MovieChat Forums > North by Northwest (1959) Discussion > Valet doesn't know how to say valet

Valet doesn't know how to say valet

posted 8 years ago by namaGemo
8 replies | jump to latest

Why did they let the valet say he was a VAL-ett?

From Archer season 3 episode 4:

"Isn't pronounced va-LAY?"

"Only if he's parking your car."

I believe that 50 years ago, in Britain in particular, "valet (rhyming with "wallet") was the norm.

But the French pronunciation "Val AY") has become common today.

[–] fnj-07126 8 years ago

I would have felt like an idiot saying val-ette either in grammar school in 1954, or today. Anywhere. It's just unspeakably clueless.

[–] DarthBengal 7 years ago

I agree with Archer. If I want someone to park my car then va-LAY it is, but a gentlman's personal gentleman should be pronounced va-lett. The greatest valet ever, Reginald Jeeves, was always referred to as a va-lett.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 8 years ago

I was wondering the same thing. Cary Grant himself pronounces it that way later on.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] brendanchenowith 8 years ago

It was pronounced with a T in Downton Abbey, which was a bit odd at first, but then it was the early 1900s.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.

[–] Costumer (1785) 3 years ago

Have you ever heard the Green Hornet radio programs? Kato is his Philipino valet, pronounced va-let. Pronunciations vary and change from place to place and over time.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Interesting and educational!