her best to do things correctly! That French "r" is hard for me, too, Chen! :) I think when Athalane mentioned it is hard for her to use a French accent after speaking mainly English for so long, it just verified for me that we definitely use our muscles differently when we speak with another accent, and like any muscles, they can get out of practice or need training! No one who speaks any second language should feel badly for not being able to use the correct accent, because we've used our muscles in our mouth, throat, and tongue in a certain way for so long that we don't even think about it. New languages are like a trying a new sport. Kudos to everyone for continuing to practice, even when it is awkward!!

[@MrStarshaped]

Hello Jen. Totally agree. If you have few minuts i invite you to check the video from "Oui In France" on youtube. About the french "R". It seems that this one is very helpfull.

[@helenegorret2120]

As a French speech therapist, i can say that the word "et" which means "and" is pronounced "é", but when a word ends with the letters "-et" it should but pronounced "è". BUT in the southern part of France, tha accent is a bit different, and most of the things that should be pronounced "è" are pronounced "é". This happens for other sounds too, like the "o" which is most of the time more "open" in the south... Also, when an "e" is followed by two consonants, it doesn't need to have an accent: it is automatically pronounced "è"

[@phlm9038]

I am a northern French and I pronounce "et" é.

[@helenegorret2120]

@@phlm9038 je me suis trompée en écrivant, je change 😅

[@phlm9038]

@@helenegorret2120 👍

[@HT-xt4cn]

Je suis toujours un peu hesitant avec les noms terminant en «et». Le votre est-il prononcé «Gorré», «Gorrè» ou bien «Gorrette»?

[@helenegorret2120]

@@HT-xt4cn Gorrè 😊

[@allymichelle2255]

More French!!!!!! ❤️❤️

[@hugothepinkcat]

Lefebvre has a B in it because accents in French are a relatively recent addition and before that, consonants were used as tone modifiers for vowels. Which is seen in the old way to write the word "clé" which was "clef"

[@danemon8423]

no , in latin the letter "v" was a "u" , so in ancient french the name would be pronounced "Lefébure" but the letter v was kept.

[@henryqu19]

This guy , Timothée Chalamet , said in a interview that his name is really hard to pronounce , not just in english but in other languages too

[@notfound9816]

Why??? It's easy

[@militorosa8720]

its not really that hard .. shalame

[@ilanakidiadia3181]

Not really tho~

[@lucas-prado]

I think it's hard for people to figure out the pronunciation. But talking is easy.

[@julienh7450]

Lefebvre, Lefevre, those names comes from the latin word "faber" (maker), which gave the french verb "faire" (to do). This family name basically means "the maker" (le faiseur). Those who have this family name certainly have an ancestor who was an artisan/craftman.

[@kentin27v]

C'est le 13ème nom de famille le plus porté en France

[@fredericaube7636]

Wow je ne savais pas, merci !

[@hankf8723]

Just like Smith in English. Orfèvre in French and goldsmith in English among locksmith, blacksmith etc... Faivre, Lefevre, Lefebvre, Fabre , Fabri, Faure, Favre tous des fabricants de quelque chose.

[@catchoupiote]

Le latin "Faber" a bien sûr aussi donné "fabrique", "fabriquant, "fabrication"...

[@ungtototor]

Jean Lefebvre, artisan dramatic, fabricant de rire

[@remhigh]

For the record, Lefebvre is a very ancient name in France (eventhough it’s still very used these days). It existed already by the time we were still writing in latin, where the letter "u" where written as "v". Lefebvre was prononciated Lefebure by then, that's why it seems so weird.

[@xxyoplay]

oh my god another favorite video and duo😏!!!

[@StrigoiVampire]

This French woman is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. 😍

[@StrigoiVampire]

@@xohyuu lol I can see women's beauty through makeup, she's beautiful.

[@AlfgardVicAenorDuFay]

Geoffroy is a medieval name !

[@anndeecosita3586]

Where I’m from in the USA a lot of people, streets, towns, landmarks have French origin names. In some cases, people have altered from original pronunciations and in some cases they haven’t. Where I’m from last names like Broussard Boudreaux, Dedeaux, Favre, and Hebert are like Smith and Jones. Absolutely everyone around me pronounces Hebert as Aye Bear. I never hear Americans me say the H or the T like with Herbert so it’s not across the board. Melancon we pronounce meh lawn sawn.

