Any French language pedants out there?

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

We were on holiday last week in the Isle of Wight and saw a florist's shop with a sign: "Mon Cherie Flowers."

They could at least have found out the correct pronoun and added the accent over the e! "Ma chérie" would be correct.

[RamblingRosa]

Je suis d'accord

[BonsoirAnna]

LOL

I completely agree; there is the same problem in reverse ie really vile pseudo-English names of brands, shops etc here in France.

[Molesworth]

The worst one I've seen is on a café named ...

"L'Patisserie"

WTF?

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

Merci pour vos réponses, passez un bon week-end mes amis de mumsnet (...I'm a French learner, so let me know if that's wrong! )

[BonsoirAnna]

Mes amies

[gerontius]

Oui, mais il y a aussi des gens de Mumsnet qui sont des hommes....

[BonsoirAnna]

You wouldn't use "amis" on a French women's forum, I can assure you! Even if the odd man did appear here and there!

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

De quelle région habitez-vous en France, Anna? Je suis curieuse!

Also, on a French forum like mumsnet would they call each other tu or vous?

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

Anna, I forgot to add, it's interesting to see that the French would use "amies."

From my learners' French knowledge, I thought the presence of only one man would change the whole gender of nouns, on a women's discussion they can claim feminine forms.

[Gorionine]

Chocolate tu as raison. Tu as bien appris ta grammaire. Ce que Anna veux dire c'est que meme si il y a quelques hommes sur le forum, les femmes ont dedcide d'ignorer le fait, rien a voire avec la grammaire!

Je ne connais pas de forum equivalent en francais mais je suppose que TU est plus apprprie que VOUS. Apres avoir passe 12 ans en Engleterre, je dis TU meme aux caissieres des magasins quand je rentre chez moi en Suisse.

C'est tres difficile d'ecrire en francais sans accents et sans cedille!

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

Merci beaucoup Gorionine, la grammaire français est trés compliqué.

Cependant, je peux appuyer "Alt 0233" pour é, par exemple, j'ai une liste que me montre tous les accents et çedilles sur mon clavier.

[BonsoirAnna]

You would vous on a French women's forum, unless and until you knew each other well enough to change to tu... as in life.

[Othersideofthechannel]

magicmaman.com

Nowhere near as good as MN though!

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

Thank you for the address, Otherside.

[Gorionine]

Oh! Il faut que j'esaie le truc pur les accents.
Merci pour l'adresse!

Bonnne fete des Meres!

[bred]

Today I passed a restaurant in London offering an "al a carte" menu.

[Gorionine]

LOL @ "al a carte", sounds more like an arabic restaurant!

[DadInsteadofMum]

As we have strayed on to restaurants and French, am I correct to get annoyed when I see the main course headed Entrees?

Obviously I am annoyed because it is an American idea that is gaining ground over here (sufficient reason in itself) but I always thought that Entrees were starters.

Apologies for lack of accents, barely have sufficient dexterity to type in English.

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

DadInsteadofMum, a french word for starter is l'entrée or it could be hors-d'oeuvre, so I agree with you, that's irritating.

They should call it the plat principal.

[chocolateismyonlyweakness]

Or le plat principal!

[abraid]

'American' French is indeed a strange beast. A friend from Boston talked about a croissant once and I thought she was having a sneezing attack.

And 'urbs' for herbes.

[BonsoirAnna]

How about meat "with au jus"... another frequent Americanism. Grrrrr.