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Say ‘vous’, not ‘tu’, and avoid colourful French insults


Gardengirl
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I don’t know where the sad face in the title came from, but it won’t go away!

I’ve been reading an article about modifying how people speak to protect one another from the spread of C-19, explained by médéric Gasquet-Cyrus from Aix-Marseille University.

As there’s a paywall, I’m putting most of the article here:

“With tongue positioned somewhat in cheek, linguists have been studying the problem of how the way we speak can help cut down the risk of spreading droplets, in French called gouttelettes or (especially for the larger ones most likely to contain the virus) postillons.

It is well known that a cough or sneeze can violently project droplets out of the mouth, but it also happens to a lesser extent during speech, especially if you use a lot of consonants, researchers say.

This is especially the case for the ‘plosive’ consonants, such as ‘b’ and ‘p’ explains a linguist from Aix-Marseille University, Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus, in a video made for France Bleu Provence.

This is because contrary to vowels, where the sound is made in the throat and comes out of the mouth or nose without obstruction, in these sounds the lips block the airflow and then it is pushed out again with additional force.

The speech of the typical Marseille resident is notably risky says Dr Gasquet-Cyrus, as it typically involves copious use of words such as putain! [popular swear word meaning ‘prostitute’].

Hence saying something like “Putain! C’est pas possible!” [roughly, "oh for ****’s sake"], is especially dangerous, he explains.

Rather than this word you should go for more polite options, like flute or even better zut, which obstruct the air less violently, he says.

You should also in general avoid insulting people and speaking too loudly, he advises.

Speaking gently has also been recommended by an American team from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), who used a laser to pick up on the number of droplets expelled into the air by repeating the phrase ‘stay healthy’ in a loud voice.

They found that speaking loudly could generate 1,000 droplets per minute, which could stay suspended in the air for at least eight minutes in an enclosed space.”
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And there are those who spit with every word!

Masks would help with this surely.

No, I shall not be vous'ing those I care about. We won't be able to hug, or bisous, it would all get far too  impersonal if I did that.

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I know in some regions of France, vous'ing is quite common even in families, but I didn't live somewhere like that, and it feels distant and it would just feel too formal and just plain 'cold' to vous those I like and feel comfortable with.

What I don't like is being 'tu'd' inappropriately, now that does get my hackles up. And therein lies that invisible line as to when it is used.  IF I am 'tu'd' inappropriately then there will be  an emphatic 'VOUS' in my reply. 

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Alan Zoff wrote the following post at 04 Jun 2020 21:46:

Oo-er. I sent an email to the Maire earlier and used "tu".

That's done it for me then.

Not necessarily .. if the present Maire is younger than you then you should be OK. If he's older than you .. then you might well be right and it's curtains for you.

OTOH .. if you are both the same age .. then you might 'just' get away to live another day ?
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I wouldn't worry about it, Alan - he knows you’re a foreigner and probably thinks you do well to communicate in another language.

French friends are quick to appreciate foreigners who try to use French, however poor their skills, and are quick to say so.

However, I met some of them when they came to AVF English sessions I took and were emphatic that their English was awful! As did the vast majority of my pupils, regardless of what I said.

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Right from the very beginning, people have always complimented me on my French[:-))]  I thought and still think that they are just being polite.  Especially when I only knew a handful of words.

Nowadays, IF I am feeling particularly full of myself and in a mood to impress, I no longer protest that my French is not at all good.  I just say Merci.......[:P]

What a nerve!  I know but don't they say just "fake it until you make it"?[;-)]

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"Nowadays, IF I am feeling particularly full of myself and in a mood to impress, I no longer protest that my French is not at all good. I just say Merci...."

I still get caught out even by "Merci". I offered coffee to a few people who were visiting and they all replied "Merci". So off I went to make 5 cups and wondered why they looked baffled when I returned with the drinks. They politely drank it and it was some time later that I learnt that "Merci" in this context meant "No thank you".
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OK, Weegie.  Non, moi, non plus!  Alors, is THAT clearer?[:D]

As an aside, it IS possible to use 2 positives to make a negative.  An English professor was explaining to a class of his students that, while 2 negatives can make a positive, 2 positives can never make a negative.  Only for a student at the back of the class (it's always someone at the back, isn't it?) said Yeah, yeah.

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