Thread: Murder in the Calais Coach Question

I just started reading some novels by Agatha Christie and I find I have absolutely no idea on how to pronounce "Poirot". I was wondering how you do.

For now I've just been pronouncing it poy-rO; but I have no experience in pronouncing dutch words.

Anyway, how did you like Murder in the Calais Coach or any other A. Christie books?

Originally Posted by Shawn

I just started reading some novels by Agatha Christie and I find I have absolutely no idea on how to pronounce "Poirot". I was wondering how you do.

For now I've just been pronouncing it poy-rO; but I have no experience in pronouncing dutch words.

It's French, not Dutch.

Some years ago I thought learning French would be beyond me due to what I assumed would be an inability on my part to accurately copy Gallic pronunciation. Then I learned how to pronounce ‘Paris’ and never looked back.

That ‘r’ in Poirot is the difficulty. The ‘t’ is silent, that’s easy. The ‘oi’ is always a ‘waaa’ sound, that’s easy. But that ‘r’ – it’s a guttural, back-of-the-throat thing. Forget the word for now, and do this: Take a good deep breath, so you have plenty of air inside to practice on. Pull your jaws and lips together, leaving a thin crack between your lips. Now make a throat-clearing, bubbling sound in the back of your throat. Exhale that as a sound. Don’t worry what it sounds like. It’s just the gurgling bit we’re working on. Now incorporate that ‘waaa’ sound ahead of the gurgle. Put an explosive P in front of it. Then tack a ‘wo’ or simply an ‘o’ on after the gurgle, and Bingo! Pwaaa-rrrrro.