beginning ..... end

[Patf]

I've just rung the garage to ask when my car will be ready and I wasn't sure if he meant the beginning or the end of the afternoon.

He might have said "le début de l' après-midi".

Or "Le bout de l'après-midi."

But I've got a feeling "end" would be "fin."

Which is correct - I know I should have asked him the exact time.

[suein56]

Patf said :

"He might have said "le début de l' après-midi".

In my humble opinion that sounds about right.

Though you could always ring him again, if you wanted to be sure.

Our garagiste speaks so very quickly on the phone that I sometimes have to ask him to repeat what he has said.

Sue

[mint]

Sounds right to me too.

As you have said, Pat, for the end, he would have said à la fin.

Certainly, I have often been wished bonne fin de la journée.

I think le bout is more for physical, tangible things like the end of the corridor, the end of the road, etc.

[Patf]

Thanks to both of you. So we'll try to get there about 2.30pm;

Also reminds me of a conversation I had with a french neighbour - I was telling her that someone had been away since the end of January, and I said "le bout de Janvier". From the way she replied she thought I said "le début de Janvier". So many ways to misunderstand and to be misunderstood.

[idun]

I learned the hard way about misunderstanding, and would probably have added, I'll be there at, as you say 14h30, and then if it was the wrong end of the day, they'd have said, no cinq heure for example.

[YCCMB]

To me, it would be odd to have any ambiguity as the pronunciation should be so completely different.

Début sounds very different from Bout.

[Chancer]

not in the early days of comprehension when you are latching on to the few words that you think you have heard and understand.

[suein56]

Chancer said :

Not in the early days of comprehension when you are latching on to the few words that you think you have heard and understand.

Speaking to our neighbour over the fence and trying to say that it was very chilly for June so I had put on a 'pull' ... she thought I had said 'poule' . Well I probably did, what with mixing u and ou.

Laughs all round, though I did

practise u and ou a lot after that.

Sue

[mint]

[quote user="suein56"]Chancer said :

Not in the early days of comprehension when you are latching on to the few words that you think you have heard and understand.

Speaking to our neighbour over the fence and trying to say that it was very chilly for June so I had put on a 'pull' ... she thought I had said 'poule' . Well I probably did, what with mixing u and ou.

Laughs all round, though I did

practise u and ou a lot after that.

Sue[/quote]

Well then, Sue, did you have a toutou or a tutu?[:)]

[suein56]

[quote user="mint"]

Well then, Sue, did you have a toutou or a tutu?[:)]

[/quote]

Neither; not even a matou but a minou ... though you have to be careful with that word too [:-))].

Sue

[Loiseau]

The one that stumps me is when a Vendee local says they will pop round "ce tantôt".

To me that could be early afternoon, mid afternoon, late afternoon or even early evening.

I suppose it's the equivalent vagueness of saying "later on".

Angela

[Patf]

[quote user="Chancer"]not in the early days of comprehension when you are latching on to the few words that you think you have heard and understand.[/quote]

And when it's on the phone, and my hearing isn't what it was.

Do the french emphasise the "dé" in début, or the "but."?

[idun]

Betty you obviously have the 'ear', I do not[blink]

It's like dessus and dessous. Absolute opposites and if said slowly on their own, I get it, but not in mid fast conversation, so I always ask en haut or en bas. Odd they may think, but it is the only way I understand, so tant pis[:D]

Incidentally, french people often think that I say 'elle' when I say 'il'. I try, I always do, but it is often misheard, so it must be me at fault, and I do not know how to remedy that. I also try with my u and ou, because british people saying 'already you' drives me mad.

[idun]

ce tantot, I would hope was anytime after lunch.......... because I never imagine anyone doing anything much before 14h, and probably before gouter time, which is about 16h-17h. After that we are in the 'soir' time???? aren't we???

[Loiseau]

QUOTE Patf

Do the french emphasise the "dé" in début, or the "but."?

Pat, they don't emphasise either!

The stress in French is equal on every syllable of the word.

I remember struggling to comprehend the make of car that someone was describing to me in French, till I eventually twigged it was an Alfa Romeo. ( Just try saying that with equal stress on each of its five syllables and you'll hear how different it sounds!)

Angela

[idun]

I used to do the same with Mercedes, in fact there are lots of words which are are used in english and french with quite different pronunciations, and sometimes, false friends that are said exactly the same and have quite different meanings. [:D]

[Patf]

The one that had me mystified for ages was "les biTelles" - their favourite pop group [:D]

[mint]

[quote user="suein56"][quote user="mint"]

Well then, Sue, did you have a toutou or a tutu?[:)]

[/quote]

Neither; not even a matou but a minou ... though you have to be careful with that word too [:-))].

Sue

[/quote]

So how's your little minou?  I mean the one you took to the UK for Christmas?  No, perhaps that is ALSO ambiguous?

[idun]

The hardest music connection I heard was Mike Oldfield, took me ages to work out what my friend was saying as it kept sounding like Micheal'd field in english and made no sense to me.

Hard for those listening too when those of us without the 'gift' start speaking[:$]

[suein56]

[quote user="mint"]

So how's your little minou?  I mean the one you took to the UK for Christmas? 

[/quote]

She's still with us [:)]. She loved the whole trip to the UK - especially bounding up the 2 flights of stairs to the loft room in our son's Victorian terrace. With the exception of the home-coming ferry trip which she found a tad long. It didn't help that there were lots and lots of dogs in cars all around our car. I have a slight feeling they might have howled in lonely unison throughout the night as she had a weary I-haven't-had-a-wink-of-sleep look about her in the morning.

Sue

[idun]

Do most cat's travel that well?

Ours hates the car and sort of got resigned to our long journey to England when we moved back, but I do not imagine he would like any sort of journey as a regular occurence, never mind a long one.

[mint]

Our 2 cats were seasoned travellers.

What happened was that we were working in Wales and living in a maisonette in the week and going back to our house in Taunton at the weekends.

On Friday evenings, as soon as the suitcases were put in the car, the cats would jump in and off we'd go.

Mind you, Monday morning starting back for the return journey was a different matter.  They preferred the house with the garden and a large fascinating-to-a-cat ditch at the bottom of the garden to the bit of courtyard in front of the maisonette.

They'd disappear just as we were about to leave.  One of them would get into a bush or onto a high  hedge, just out of reach, and refuse to come down even if we rattled food bowls and made all sorts of pleading noises.

There would be the odd week when I'd have to miss work and stay all week in Taunton till OH's next visit at the weekend.  Eventually, we got sneaky.  We'd lock them in the kitchen until all the suitcases were in the car and then carried them out of the house, into the car, closed the doors quick and drove off[:D]

[idun]

I cannot say that our cat hasn't travelled quite a lot, he started off with our son, who, because of work, moved around a lot. But the little fella doesn't like it at all, and likes routine and 'his' space in this house, that has been firmly communicated to us all.

[suein56]

[quote user="idun"]But the little fella ... likes routine and 'his' space in this house, that has been firmly communicated to us all.

[/quote]

Mme Minou (ex SDF, thrown out into the street at 14 years of age by the inheritors after the death of her previous lovely owner) has appropriated the new chair in the sitting room; the one with the view of me using my laptop on the dining table and also of the front garden, so as to watch the world going by and also keep an eye for interlopers coming into her garden.

Sue [:)]