Is "Coupe" Coop or Coo-pay?

[Bingster]

What is the correct pronounciation of the word coupe? I have heard it pronounced coo-pay as in the old Stan Freeburg record "Green Christmas" where he's dashing through the snow in a fifty foot coo-pay. I also heard an actress say coo-pay on an old movie the other night. Might have been Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd." By the way, the two guys who were going to repossess Bill Holden's car were driving a DeSoto S-11 from the looks of it.

Anyway, Chuck Berry was chasing Mabeline in her "Coop DeVille."

So which is it?

[Norm's Coupe]

That would all depend on what part of the country or world you are from. Around my part of the world it's pronounced coop.

[TodFitch]

Back in the 1970s I had an older antique car hobbyist explain to me that chickens lived in coops and but you drove a coupé.

[greg g]

Were the Beach Boys French???? Did they sing about their Duece Coopey, fer cryin out loud it don't even rhyme, it don't fit the beat.

If yer an American its a coop, if your French, its a coo PAY if yer English if COO pay.

Its also a fencing term meaning to cut over a parry.

Chickens on a lot of farms I've seen, often have a choice of a coop or a coupe as a residence.

And I don't think my uncle Guido had a CooPay deVille, now did he????

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) distinguishes a coupé from a sedan primarily by interior volume; SAE standard J1100 defines a coupé as a fixed-roof automobile with less than 33 cubic feet (0.93 cubic meters) of rear interior volume. A car with a greater interior volume is technically a two-door sedan, not a coupé,

[Don Coatney]

Chickens on a lot of farms I've seen, often have a choice of a coop or a coupe as a residence.

Here in Dixie chickens live in a koup:D

[Don Coatney]

I think the answer must be............drum roll...............

A coupé is driven on the streets but a coupe never leaves the driveway:cool:

[55 Fargo]

Were the Beach Boys French???? Did they sing about their Duece Coopey, fer cryin out loud it don't even rhyme, it don't fit the beat.

If yer an American its a coop, if your French, its a coo PAY if yer English if COO pay.

Its also a fencing term meaning to cut over a parry.

Chickens on a lot of farms I've seen, often have a choice of a coop or a coupe as a residence.

And I don't think my uncle Guido had a CooPay deVille, now did he????

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) distinguishes a coupé from a sedan primarily by interior volume; SAE standard J1100 defines a coupé as a fixed-roof automobile with less than 33 cubic feet (0.93 cubic meters) of rear interior volume. A car with a greater interior volume is technically a two-door sedan, not a coupé,

In my part of Canada, it's coop, never heard anyone call it coopay, that sounds off-beat.

The word coupe in French means cut, if I am not mistaken, or perhaps that is one meaning in Francais..............Fred ps in western Canada we call fish fillets, fillits, not filays, but we also call Walleye, Pickerel, in Western Canada too

[greg g]

Shel, Hay is any of those varieties off wild free growing field grasses. This might include but not be limited to rye grass (Italian rye grass, Lolium multiflorum), timothy, brome, fescue, coastal bermuda, orchard grass, and other native species, depending on region. Many types of hay may also include legumes, such as alfalfa (lucerne) and clovers (red, white and subterraneum). Pasture flowers are also sometimes a part of the mix, though other than legumes, which ideally are cut pre-bloom, flowers are not necessarily desired, and in some cases may be toxic to animals.

Hay is usually cut and dried and harvested into loose cocks or mechanically baled.

Straw is usually the by product of the combining process of harvestig grains such as wheat, oats and others. The stalks of the plant are usually depositited by the combine harvester as windrows of chaf. These stalks are useally mechanically baled and used for animal bedding and stall lining. Straw contains very nutritive value.

[Grandadeo]

Well a man's small wig is a toupee -two-pay. So unless you put two e's on coupe I guess its pronounced Koop . Unless of course your car has Really Cheap Rugs covering the floor then Koo-pay would be more appropriate.

Lee

[Don Coatney]

Unless of course your car has Really Cheap Rugs covering the floor then Koo-pay would be more appropriate.

Lee

Lee;

I have very cheap rugs covering the floor in my more door. Do I then have a floor-pay or a fore-play:confused:

[Grandadeo]

Lee;

I have very cheap rugs covering the floor in my more door. Do I then have a floor-pay or a fore-play:confused:

Touche

[De Soto Frank]

Throwing in my 2-cents'-worth...

Many of original "body style" descended to our time from the coach & carriage-builder's trade of the 18th & 19th Centuries (and even earlier eras, such as the "Sedan-Chair").

