Interesting questions of pronunciation arise at times, not least when foreign words become part of the English lexicon, like valet. David Mitchell has waxed lyrical about this here, and it’s a good point. Since the French pronunciation /ˈvæleɪ/ (‘valay’) is generally considered correct for the person, the learner needs to be specifically told that, in English, when the word becomes a verb, it’s more usually (though not exclusively) /ˈvælɪt/ (‘vallett’). The Macmillan Dictionary, of course, lists both as correct – which they are – but it’s fair to say that the French pronunciation is much less common for the act of valeting than for the butler-type person. Getting them the wrong way round can make the learner sound rather un-fluent.
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