The ‘Au Revoir’ Problem

By Ben Yagoda. Way back when I was taking “Introduction to French” during my freshman year in college, we were given a quiz a month or so into the term. At one point, the professor spoke some French words and we were asked to spell them. One of the words was the French phrase for “goodbye.”
This is what I wrote down: “orra voire.”
The professor had competently taught us that the term is “au revoir.” And I had learned it, up to a point. More...