Pronunciation of Total

[dang65]

The old "Milky Bar" adverts used to pronounce "Nestlé's" as Nessels, now they've gone all la di da Gunner Graham and it's NestLay!!!

Nescafé. "Nescaffay" or "Nescaff"?
Air Liquide. "Air Lickweed" or "Air Lickwid"?
BNP Paribas. "BNP Pareebaa" or "BNP Parribass"?
Christian Dior. "Kristiaan Deeorr" or "Kristiuhn Dyer"?
Crédit Lyonnais. "Craydee Leeonay" or "Creddit Lionays"?
Renault. "Rennow" or "Renawlt"?

etc etc.

"Totaal" doesn't seem like a big deal to me, if that's what the company is called.

Interestingly, on a different note, I was reading the other day that some French phrases which we use routinely in English aren't actually used by the French themselves: nom de plume, double entendre, panache, bon viveur and RSVP, for example.

[Drewster]

Why when it isn't spelt that way?

(You do see where I'm going with this, don't you?)

Lots of words are not pronounced as they are written.... in english

The point is/was that our mate Morgan has his name spelt T-S-V-A because that was phonetic in English..... Its not really his name (or more accurately it was not really his ancestors name) its just a representation of how his name sounds...... in ENGLISH. So why would a newsreader speaking in ENGLISH not pronounce it!

Is your "name" pronounced Church-Ill, Chur-Chill or even Kirk-Hill ?

Oh Yes!!

[Churchill]

Lots of words are not pronounced as they are written.... in english

The point is/was that our mate Morgan has his name spelt T-S-V-A because that was phonetic in English..... Its not really his name (or more accurately it was not really his ancestors name) its just a representation of how his name sounds...... in ENGLISH. So why would a newsreader speaking in ENGLISH not pronounce it!

Is your "name" pronounced Church-Ill, Chur-Chill or even Kirk-Hill ?

Oh Yes!!

It's pronounced "Cholmondeley-Warner".

[Drewster]

It's pronounced "Cholmondeley-Warner".

Ahhh Hello Mr Charming-W*nker

[expat]

Interestingly, on a different note, I was reading the other day that some French phrases which we use routinely in English aren't actually used by the French themselves: nom de plume, double entendre, panache, bon viveur and RSVP, for example.

Cul de sac

[bogeyman]

Minor gripe but is it just me who gets annoyed when every BBC report on the strikers says the company name is Totaaaal because it ez French owned.

Why can't they say Total properly. Will every firm in the news now be checked for it's ownership and pronounced in an accent suitable for the owning country ?

OMG Little Englander Alert

It is pronounced 'Totaaaal' and always has been to anyone in the oil industry.