The Auswine Forum

Could someone settle a dispute:

Is Moet pronounced "Mow-ee" or "Mow-ett"?

Try "Mo--Ay

Correct me if I'm wrong guys.

Bought a bottle of the 98 last night.

Will put a TN up soon.

Cheers
Smithy

manning wrote:Could someone settle a dispute:

Is Moet pronounced "Mow-ee" or "Mow-ett"?

As someone who grew up listening to much hip hop - I always thought it was "MOE-wet" based on what I heard in songs coming out of the East Coast.. "bloody americanisms eh!" as my English teacher would yell out...

I disagree...it should be Mow-ett...

Listen to the pronunciation from a french speaker:

http://www.bbr.com/sounds/producers/1.wav

I believe -ett is correct.

At the LVMH masterclasses I have attended, both French speaking and Australian based employees pronounce it "Mow-ett".

When I did French at school I recall being taught to drop the "t" when pronouncing a French word.

I stand easily corrected though, I don't recall passing French.

I too have been taught to pronounce the t, but in champagne there are many contradictions! How do you pronounce:

Gosset
Perrier Jouet
Veuve Cliquot
Billecart
Laurent-Perrier

Confusing!

The bloke it's named after was actually Dutch not French so therefore correct pronunciation is Mow - ett........... I think

The key is in the accent on the ë: Moët, pronounced as in poet, as rooview said.

Red Bigot wrote:The key is in the accent on the ë: Moët, pronounced as in poet, as rooview said.

Its got a stronger sharper T than poet.

Adam wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:The key is in the accent on the ë: Moët, pronounced as in poet, as rooview said.

Its got a stronger sharper T than poet.

You've never heard me use poet as a swear word then?

How about mullet, as in the haircut? Hmm, Mullet & Shandy, I can see the new Oz bubbly on the shelves already.

Red Bigot wrote:

Adam wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:The key is in the accent on the ë: Moët, pronounced as in poet, as rooview said.

Its got a stronger sharper T than poet.

You've never heard me use poet as a swear word then?

How about mullet, as in the haircut? Hmm, Mullet & Shandy, I can see the new Oz bubbly on the shelves already.

Would be akin to The Rene Pogel wolf blass once produced... read it backwards...

And no I dont Mullet is quite right...the et is more like the et in wet.

Mo-ett is correct, Moey is acceptable in Australia, but Mo-way is both completely inaccurate and utterly pretentious. It's a fairly good way of spotting someone who wants to look sophisticated but isn't.

Kieran

Having lurked for some time this thread has prompted me to sign up ,

from clear memory and French lessons at school.

I am certain this is correct.

The answer is both ways are correct, depending on whether you are using a shortened version , Moet, or the full version Moet et Chandon when speaking.

Pronounce Mow-ay if only saying the first part of Moet et Chandon in short or slang ie Moet. In french the t is silent on its own. The letters et are pronounced ay.

However, if pronouncing the whole name ie Moet et Chandon, then the t is pronounced in Moet so as to provide a flowing pronunciation and joining the words together, which the French encourage when speaking their language.
ie mow-ett-ay-shondonne

as for the others ;

Goss-ay
Perri-ay jou-ay
Veuve Cli-co
Billee-carr or bill-carr
Lauren-Perrier

cheers DB

jester wrote:The bloke it's named after was actually Dutch not French so therefore correct pronunciation is Mow - ett........... I think

I concur. This is the official word from LVMH. Apparently standardisation is important to them, and they are going out of their way to make sure everyone is using the same pronunciation.

Yip...I stood there in Epernay with my mate who pronounced it Moay and had previously had quite a passionate argument with me on this based on his french at school...only to see him promptly shot down by the Moet people...

The french lessons dont apply here, for the reasons Jester mentioned...

Westcoast is absolutely correct.

Irregular wrote:Westcoast is absolutely correct.

