British words the French are pronouncing incorrectly

[idun]

How did you fix it???

[Chancer]

I explained in the first sentence.

[Pierre ZFP]

 just pass the sauce, would you?

http://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/730195/85239768.jpg

[ericd]

From my own experience. Even after 32 years I still have to concentrate when saying " Paper and Pepper" "Ship and Sheep" and I still don't understand that a little vowel can change the meaning of Tweet to a vulgar other word....

...... Also heard on RTL french radio ... Those make me cringe .....

Manchester Uniteed

Brightxton (Brixton)

Lait sauce terre (Leicester)

[mint]

Eric, this might make you laugh.

I was walking with one of my nordic walking groups yesterday and it appeared that 2 of the men were trying to learn English.

We have a lovable character amongst us, overweight, unshaven (or maybe just fashionably stubbly) who you could be forgiven for mistaking for a tramp.

I was trying to get him to say the "h" by going hah, hah, hah.  I am very fond of him, BTW, and his son lives in my village so he is someone I am at ease with.

It was warm and I said j'ai chaud, so I asked the leader if we might stop so that we could take off some clothes.  Then the conversation got to how the French say j'ai chaud where the British would say I am hot.

At which point, Jean said I am hot!  I looked at the other British person and the parisienne who speaks good English and said, well, mais il y a deux significations pour I am hot!

Had to take the bull by the horns eventually and said that I am hot could mean "sexy" but, of course Jean was delighted by this explanation and spent several minutes afterwards saying I am hot!

[Chancer]

Easy to explain that according to the circumstances it can mean j'ai chaud or je suis chaud(e)

[Gardengirl]

That's a nice one, Mint!

Walking from pétanque with a French member of the group for whom I take English conversation sessions, he said - 'there's a sink'; I looked out for what I thought might be a hole in the road (which suddenly occur here from time to time), while mentally holding my nose as there was a bad drains smell.

But it turned out that I wasn't in danger of disappearing from view, he was commenting on the 'stink'! Serge is one of the advanced group, I hasten to add, we have many who are very much beginners.

[Patf]

Mint - talking about walking groups - one of the few times I went out with them a frenchman asked me "do you like les b'telles?" Took me ages to work it out.

As for feeling hot or cold, our french teacher at school warned us about that. If it's rather chilly you should say il FAIT froid, or the opposite, il FAIT chaud. Otherwise you might be in trouble.

[Chancer]

Something that made my ex French girlfriend laugh and I can see the funny side now.

 

Driving along I saw a hot air balloon, "regarde, regarde!" I said pointing excitedly, I was hoping she would see it so I didn't have to explain "un ballon d'air chaud!" I said [:$]

 

I always recall where I first learn a new word or what person makes it finally stick with me, that day was montgolfière [:D] 

[Blodwyn]

A British friend has a daughter at school in France who was told by her English teacher that 'flour' is pronounced 'flooeur'. Child said, 'But my mother is English and she says 'flower'. Response: 'Your mother is wrong' !

[EmilyA]

Reminds me of a child my son had in his class in Spain who cried because his English teacher in school had told him about the fruit called oranghé.

On the news last week here they told the viewers that choux de bruxelles were called "sproots" in English.

[mint]

I have had to change the spelling of my dog's name; from ROO to ROU[:)]

Poor dog was getting confused by people calling her by a name she didn't know!

[EmilyA]

Has nobody mentioned Portsmoot yet?

I have someone in the English class I teach who is a retired anaesthetist. That was challenging for her.

[nomoss]

[quote user="Chancer"]So;ething stupid hqs hqppened to ;y keyboqrd qll the chqrqcters qre co;ing out zrongm dont knoz zhqt I hqve done [:'(][/quote]

I hold down either of my "Windows" keys and press the space bar to switch keyboards.

I thought the French for "shark" was spelt "rocain" from 1962, when I lived in Cannes, until fairly recently.

[alittlebitfrench]

@ Emily A

Its Portsèmouth...like Bournèmouth.

That is why the French decided to rename French cities. It is to difficult for them.

It really makes me hungry.

[EmilyA]

If you had heard "Laties and Gentlemen we will shortlee be arraiveeng in Portsmoot" as often as I have, you would know I am right. ?

Actually my favourite BF announcement was when they had a Captain Bienvenue. "Le Capitaine Bienvenue vous souhaite le bienvenue à bord ...."

[idun]

Ballon a l'air chaud,,.... Why not .....That was the way I improved my vocabulary, if I don,t know the word, how else can i explain what I need to do explain. Kifkif when I hear a word I don't know in French, I just ask and they have to do the same with me.....My most memorable was 'galere'!!! I had no idea what that meant and couldn't quite get the context....Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

[pip24]

My favourite B.F. announcement is "Mont st Michel has smoke in her ears"

[EmilyA]

On deck? ?

[YCCMB]

Harking back to Eric's post, a little story I may have recounted previously.

At my old job, we had a large number of French stagiaires every year. WitHin the office, everyone was used to listening to them speaking English with Fench accents, but outside work, many of them struggled to be understood, so they approached me to see if we could organise some lunchtime English lessons for them as a group. I spoke to our language training provider and we started lessons.

After the first lesson, he came to see me In my office, shut the door and began laughing uncontrollably.

For this next bit, I advise you to read using your best 'allo 'allo French accent.

Student: "I have a problem in my department. Every time I ask for a piece of paper, people laugh at me"

Teacher: "Ah, well this is a common problem. You see, in English, we have long vowel sounds which are difficult for French people to pronounce....."

Student #2 "Ah, it's OK though...I have a solution to this problem!"

Teacher "That's great! Tell us more,"

Student #2 "well, if I need paper, I no longer ask for a piece of paper, I ask for a sheet!"

[Chancer]

Excellent!

[YCCMB]

In the same vein..

At one of my ESOL evening classes, I had a lady from Sicily. Her husband was Ukranian, and they'd lived in the UK forever, but she wanted to improve her English pronunciation. In fact, her accent was so difficult to understand that the only other Italian in the class confided in me that she couldn't understand her in English OR Italian!

We were looking at a reading passage in colloquial English, in which the word "p r I c k" was used as a slang noun.

This student was very Catholic and proper, and didn't swear in either language, so she asked about the meaning. Cue lots of sniggers. In my best "I'm the teacher, we are all adults and this isn't funny" voice, I explained that this was a slang word, meaning p e n I s.

"AAh.." She said "Like the flower!"

I explained that, to the best of my knowledge, there was no flower called a p e n I s.

She was very insistent that there was.

(Now you need to read in your best Italian accent)

"My neighbour had these flowers in his garden, so I asked him the name, and he told me it's a p e n I s. So I went to the garden centre and I said 'do you have a p e n I s' and they sold me these flowers"

Peonies. Duh.