[@remivieilledent]

XD if a french guy begin to name them in the french way, they will never reconinse their own name.

[@unpseudopascommelesautres997]

Toi tu vis en Louisiane ahaha ou dans le Maine peut être

[@danemon8423]

@@unpseudopascommelesautres997 even outside of lousiana a lot of people have french names, modern louisiana is smaller than the french louisiana

[@Asabcdefgh]

Really common french names are Dupond Durand Bernard Martin and a lot more, never heard of the one you said 😊

[@danemon8423]

@@Asabcdefgh les noms qu'il a cité sont commun en france, surtout dans le nord

[@JohnCope79]

Aaaaaaaaaah, the french music in the end - how pleasant and fitting. It's "Parisian Cafe" by Aaron Kenny.

[@josedosanjos2200]

Thanks for the video.

[@LerogFR]

Athalane at 9:02 gives me so many Phoebe Buffay vibes (you know from the F.R.I.E.N.D.S show)

[@feargtuathlopalois]

Actually, Guillaume is the French Version of William. I'm not meaning that it's a translation choosed, but I just say that if you would like to "frenchising" your son's name, if you called him William, in French, it would be changed to Guillaume. Like, an other example, all John's, Jon's, Jonathan's, Johnny's.... in French, it's just "Jean", especially John and Jon because it's literally the translation word, for example, Jeanne d'Arc becomes Joan of Arc because Jeanne is the female version of Jean, so I ask if Joan is seen as the women version of John ?

[@feargtuathlopalois]

And so, if you call someone "Will", in French, it would probably be shortened to "Guy", but Guy is the official French Version of Giuseppe in Italian, so i'm note absolutely sure if Guillaume is shortenable to Guy

[@catchoupiote]

@@feargtuathlopalois Il me semble que Guy correspond à l'italien Guido, plutôt qu'à Giuseppe qui est Joseph, mais je me trompe peut-être...

[@pjschmid2251]

At this point I’m totally convinced that pronouncing the letter R in any given language is the gatekeeper to that language. Think of Rs in Spanish, Italian, German, French, Japanese and English; they’re all really difficult for non-native speakers.

[@mayfielcl]

I don’t know why for me all the Rs are quite easier when I try other languages but maybe there’s parts I struggle more

[@BlanchestarlightUwU]

R pronunciations aren't that hard, what's hard is not to mess up with words that sound similar. 😅😅😅😅

[@word42069]

Agreed. Even between British and American English.

[@MissSlovakia2]

What about the slavic languages?

[@TheDeferlys]

There are other versions of the Lefebvre last name like Lefèvre, Lefêvre or even Lefeuvre

[@pierreabbat6157]

If you have trouble with "Guillaume", try the Icelandic version "Vilhjálmur".

[@jennifers9389]

Gesundheit! :)

[@naikharrouet2518]

How is this pronounced ?

[@zyctc000]

Or just say William ;) Or just Bill

[@christophermichaelclarence6003]

Another fact, We French say "Guillaume le Conquérant 🇫🇷" In English, it will be "William the Conquerer 🇬🇧🇺🇸"

[@module79l28]

@@christophermichaelclarence6003 - We portuguese say Guilherme, o Conquistador. ; )

[@ItsMariaRose]

ayeee new videooo

[@marcanthony8873]

Chen has stolen my heart with all these pop culture references

[@AlfgardVicAenorDuFay]

Guillaume it's the french version of "William", I'm norman and we have "Guillaume Le Conquérant", William the Conqueror (or bastard).

[@JosephOccenoBFH]

«Geoffroy» the "oy"/"oi" diphthong always has the sound "wa," so it's Geof-frwa.

[@AlfgardVicAenorDuFay]

Chen have a good pronunciation !

[@tunginh1954]

Guillaume is a French version of the name William in English or Wilhelm in German. Its meaning is a person with strong will.

[@catchoupiote]

Je me suis souvent demandé si la forme première n'était pas au contraire Guillaume ou Guilhem qui aurait évolué en William. Si qq'un est assez pointu pour me renseigner...

