Flummoxed in la pharmacie
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My English husband speaks very limited French and when we were visiting my mum in France he tried to engage in conversation while she was cooking telling her "je suis faim (pronounced femme)" instead of "j'ai faim" and so told her literally "I am a woman". I laughed so much while they looked at each other suspiciously!
At Orly Airport I, on seeing a large group of Brits arriving, made the mistake of telling a French friend "Les Anglais sont arrivés" (which apparantly means "I'm having my monthly periods!")
Quite interesting how one word placed before the other can change the meaning of the whole sentence.
I heard a joke about English-French translations on the radio and I would like to share: someone try to translate made in Turkey into French and ends up with fait en dinde!
Having just moved to France, we ordered a double bed, but it was impossible to get the base (sommier) up the stairs. Describing our problems to a neighbour, I said, "Ce n'était pas possible de faire monter le sommelier (wine waiter)..."
When I was twenty and living in France I went into a French butcher's for turkey drumsticks, momentarily forgetting the word for turkey and saying to the butcher "avez-vous des cuisses ?" (have you got thighs?)...
My very MANY faux pas while learning French include saying to my French penfriend (after she accidentally banged her head getting out of the car), "ça ne va pas la tête ?" (are you mad??!!!) rather than, "ça va? Tu ne t'es pas fait mal à la tête ? (are you ok? Did you hurt your head?)
My Mum was very proud at knowing vol-au-vents are called "bouchées à la reine" (Queen's mouthfuls) in French and so bravely asked for some in a charcuterie, only to be be asked "garnies ou vides?" (filled or empty) which was beyond her so she retreated in a caffuffle.
My hubbie asked for (reading from the menu) "orange ou citron presse" (orange OR lemon), not understanding why the waitress kept repeating "orange ou citron ?" back to him as he thought he was ordering an orange AND lemon ("orange et citron presse")
Very usefull
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