September 15, 2009
hyperforeignism
The French pronunciation of the phrase is [kudə ɡras], but many English speakers mispronounce it ˌkuː deɪ ˈɡrɑː]. Omitting the final “s” is an example of a hyperforeignism: in French, this mispronunciation sounds like coup de gras, which means “blow of fat”, or cou de gras, which means “neck of fat”. Furthermore, this confusion is surely compounded by the familiarity of the phrases “coup d’etat” and “Mardi Gras.”
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Well, as a francophone myself (Quebec!), coup de grace is actually spelled differently than gras, so it should be easy to make the difference, but yes, I’ve heard many anglophones using the wrong way.