[@claudiaschiffer5093]

wow

[@akrambenghanem1490]

The pronunciation of some words is even somehow hard for francophone people

[@belix8801]

Timothée Chalamet, chimmi a chimmi ey

[@palomadsilva4446]

They should have gotten a Canadian for this lol

[@peabody1976]

"LeFebvre" is from when French was trying to "re-Latinise" French words and names, and the "b" comes from the Latin form, while the "v" is what you're **supposed** to say. (I know someone IRL with this last name, who is French-Canadian.)

[@romaingillet2526]

Tbh when I was a child I always thought the "v" was actually a "u" and that it was supposed to be spelled "Lefébure"

[@peabody1976]

@@romaingillet2526 The problem with both French (and English) is that typesetters used "v" for both "v/u" interchangeably for centuries.

[@shuaguin5446]

@@romaingillet2526 IT actually used to be Lefébure, but the u became a v at some point.

[@danemon8423]

@@shuaguin5446 yeah , the name Louis comes from Clovis , the "v" was pronounced as a "u"

[@wer5128]

can you do a compression between Spanish and Italien :)

[@humphreychannel582]

Most Hardest isn’t correct. It should be the most difficult. Or these days more people would accept just Hardest. Hardest or most difficult makes sense whereas most hardest is kinda saying the same thing twice.

[@philippedemonneron5278]

I am wondering why Athalane insists to have the sound "é" with the name of Timothée Chalamet... could be an exception, of course. But the group -et at the end of a word is pronounced "è", like in "calumet", "perroquet", "brevet". For "Geoffroy", it is indeed "wa", because it is with an "o". If not, it could be "Geoffrey", which is siöply not french. There is also Godefroi, more medieval version of it. "Lefebvre" comes from latin "faber", and means actually here the same as the english family name "Smith". It exists also as Faure / Fébur / Favre, etc. Smith were very proud of their profession... Cf. Schmidt in Germany!

[@Osigot]

3:50 btw, it's little monkeys specie's name

[@BigSlimyBlob]

Capucine is a plant, capucin is a monkey. The feminine changes the meaning entirely here.

[@mandarina4157]

ET se prononce comme Chen le prononce, pour le coup, dans Chalamet. C’est la prononciation correcte, c’est juste que la plupart des français prononcent l’accent grave et aigu de la même façon, alors que normalement ça ne devrait pas être le cas. Il n’y a qu’à Paris (pour autant que je sache) qu’il font encore la différence (tout du moins dans la prononciation).

[@Syiepherze]

Idk if this helps but the French "R" sound is like an R with a soft gargling noise

[@fanofallaroundaudreyandjus544]

Hi

[@bremexperience]

-et is not é... it is è in almost every french speaking parts of the world besides France ;)

[@ArgantaelAlaouret]

Yeah correct sound is "ai", actually she says é because more and more people do so, but the "original" sound is ai. I'm from Britanny and we say ai, not é, someone would look a bit stupid saying Chalamé 😂

[@epsiloneka3612]

6:50 My last name is "Lefèvre "and my grandfather told me long time ago that Lefebvre was Lefebure in earlier times. but because the Roman typing U was typed V it became a real V Dunno if it was true

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

🙄🤣 I suggest that, prior to making an attempt at French words, first you learn English. My six-year old grandson wanted to watch this video, as he and his brothers learn French at their school in Canada. He moaned though, saying, "Gramps, you can't say most Hardest, Mr Duchamel at school said this was poor English. Tell them". So, as a dutiful Gramps, I am doing as my grandson asked....🤔🤭

[@ilmozzo]

Europeans people are often facilitated on foreign languages ‘cause they can be in touch with other countries thanks to newspapers or TV shows. On the other side Americans can’t do the same maybe except only for Spanish words on the South, so it’s very funny to see what happen the first time…

[@jadawin10]

And European travel abroad a lot more than American.

[@Etiennerabati]

Je dis et é comme toi! Tu dois être de Vendée ou du sud ouest

[@biaotoch]

lol

[@lefr33man]

3:17 sad Geoffroy noises

[@ESC_Thomas]

Im french and honestly I don’t even hear the difference between é and è on French words LMAOO

[@nazliatagul4180]

how do you say Alain Delon?

