Clair, are you paying attention? Useful expressions!

[ericd]

Especially Geordies Patf !!

[idun]

I always mixed with an eclectic group of people in France and was tutted by one lady, rather BCBG and said that 'enchante', was rather 'common' and one should say 'ravi'. So I do.[Www]

[mint]

[quote user="idun"]I always mixed with an eclectic group of people in France and was tutted by one lady, rather BCBG and said that 'enchante', was rather 'common' and one should say 'ravi'. So I do.[Www]

[/quote]

Id, I laughed at your post.  So............ravie it is from now on!!!

[idun]

Just a thought, I usually say thanks with 'grapes' and not 'flowers'!

[ericd]

Not easy to do so in February or March .....

[NormanH]

Im sure there must be grapes flown in from the Southern Hemisphere..[6]

[idun]

And so that they don't go off, are crushed and left and appear to be put in some sort of container, sometimes even a bottle[Www]

[suein56]

Tried to post using Chrome and forgot that I can't quote so I will now switch over to FF and try again !!

Cannot even express my feelings via a grumpty-faced smiley as they don't work either!

Sue

[suein56]

[quote user="idun"]And so that they don't go off, are crushed and left and appear to be put in some sort of container, sometimes even a bottle[Www]

[/quote]

Those are the type of grapes that we often take as a gift and they seem to be well tolerated, even enjoyed. [:)][:)]

Sue

[Gardengirl]

<

idun wrote:

And so that they don't go off, are crushed and left and appear to be put in some sort of container, sometimes even a bottleWhistles [Www]

Those are the type of grapes that we often take as a gift and they seem to be well tolerated, even enjoyed. Smile [:)]Smile [:)]

Sue

And, of course, red grapes treated like that are good for the health; they are a regular part of my diet. ? ?

[ericd]

And so that they don't go off, are crushed and left and appear to be put in some sort of container, sometimes even a bottle .......

I fell for that one .....

[idun]

Aye bonny lad[;-)]

[mint]

Today, I have a small conundrum to be resolved.

I am off to a language-related social gathering later and I am taking my friend and neighbour.  That is, she was someone I struck an immediate rapport with when we first met and I discovered later she lived not far from me and would definitely be referred to as une voisine as it's the same village.

So, when I introduce her, would I say and here is mon amie et ma voisine?  Sounds odd to my ears as that, to me, implies that I am introducing TWO people?

I suppose I could say mon amie et aussi ma voisine?

Oh, for the simplicity of English when you'd just say my friend and neighbour!

Co-incidentally, I have another friend I shall be introducing but this one lives some distance away so she'd only be mon amie....phew!

[Loiseau]

I think I would go for one OR the other, mint.

Call the neighbour "ma voisine", and the other "mon amie".

Or you could refer to the local one as "une amie, de mon village".

Angela

[mint]

Oh, Angela, I like that "une amie, de mon village"!

You see, I didn't want to just say "ma voisine" because I think she likes to think she is my friend[:)]

And I, too, consider her my friend first and foremost and co-incidentally my neighbour.

Plus, I do have neighbours that I do lots of things with who I would introduce as just mes voisins/voisines.

Around here, they like to know which village you are from because, of course, we are called by our village's name, eg Cellois or Celloise, etc etc

[mint]

Thinking about it, Angela, I could kill 2 birds with one stone and, no, of course I don't mean see off my poor friends!

I'd say here is mon amie de mon village and here is mon amie de village X, n'est ce pas?[:D]

[Chancer]

There is a village called Pis not far from me, I wonder what the inhabitants are called?

[ericd]

Hi all. I would personally say:

"Voici une de mes amies du village". (basically stating she is from your village).

and for the other, .... " et une autre amie du Tarn & Garonne" namely the region she belongs to.

[mint]

Parfait, Eric, and that was exactly what I said; well not the Tarn et Garonne bit, just une autre amie de V.................

[mint]

déserrer or relacher (sorry, no chapeau) as in please could you loosen the strings of the mandolin before sending?

Can someone also please tell me how to do French accents now that I have lost access to my avisoft accents programme?

Thank you

[NormanH]

I would say that relâcher means "to release or let go one's grip on something or someone ", and deserrer means "to undo" or "to loosen"  (as in a tie or knot), so I would tend to plump for the latter.

On the other hand I would also consider détendre, or libérer la tension

Are you sure that this is a good idea? Isn't there a risk that leaving the strings completely slack would damage the instrument?

Probably not with a mandiline since I imagine the tension isn't very strong but I would be careful if it were a violin.

[ericd]

Desserer/Detendre (les cordes) aren't bad. After all, you are not writting to Jean d'Ormesson .....

[mint]

Thank you.  I think I'll just say déserrez les cordes UN PEU in order to cover all bases[:)] I don't want the strings to snap with the instrument being thrown about by Colissimo!

If I were to write to Jean d'Ormesson, I think I will just HAVE to do it in English!

By the way, I now go to a conversation session where the French outnumber les anglais by 2 or 3 to 1 and, apart from a couple of exceptions, they all speak fluent and elegant English though the accent is still recognisable as French[:)]

[mint]

Ho! Ho!  Don't know where to post this but here is sort of "home".

Tonight, I put on the TV to hear the results of the Fillon-Juppé primaire and, as the TV was on "English" TV, I just quickly tuned into France 24, the anglophone French channel.  We have 2 remotes and I sometimes forget which works the Fransat box and which the TV as all the appliances are new this year.

Then, as soon as the speeches started and a disembodied voice was doing the simultaneous translation, I immediately changed to Fr 2.  To my own great surprise, I wanted to hear the speeches in French.  If you'd told me even a year ago that one day I'd prefer the French to a translation, I'd never have believed you.

I think I wanted to hear them speak in their own voices and to understand it in my own way and not have an interpreted version.  But how strange it was....................because I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing.

Can anyone else remember a particular instance when they suddenly and unexpectedly realise that, after all, they CAN understand French rather well?

[idun]

I remember clearly when I felt like I had got to grips with a lot. Yves Mourousi on the JT 13h, when he had finished talking, I turned to my OH and said that YM had gone on for 20 minutes and said literally 'nothing'. And my OH agreed.

I was doing all sorts by then in my life, but that really was an unforgettable  moment.

I am so glad that all we had was french tv and radio, we only tried the world service during the Falklands War, we must have had the air of something from WW11, the radio crackling and hardly audible and we would have our ears just about on the radio speaker, to catch any news. We needed to hear, as the news in France, seemed to be more about how well their exocets were working, sadly they worked, and that was not what we wanted to hear.