Question

how do you pronounce these:
ferdinand de Saussure???

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure

Notice the pronunciation symbols in brackets in the first sentence. It looks as if it should be pronounced this way:

[fɛʁdinã də soˈsyːʁ]

And here's a chart (scroll down) for the different sound symbols:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA

=)

Answer 2

From Wikipedia:

<<Ferdinand de Saussure (pronounced [fɛʁdinɑ̃ də soˈsyːʁ]) (November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Geneva-born Swiss linguist whose ideas laid the foundation for many of the significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered the 'father' of 20th-century linguistics.>>

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA
for a pronuciation notation guide

Answer 3

If the above is too complicated, here is something I dislike doing = using English words to try to pronounce another language.

Fair-dee-nahn Sow-shure

(more or less!)

Mme