[@millersimon6655]

Al cardin the long Al din de lon Alain Delon

[@JoshuaThoresonMusic]

Looks like I'm not moving to France anymore 😂

[@fabulously695]

Note for editor, "Most hardest" Doesn't work together in English remove "Most" and the meaning will still stay the same

[@patrickandries3117]

Elle se trompe et = ê, pas é. Voir la prononciation dans le Robert par exemple. La confusion é = ê est régionale.

[@navidsalimi98]

So now I learned we can't even say names of other Americans anymore Wonderful

[@JosephOccenoBFH]

😆 ..

[@deepgotft2741]

I don't think, even in the southern part of french, we said Juillé instead of Juillet, or even poulé instead of poulet, or even banqué instead of banquet, this rule that et is pronounced é at the end of a word seems a mistake to me, i speak french and i visited many cities through France i didn't hear people pronounce et that way even in the south, or maybe it's specific to a certain region, but i dont believe there's even a department in france when people pronounce "Juillet"Juillé instead of Juillè

[@roamaroundgisg7362]

U don't combine 2 superlatives. Change title to Hardest only and remove the word most.

[@JosephOccenoBFH]

I think there should be an accent aigu 'é' on the second 'e' of «Lefebvre» so it would be pronounced as 'eh' and not 'uh.' (French 'e' without an accent or diacritical mark is pronounced as 'uh'). This is what Athalane was trying to explain.

[@naikharrouet2518]

It would rather be a "è"

[@JosephOccenoBFH]

@@naikharrouet2518 I think you are right. I'm listening to myself right now with é or è on «Lefebvre». 😆

[@JosephOccenoBFH]

I am actually now convinced that it should be an accent grave è and not an aigu é on the second 'e' of «Lefebvre» after giving it a lot of deliberation and listening to myself again and again 😄 basing it on the word «élève» which has both accents. Athalane even mentioned that it should be an accent to the left, which means "grave." Thanks to the French speakers who pointed this out to me.

[@AttackTheGasStation1]

@@JosephOccenoBFH Yes, it would be "è". But no need, because "e" followed by a consonne is automatically pronunced "è".

[@JosephOccenoBFH]

@@AttackTheGasStation1 Now I'm wondering if the first 'e' on «Lefebvre» should have the normal "e" sound (without accent) or 'é' since the second 'e' is already getting the è sound.

[@chlore2amine]

Laëtitia : ce n'est pas "les ticia" mais "la eticia" même règle que pour Maëlle ou Noël

[@BigSlimyBlob]

Avec le tréma, effectivement, il faudrait séparer le a et le e. "La eticia" Sans tréma, par contre, le a et le e forment pratiquement un é. "Léticia" Je soupçonne que la forme sans tréma est beaucoup plus courante, ce qui explique le choix d'Athalane.

[@markpinestone.2050]

The title of the video is grammatically incorrect

[@jasongledel5557]

There isn't a proper way of pronouncing "et", most of the time the south of France will pronounce "é" whereas the northern part will say "è". The true answer would be to say that it varies depending on the accent, but not saying that "é" is the proper way and that everybody else is mistaken like she did, which is mildly infuriating.

[@Enewia]

In "standard" French (I'm guessing this is supposed to be Parisian accent ?), it's supposed to be "è" indeed. So I guess the "é" is regional accent.

[@danemon8423]

there is a proper way but yeah depending on the regions people say it diferently. I mean people started to speak french in the late 1800

[@haraldmarlot9648]

Poulet cest poulait pas poulé

[@RodrigoSilvaDiaz]

French girl is so beautiful ❤️😍

[@nathanbedford8415]

😂😂😂

[@Doarri]

Hardest French name to pronounce: De Broglie

[@maryvonnemarie1840]

italian name😊

[@What_Is_Wonderland_Anyway]

I'd say to read more than to pronounce

[@danemon8423]

@@maryvonnemarie1840 it's a french noble namefrom italian origin, in italian broglie is Broglia

[@lerigoureux6474]

I find it to be very frustrating that they couldn’t find a French person who’d know more about French. Those concepts are literally elementary - as in, you learn them in elementary school - and she can’t explain any of them. Props to the other girl for being nice about it but it must have been super difficult for her to even learn anything at all out of this conversation.

