NBA, FBI and the CIA!
Pronouncing French words is often challenging for a native English speaker. When first learning French we are taught how to pronounce each letter of the alphabet. Some of them are tricky, for example the letter ‘G’ in French is pronounced almost exactly like we pronounce the letter ‘J’ in English and vice versa. This was tough to get the hang of at first. Also the letter ‘I’ in French is pronounced as we pronounce ‘E’ in English, but not vice versa. The letter ‘E’ in French is pronounced ‘euh’ or something like that.
So, one day I was talking in French about basketball with a colleague in my office in Suresnes, France (just west of Paris) and I pronounced the acronym NBA with proper French pronunciation (”En, Bay, ah”). He laughed at me and said that they pronounce it with the English pronunciation (”En, Bee, Ay”). I didn’t understand this, but he said that since it is an English acronym they pronounce it in the English way as if it was a proper name.
OK, I accepted this and went about my business trying to remember that when I am speaking French and pronounce an English acronym I have to pronounce it as I do in English. Then the other day there was a discussion that somehow turned to discuss the American FBI and CIA and the French people pronounce FBI in the American way (”Eff, Bee, eye”) but they pronounce CIA in the French way (”Say, eee, ah”). I stopped them and pointed this out to them and the general reaction was, oh yeah, that’s true….I don’t know why, that’s just how it is.
There are a lot of things like that in French. It is a beautiful language but for every rule there is an exception. You can either become enraged and frustrated or cry out about how it is illogical and unfair or you can say “oh yeah, that’s true….I don’t know why, that’s just how it is”.