[French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

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[French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby Obogrew » Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:57 am

Dear all.
QQ.
Why she pronounces 's' in the word 'Phoebus'.


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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby garyb » Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:22 am

Because that's how the name is pronounced?
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby Kraut » Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:24 am

If it's pronounced there normally would be a supportive e like in confus, confusE.
But there are exceptions: plus, crocus, Phoebus
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby tastyonions » Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:37 pm

Names and even nouns taken directly from Greek or Latin often have the final "s" pronounced.

Phébus / Phoebus is a Greek god. Same goes for Arès and Zeus. Some nouns where you see the same thing: infarctus, processus, terminus, bolus.
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby Ogrim » Wed Jun 13, 2018 3:17 pm

Tastyonions is right. I just want to add that, although the main rule is that a final -s is not pronounced, there are exceptions. Apart from Greek or Latin words, there are place names where you will pronounce the final -s, such as the French city Arras or the Belgian town Mons.

Then there are words like "tous", where the s is pronounced if it is not followed by word with a consonant, like in:
Bonjour à toutes et à tous.
Je suis heureux que nous sommes tous ensemble.


You also pronounce the final -s in "plus" in certain circumstances, like in plus de: Ce logement a plus [plys] de pièces.
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby garyb » Wed Jun 13, 2018 3:44 pm

I don't even think of it in terms of a rule, which was why the initial question confused me a bit and I gave the brusque reply - why wouldn't the S be pronounced? Only after reading the other replies I can understand that the OP might have been incorrectly assuming that a final S is always silent. It's silent in some words and not in others, and these others are common enough that I'd hardly consider them exceptions to some rule.
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby tastyonions » Wed Jun 13, 2018 4:01 pm

Here is a big list of many words with final S pronounced: link
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby Serpent » Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:58 pm

I'm not learning French but it looks like it's pronounced in loan words as opposed to words that directly descend from Latin ones?
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby tastyonions » Wed Jun 13, 2018 6:56 pm

Usually but there are some exceptions ("os" in singular, for example).
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Re: [French] Phoebus. Why 's' is pronounced?

Postby tarvos » Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:02 pm

tastyonions wrote:Names and even nouns taken directly from Greek or Latin often have the final "s" pronounced.

Phébus / Phoebus is a Greek god. Same goes for Arès and Zeus. Some nouns where you see the same thing: infarctus, processus, terminus, bolus.


blocus, abacus... :D
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