"pot" is pronounced as poe, as in Edgar Allen. "de" is pronounced as is "deux," which is French for the number 2. While there used to be rules or guidelines for which words' final consonant was alided or not, they have largely fallen by the wayside in the past 20 years or so; nowadays, practically nothing is alided. Port au Prince would be pronounced as if it were spelled Por. Try explaining to a non-native speaker of English the logic of spelling and pronunciation of the words "through," "thought," and "enough."
When we lived in San Francisco, we'd trade tales of out-of-towners asking for various locations. Grant Street vs. Grant Avenue. "Goo Street" vs. Gough (guff) Avenue. And on and on.
pierino, in french one does not usually pronounce a T if it is the last letter in a word. But if it is the last letter in a place name and is followed by a vowel (as in Port au Prince) then the T is pronounced. if you don't give a hoot, no worries.
correction: duh, not du. du= from the. As in Je viens du Nord (I come from the North.)
Also,naomi, if you type in 'translate' nto the google search box, you can type in anything in almost every language, AND hear it pronounced. One of my fav things about my pc!
The "o" in pots is short and rhymes with "snow." The t and s are silent (so, pronounce it like "po"). "De" is pronounced like "deuh", sort of a short, flat word. "Crème" is not pronounced like "cream" but with a short e sound. The r is made with that back-of-the-throat noise that French is notorious for. Sort of like the "ch" sound at the end of "rugelach."
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Also,naomi, if you type in 'translate' nto the google search box, you can type in anything in almost every language, AND hear it pronounced. One of my fav things about my pc!