Not according to LVMH! One more time:

"Contrary to popular belief the T in Moet is a hard T and should be pronouced. Jean Remy Moet was Dutch not French. "

IMHO it is totally un-Australian to even suggest that there is another way of pronouncing Moet other than "Mow-ee".

Just like Australian's pronounce Fillet as "Fil - lit" and not "fil - lay", or Herbs as "H-erbs" and not "erbs".

C'mon let's be honest ... the American's have been getting away with butchering the English/French language for years, so why shouldn't we.

I prefer the Aussie version - Mozza

Deejay wrote:I prefer the Aussie version - Mozza

what about the kiwi version... Moi!
c

Most of my Kiwi mates would just call it "vury expensive puss". BUt then they would also use a different adjective to very.

Red Bigot wrote:The key is in the accent on the ë: Moët, pronounced as in poet, as rooview said.

Guys guys guys,

The accent on the e is the big difference, as RB mentioned. Not only does it tell you to pronounce the t, but it tells you to pronounce it hard (as in wet) like Adam mentioned.

I think Adam's source (cellar door) is credible enough, but if you're still unsure, take the word of a French colleague of mine who was born and grew up in Bordeaux and Champagne. I'm still having to get used to not pronouncing the c of blanc for sauvignon and cabernet.

westcoast wrote:Having lurked for some time this thread has prompted me to sign up ,

Welcome aboard!

westcoast wrote:from clear memory and French lessons at school.

I am certain this is correct.

The answer is both ways are correct, depending on whether you are using a shortened version , Moet, or the full version Moet et Chandon when speaking.

Pronounce Mow-ay if only saying the first part of Moet et Chandon in short or slang ie Moet. In french the t is silent on its own. The letters et are pronounced ay.

However, if pronouncing the whole name ie Moet et Chandon, then the t is pronounced in Moet so as to provide a flowing pronunciation and joining the words together, which the French encourage when speaking their language.
ie mow-ett-ay-shondonne

as for the others ;

Goss-ay
Perri-ay jou-ay
Veuve Cli-co
Billee-carr or bill-carr
Lauren-Perrier

cheers DB

DB, I think your french lessons may be becoming a little fuzzy around the edges, the difference between Moët and all the other examples is that little 2-dots over the e. I can't remember what it's called, but I do remember what it does. You are perfectly correct about sounding the "t" in some cases depending on the following word, but with Moët it is sounded whether or not it is followed by "et Chandon", all because of that accented "ë".

I'll chime in.....

Moët is pronounced Mo-ette.......Moet is pronounced Mo-Ay...the umlaut signals that is a word from Dutch/Germanic origins and is pronounced with a hard 'T'......

Noice

Cheers

Dave

Afterthought.....looking at some language sites I don't think the Germans used a umlaut over the 'e', whereas the French use a dieresis (ë).....confused yet....me too....anyways I've always said Mo-ette...Parisians as mentioned are lazy and drop the 't' altogether....

Buy Krug instead

For someone who has enough trouble with English, this is getting very confusing. I think I will stick to "Billy Goat Frog Bubbles" - at least the name is safe.

The only problem was that the last lot I bought was Lewie Road-er-ra.

I can't stand it any longer! When we visited Moet (with the umlat) in la Belle France they pronounced themselves as Mo-ette!! Finito! cheers - A.

Maximus wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:I'm still having to get used to not pronouncing the c of blanc for sauvignon and cabernet.

Max, does this mean we have to say sauvignon blan and abernet.

That was not the way the Nautilus guy spoke yesterday!!!!!

Graham

GrahamB wrote:Max, does this mean we have to say sauvignon blan and abernet.

That was not the way the Nautilus guy spoke yesterday!!!!!

Graham

You and your Nautilus fetish Mr B.

No (I'll bite), the c is silent on the end of "blanc", so the two aforementioned examples should apparently be pronounced sauvignon 'blan' and carbernet 'fran'. You don't change the pronunciation of the word, you simply remove the c and sort of trail off... so that people think you've said it, but they're not quite sure.

Apparently you and I are duelling off for one of Drew's VP's?

Cheers,