How do you pronounce pas de deux?

Answer 1

IMPROVED: Salut: The answers below are fine, butthis might help (I teach it to english speakers). Keep in mind that these are exercises, and not necessarily truisms to the french language. The first thing to do is to hold the mouth as if it were full of air; and say pah. Make the P sound so that none of the air escapes. Say de as if it were der (as in under), but, as said below, cut off the 'end' of the R sound (again, not letting any air escape). Here's the tricky one. It is not the same sound as the de. Say the de sound again, but this time place a Y between the d and the er, and finish the sound with the mouth prepared to say a U, but don't. Again, let no air escape the mouth. Practice; it's not that hard... just unfamiliar. Bonne chance.

Ok - first of all, it's hard to give a phonetic spelling of pas de deux if you don't know french.

If you are saying the english-ised version, then highlandlassie's version is the closest "pa-duh-duh".

In french, the "de" is a short sound you make in the front of your mouth (it's almost like the first part of saying "der" - but no "rrr" sound), and the "deux" is exactly the same sound.

That's very good, but a simple version might be 'pa di do'. Not a good accent of course, but easier for an American and people will know what you're saying.