Hi, I’m Heather Hansen, Clear Speech Specialist at English Pronunciation Lab, and I’m here today with a very special Valentine’s Day Pronunciation Quick Fix.
So what is our very special Valentine’s Day word? Well, it’s none other than “rendezvous”.
Rendezvous, rendezvous.
3 syllables, word stress on the first syllable: ren (ron).
This is a great Valentine’s Day word because in English it can be used as either a verb or a noun. The verb means to meet with someone special, and it has an element of secrecy to it. So you might rendezvous with a very close friend or a lover. As a noun, the word means an actual place where you like to meet people.
Looking more closely at the pronunciation, this word comes from French so the pronunciation does not follow the spelling and is probably different than you’d expect. There should not be a Z sound or an S sound. So no, ‘rendezz-vousss’. That’s not nice! Pretend the Z and the S don’t even exist: RON-day-voo, RON-day-voo.
Used in a sentence:
Do you and your beau have plans to rendezvous tonight?
That cafe is our favorite rendezvous.
Let’s rendezvous tonight. (wink!)
So there you have it! Rendezvous – in under 60 seconds.
If you’d like to learn more about clear speech and pronunciation, please visit me at http://bit.ly/free8-partproncourse and sign up for my free, 8-part pronunciation short course.
I’ll see you there!
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PFplusW
You don’t actually say ron-day-voo. I don’t think there’s any Frenchman
who’d know what you’re talking about.
PFplusW
Heather Hansen
Nope. Probably not! I never claimed to speak French. This is how we
pronounce the word in English.
David Bates
can we rendezvous?
Jack Lovell
I believe it is rand-ee-enc-va-oop-ice
insider59
lol silly
BlueXBlue2
lol nice ..
PFplusW
I don’t get it.. You can’t pronounce it but you say many others pronounce
it wrongly
Zogg from Betelgeuse
I think you are confusing the French word “(le) rendez-vous” with the
English loan word “(the) rendezvous”. The first one belongs to the French
language, the second one is derived from the first one but belongs to the
English language. It’s somewhat like the difference between a French
citizen “Ron Dévous” and an US (or UK) citizen “Ron D.Vous” with French
origin. (In this case you can tell the two words apart by the hyphen, but
they would be two words even if they were written identically.)
Ben Locke
paki
Oliver S
Thick lips, she’s tight like a tiger.
Heather Hansen
OMG. I just fell off my chair laughing at this comment. Seriously??
Oliver S
+Heather Hansen Oh yes, indeed. +1 for the psychedelic fabrics.
k7Lid Al
Omg she is hot and Now I will not worry about ny english anymore I got the
one !!
Omi Shewale
RON-day-voo
Sreedevi Sanjish
How can I contact you?
George Francis
i need your email id to clarify my doubts in english.