[@jasonanturi]

Americans have problems to speak another language different their native English, not only french. They do not interest in learning some different to English language. Para nosotros los que no somos nativos del inglés se nos facilita aprender cualquier otro idioma una vez hemos aprendido alguno, de hecho el inglés es lo más fácil de aprender si lo comparamos con francés, alemán incluso el mismo portugués que se parece en nuestro caso al español. Saludos

[@profonde3460]

There are many U.S. Americans that speak a second language, as well all the people living there that are American that speak more than one language because of their parents native language being from another country. Your comment saying they do not have an interest in learning something different to English is not true. Many people want to learn a second language but don't because it's difficult and takes a very long time to learn. Plus "conversational language" is different again. I can speak some French, but having a conversation with a French person is quite different to how French is taught. I can also read about a third of the words you wrote in Spanish, but can't write a sentence properly in Spanish.

[@profonde3460]

Re Chen it's likely she knows more than just English, just not a European language, and also as many of the World Friends videos are filmed in Korea, and she does speak Chinese in beginning of the video

[@sitromidori]

First of all, don't judge a book by its cover. Secondly, not all of them be like that. Thirdly, you sucks because you think you know the people very well like you've known them for a long time. You think you're good enough by looking at them and without any hesitation and thinking you labeled them rushingly like a shit. Bro, not all people are same. They're different each of them. You can't take a look merely on one person's behavior and conclude straight for the rest, that's so immature. Think wisely before spill words.

[@Nini-qs7vf]

More than 300 million people live in the US. You can't speak for all of them

[@anndeecosita3586]

Why did you assume the American in this video only speaks English? She doesn’t. I’m American, I’m bilingual, and I taught ESL for many years to mostly Spanish speaking immigrants. La verdad es que para la mayoría de mis estudiantes tener conversaciones en inglés es muy difícil por la gramática y por la pronunciación. Me han dicho que la manera que las escuelas enseñan inglés en sus países normalmente no es de la manera que la gente habla. Estudié en México y viví con una familia. El hermano mayor estudiaba inglés. Después de cambiar libros nos damos cuenta que nuestros libros de idiomas no eran incorrectos pero tampoco nos ayudarán en tener conversaciones informales. And most people struggle with sounds not in their language. A lot depends on how large the gramatical and pronunciation errors as to whether the native speakers will likely understand. Not to mention English words can have different pronunciations depending on location. the same series of letters can have drastically different pronunciations in English. Cough, tough, bough, and through all sound very different despite being spelled with ough. I’m the type that even if someone doesn’t say something correctly, if I can still guess at what they are trying to say, I will continue to engage them. But not everyone is so patient. Based on what you wrote in English, I can tell by your sentence structure that it’s not your first language without hearing an accent. When it comes to speaking a language there are different levels of proficiency.

[@jeanbolduc5818]

Dites vous juillé pour le mois de juillet ? Dites vous un carné pour un carnet ? Dites vous un signé pour un signet ? la France n 'est plus pa référence pour la langue ... Je comprends pourquoi il est impossible de gérer ce pays de chauvins qui détestent tout de leur pays et leur langue

[@alleviate9546]

Chinese for an American rep is a lil weird. Like having American as a Chinese rep in China.

[@salsadip7453]

she seems to be "chinese american" if you want to call it that way tho?

[@paddyw7164]

If you say so, the real rep of American should be American Indians

[@thespankmyfrank]

Really not weird at all. You forget that almost all Americans are immigrants, some just came a few generations earlier than others.

[@pandainpearls]

Just say what you mean. A non white person.

[@tarzan12345]

She grew up in NYC and has American citizenship so she's an American. For all we know, she's of Chinese descent but her family could have been in the US for many generations, much longer than many White American families. If a White person, who wasn't even born in the US but grew up here, shows up as an "American" on this show, you wouldn't even bat an eye.

[@SeiFong]

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT. Saying "Eh" for "et" isn't a mistake (in Chalamet) ! In french "-et" has for official phonetic [ɛ] which is "eh". So she is mistaken here and Chen was right. Which lead us to the conclusion that you should never trust anybody on the internet. Even me. But you can just find some examples yourself online with some common french words like "poulet" and "jouet". Pronunciation : pu.lɛ and ʒwɛ.

[@saert8715]

Except that the vast majority in France pronounce it like in the video, so she's not wrong