How do you pronounce velour?

[poppyj]

Me and my friends have been debating on the pronuncitation of the word VELOUR. I never thought there was a regional difference, or any difference - i thought it was ve-lor yet some of my friends thinks its said vel- er. any help?xx

[shybearuk]

It's usually pronounced Vell-oor. Think of the way that sure should be pronounced, rather than the 'shore' that most people say.

[Ewood27]

My rather ancient Shorter OED gives the phonetic pronunciation as symbols I can best translate as "ver-loor", the first syllable being like the "er" in "father" and the second syllable rhyming with "poor". It seems that you are more correct than your friends.

Incidentally, me and my friends say "My friends and I", and we debate things, not debate on them. But please do keep asking when you want a question answered.

[Ewood27]

Simultaneous typing, Shybear. Sorry!
By the way, what is the answer to your riddle of the dead man with shavings and stick?

[shybearuk]

OK Ewood. It seems that there was little interest in it anyway. It's very convoluted, and a lot more fun than just hearing the answer is going to be, so try it out on someone

The man was the World's Shortest Man, who, unfortunately was also blind.

The next tallest man in the world was covetous of the title, so took to shaving small pieces off of the Shortest Man's white stick (the shavings), thus making the WSM believe that he was growing and would lose his title.

This in turn led to him commiting suicide, as he would no longer have his income from appearing as the WSM (told you it was convoluted!).

My Ma got me on it, and it took me an hour and a half of questioning to solve it. Great fun :o)

[poppyj]

thanks u guys!

[Ewood27]

Thank you, shybearuk. I'd never have got it. The little grey cells were looking in quite the wrong direction.

And poppyj, I apologise for hijacking your question.