Body-styles such as: "Coupe`", "Coach", "Sedan", "Berline", "Brougham",

"Landau", "Phaeton", etc., all originally referred to horse-drawn conveyances. Many early auto-body builders were once carriage-builders, so many of the 19th Century designations walk-over to the horseless carriage counterparts, and were still fairly common parlance until WW II.

The word "coupe`e" (Sorry - can't figure-out how to make the computer place the accent directly OVER the "e"; that's where it should go) is French.

In terms of carriage and early auto-body design, "coupe`" not only refers to an enclosed body with one forward-facing seat, accomodating two or three persons, but also refers to a front pillar ( "A-Pillar" or cowl-pillar) that sweeps forward at the bottom; this specific design feature is known as a "coup`e pillar". Probably one of the most wide-spread use of this was on the '28-'29 Model A Ford coupe(`).

My maternal grandfather owned two Model T's, the first was his "1924 Ford Coup`e" (coo-pay), the second was his "1926 Ford Roadster" (Ford actually refered to it as a "Runabout"). He lived in the mountains to the north of Charlottesville, VA, in a little town named "Crozet" (Croh-zay).

Now, my maternal ancestors were of French-ish origins, but had been in Virginia for over 200 years by the time Grandad bought his "coup`e", so I don't think his pronunciation was the result of any ethnic pride or extensive scholarship.

But in the late '70's & early '80s, when he would tell me stories of his youth, even in his eighties, he still referred to that first Ford as a "coup`e".

I think another explanation might have to do with fashion crazes - in the Teens and Twenties, the US experienced some fads where "all things French" were in vogue, so car-makers no doubt "French-fried" some of their marketing prose... a "coup`e " certainly sounded a lot more spiffy than something that chickens lived in.., especially when you could only afford a lowly Ford.

And Chuck Jones certainly kept the fancy pronunciation alive in (at least) one of the Looney Tunes shorts where Daffy Duck is involved in a sword-fight with Thylvesther ("The Scarlet Pumpernickel" ?), and each fencing move is accompanied with a fake-French exclamation, including " Chevrolet Coup`e!".

From a linguistics sensibility, the pronunciation should be guided by whether or not the little accent mark ( ` ) is present above the final e when the word appears on print; if the accent mark is not there, then the "e" is silent;

if the accent mark IS present, then the final "e" is not only pronounced, but the vowel sound is modified from the "uh" of a final "e" w/o the accent mark to the "ay" sound indicated by the accent mark.

For our purposes, I think it probably makes sense to let the setting and the occasion guide your approach to the "coupe word"; if you're attending a meet that is a Concours d'Elegance or a VCCA meet (pre-1930), then the French pronunication would probably be appropriate.

I don't think I'd go around throwing-out "coup`e" at any NHRA or similar meets, or when referring to cars made after 1930...

I have not heard anyone younger than my grandfather's generation (he would be 105 if alive today) using the "coopay" pronunciation.

[Plymouthy Adams]

in some small under developed countries a coop-pay is what it cost to overthrow a tyrant goverment..

[Don Jordan]

Well since all you linguists have torn the word coupe apart I guess we should start on DeLuxe - or is it Delux? Deluxe? Just curious.

[greg g]

Delux is a 4 member Mexican punk band from tijuana.

De luxe if based from the French "off or from luxury".

Special Deluxe who knows.

[Tim Frank]

Throwing in my 2-cents'-worth...

The word "coupe`e" (Sorry - can't figure-out how to make the computer place the accent directly OVER the "e"; that's where it should go) is French.

But in the late '70's & early '80s, when he would tell me stories of his youth, even in his eighties, he still referred to that first Ford as a "coup`e".

I think another explanation might have to do with fashion crazes - in the Teens and Twenties, the US experienced some fads where "all things French" were in vogue, so car-makers no doubt "French-fried" some of their marketing prose... a "coup`e " certainly sounded a lot more spiffy than something that chickens lived in.., especially when you could only afford a lowly Ford.

I have not heard anyone younger than my grandfather's generation (he would be 105 if alive today) using the "coopay" pronunciation.

When yuou want to insert a french (or any other language) special character....(say an umlaut ( ü ) in German), with the cursor in the right place press the "alt" key and hold down, then type the 3 or 4 number code for the symbol you are after. For the " é " symbol it is "alt" 130. After you have typed the numbers, release the "alt" key and the symbol will appear....almost like magic.

You must use the number pad on the side of the keyboard not the numbers across the top.

You can look up almost any languages special character codes and make a note of any that you might want to use regularly.

Below is a small sample of some other french ones.

