For the first time, my school has a talent show, and of course I have to do some magic. The person who is likely doing the auditions is the schools French teacher (I don't take French). I'm doing my take on a David Stone coin routine with two bottle productions as a kicker. To sort of brown nose the French teacher I want to count out the coins in French as well as English (when I was reviewing the DVD as I was forming the routine, I saw David do the same in Spanish and English). That was a lot of set up for this short question, but: how do you pronounce "4" in French? I was thinking it's something based around the sound "cat" but I can't find a good description anywhere, it's always pronounced too quickly in videos. Thanks for the help!

Fluent french people tend to pronounce it similar to "cat". If you want to say it EXACTLY as it is supposed to be said, "cat-re" with a hard 'r' sound is proper. But you might as well just say "cat". Maybe youtube it, it might be on there.

EDIT: I found a good one on youtube. I like the way she pronounces four in french. It is how I pronounce it, and sounds mostly fluent to me. The "re" part is usually either skipped or barely pronounced. Try to say it like she does.

Thank you very much, but it looks like you forgot to post the link.

hahaha, it appears so:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kza79Da7bg

enjoy

thanks! I ran across this video before, but I wasn't sure it was right due to all of the other pronunciations.

Refrain from making any jokes about Napolean or all the wars France has lost.

The French tend to get upset about such comments.

Certainly not necessary to say... but we can also bring up the wars that Germany has lost over the years.

Like the war in Afghanistan?
Like the peace-keeping efforts in Somalia
Like the botched hostage-rescue in Iran?
Like the Vietnam War?
Like the war against Cuba (i.e. the Bay of Pigs invasion)?
Like the Korean War?

Like the War of 1812? (wait, that was a draw. I take that war back. Plus, it's not even from the last century. My mistake.)


Wait a second. Are you Canadian? Then I guess the above doesn't apply to you.

But seriously, why would you want to mention any wars that Germany lost? The guy doing the audition is French, not German. He would probably be humiliated that his country capitulated to such a bunch of Nazis without much of a fight. So, no, I wouldn't mention that and possibly remind the teacher about France's history of military defeat.

However, he could mention the French Revolution. The French still get excited about that.
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

My point, which I'm sure you already know, was to point out that Germany has had its fair share of lost wars itself. Your post seemed to be a jab (unnecessarily, like I said) at the French people. So, knowing that you live in Germany, I figured I would post what I did.

You should also know that the war in Afghanistan isn't over. There are still troops there. It is not a lost war yet. So even if you were planning on insulting the Americans, that should be off your list of lost wars. Additionally, a botched hostage rescue is not a war, it's a rescue mission. That should be off the list too. Peace keeping efforts are also not a war, there is a big difference that I don't expect you to know. America and Cuba also never had a war, the bay of pigs situation was a CIA disaster, but not a war. So let's see, off of your list of lost American wars, you've got the Vietnam and Korean wars. Two in total.

If we look at Germany on the other hand:
The Swabian War
German Peasants War
Schmalkaldic War
First Schleswig War (to be fair the Germans won the second)
World War I
World War II

Hmm... seems to me like the Americans win since they lost only two (off your list) and the Germans lost six off of mine. Though I'm sure the Americans may have lost more than two wars over their history. Then again, this is not a topic about American or German or even French history. You've managed to help steer it off track. The topic has run its course, and I will no longer post here. Enjoy your rebuttal as it will not be read by me.

The Vietnam War was the only war we actually lost that was of any importance you listed, and still, our way of living was unaffected. Just by the second world war, Germany has been branded by the entire world as the country that killed off most of the Jews. Now if you don't have anything to say about French numbers, choose another topic.

1. Are you referring to the Swabian War which started in 1499? Between the House of Hapsburg and the Swiss Confederacy? That was a LOOOOONNNGGG time ago. That was before there was even a "Germany". Why would you count that?
   
   
2. Are you referring to the German Peasant's War which started in 1526 and was a popular rebellion (much like the American Revolutionary War)? How can you lose a war against yourself? Why would you count that?
   
   
3. Are you referring to the Schmalkaldic War where the Germans were defeated the Charles I of Spain? Isn't this guy also known as Charles V (aka Kaiser Karl V) of the Holy Roman Empire? And wasn't the Holy Roman Empire (not to be confused with the Roman Empire) basically a product of the German principalities? So why would this count. This was Germans fighting Germans.
   
   
4. Are you referring to the first Schleswig War which lasted from 1848 - 1851 and which was just a TEMPORARY setback? Well, you did admit that those crazy Germans did come back to restore order, so I'll drop this.
   
   
5. Are you referring to World War I where France France, the British Empire, the Russians, Italy, Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Portugal and others had to team up to fight off little-old Germany? And isn't this the same war where the USA waited until most of the war was over before sending in troops? If memory serves correctly, the US entered the war in 1917, AFTER decisive battles had already begun to bring the end of the war. However, you are correct. Although Germany did kick some Allied but, Germany did lose this war in the end.
   
   
6. Are you referring to World War II where Germany, once again almost single handedly kicked a bunch of European rectum? Yes, they lost that war, too.

It looks like Germany only lost 2 wars also. I guess it's a tie.

Nevertheless, I still recommend that tiggerkim doesn't mention any of this in his audition. The French don't like remembering how the Americans had to save them.

Seeing as I CLEARLY ended this argument and said to leave if you didn't have anything to say about French numbers, I consider this post void especially because you just felt the need to match what was said about America. There was only 3 people at this audition date (tons more are planned for the next one). The French went well along with the entire routine. I am definitely in and the judges said I was their favorite so I did a full hour long close up show afterwards for them (don't worry, I saved my stage material for the actual show). Thanks for the help because the skit went over well.

Glad everything went well for you. And hey! You learned how to say something in french!

Why not just use google translate. That works out pretty well and you can hear the sound of the actually saying and not just the reading it

Or, you can pay tribute to Terry Seabrooke (Who just passed away recently) and use one of his lines.

Un...Deux...Three...Double Deux (Deux being pronounced "Do")