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Pedants' corner

Any French language pedants out there?

40 replies

chocolateismyonlyweakness · 04/06/2009 19:27

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.

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RamblingRosa · 05/06/2009 08:59

Je suis d'accord

BonsoirAnna · 05/06/2009 09:00

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 · 05/06/2009 09:12

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

"L'Patisserie"

WTF?

chocolateismyonlyweakness · 05/06/2009 16:28

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! )

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BonsoirAnna · 05/06/2009 17:35

Mes amies

gerontius · 05/06/2009 22:48

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

BonsoirAnna · 06/06/2009 09:45

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 · 06/06/2009 11:13

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?

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chocolateismyonlyweakness · 06/06/2009 11:35

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.

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Gorionine · 06/06/2009 11:43

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 · 06/06/2009 12:38

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.

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AbricotsSecs · 06/06/2009 12:48

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BonsoirAnna · 06/06/2009 13:04

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 · 06/06/2009 19:34

magicmaman.com

Nowhere near as good as MN though!

chocolateismyonlyweakness · 06/06/2009 19:49

Thank you for the address, Otherside.

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AbricotsSecs · 07/06/2009 09:46

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Gorionine · 07/06/2009 12:23

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

Bonnne fete des Meres!

bred · 07/06/2009 18:45

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

Gorionine · 08/06/2009 09:33

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

DadInsteadofMum · 08/06/2009 10:57

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 · 08/06/2009 13:15

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.

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chocolateismyonlyweakness · 08/06/2009 13:40

Or le plat principal!

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AbricotsSecs · 08/06/2009 14:40

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abraid · 08/06/2009 14:43

'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 · 09/06/2009 11:31

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