Accent or Special Character ALT +

a with grave accent à 133 À 0192

a with circumflex â 131 Â 0194

a with tréma ä 132 Ä 142

a e ligature æ 145 Æ 146

c with cedilla ç 135 Ç 128

e with acute accent é 130 É 144

e with grave accent è 138 È 0200

e with circumflex ê 136 Ê 0202

e with tréma ë 137 Ë 0203

i with circumflex î 140 Î 0206

i with tréma ï 139 Ï 0207

o with circumflex ô 147 Ô 0212

o e ligature œ 0156 Œ 0140

u with grave accent ù 151 Ù 0217

u with circumflex û 150 Û 0219

u with tréma ü 129 Ü 154

French quotation marks « 174 » 175

Euro symbol € 0128

[Merle Coggins]

You must use the number pad on the side of the keyboard not the numbers across the top.

So what if you are using a notebook type 'puter without a number pad on the right?

[Don Coatney]

It also works to copy and paste:D

[55 Fargo]

I think you boys got "way too much time on your hands".............LOL

[TodFitch]

When yuou want to insert a french (or any other language) special character....(say an umlaut ( ü ) in German), with the cursor in the right place press the "alt" key and hold down, then type the 3 or 4 number code for the symbol you are after. <snip>

If you are on a Macintosh, there are option key sequences for the European characters. Option-e will get you the grave accent and then typing the vowel you want it on will pair them up. Its worked that way since at least OS7 back in the late 1980s. A lot easier than remembering the obsolete windows extended character set.

Now, if you want things more exotic like Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc. you will need to be entering Unicode numbers. However this web site claims it presents things in ISO-8859-1 which is almost but not quite the same as the old Windows extended character set, so I can't demonstrate the non-latin based characters here.

[knighthawk]

I got no idea what you guys are talking about ! I was pretty proud that I could just post this message ! I thnik your computors must be differnt than mine ????????

[55 Fargo]

What is the correct pronounciation of the word coupe? I have heard it pronounced coo-pay as in the old Stan Freeburg record "Green Christmas" where he's dashing through the snow in a fifty foot coo-pay. I also heard an actress say coo-pay on an old movie the other night. Might have been Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd." By the way, the two guys who were going to repossess Bill Holden's car were driving a DeSoto S-11 from the looks of it.

Anyway, Chuck Berry was chasing Mabeline in her "Coop DeVille."

So which is it?

Hi all, I was wondering, do they pronounce sedan in parts of the South as see dan, I have heard this in some movies, "White Lightning" being noteworthy, they say the word see dan for sedan quite a bit, I have only heard in the North seh dan, kinda like, "see dan", sorta like pole leese for police.

In Canada the letter Z is pronounced zed, and not zee, as in the USA, the British instilled this into Canadaian colonization, although lot of people here use zee, including my kids. We had cars such as the Z28 pronounced zed 28, or the Camaro Iroc zed, instead of Iroc zee. Or here is another linquistic difference, we in Canada pronounce the Toyota Celica, as a toyota celeeka, where in the USA, it was pronounced Toyota cel licka, not sure how that one came about.

Just thinking of these things while painting the kitchen walls, and ruinning to the garage and applying body filler on the rear fender of the 47, nothing like a multi task day.........all the best

[Grandadeo]

Just thinking of these things while painting the kitchen walls, and ruinning to the garage and applying body filler on the rear fender of the 47, nothing like a multi task day.........all the best

Funning, I'm trying to paint crown molding for the living room out in the drive way and it keeps trying to rain, sending me into the computer.

Anyway, I remember visiting my outlaws in Buffalo and watching some TV from Toronto. Got a kick out of the commercial advertising the new ZED 28 Camaro. Had to keep it to myself thou, they are all Canadian.

Lee

[Merle Coggins]

I've also noticed that many Canadians refer to electricity as 'Hydro'. I presume that refers to the many hydro-electric power plants where the electricity is generated?

Here's a fun little poem that I've had around for some time. I don't know it's origin, but I love it.

"Our English Langauge"

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.

Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may fine a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice,

But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular's this and the plural is these,

Should the plural of kiss ever be nicked keese?

Then one may be that and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats and not cose.

We speak of brother, and also of brethern,

But though we say mother, we never say methern.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his, and him,

but imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.

So the English, I think, you all will agree,

Is the queerest language you ever did see.

[Don Coatney]

Anyway, I remember visiting my outlaws in Buffalo and watching some TV from Toronto. Got a kick out of the commercial advertising the new ZED 28 Camaro. Had to keep it to myself thou, they are all Canadian.

Lee

Did you hear any good Zed Zed Top music in Buffalo?