cringe-making

[mint]

Is there a French word or, preferably, a suitably obscure French phrase or expression to describe this condition?

And what has prompted this question, I hear you ask.  Well, you can blame NickP.  I have boasted to him that if I found someone stupid, I wouldn't let on.

I now think that it might be useful to mutter something in French under my breath so as not to give the game away [6]

That is, of course, if I am talking about English-speaking people  If I am talking about French people, there isn't the same problem as I know dozens of ways of saying the unspeakable in English [:D]

[idun]

At the moment I can only think of 'gener', or 'embarrassant', but not an expression. Is anyone going to give us some wonderful word I'll hardly be able to pronounce. [:D]

[mint]

Yes, let's hope someone comes along and gives us something to be going on with.

I say someone is a "blaireau" or "le roi des andouilles" if I want to say they are stupid or haven't got a clue.  But I do want to get the sense of "cringe".  Surely, the French can do cringe as well as the Brits, but, the question is, do they have a word for it?[:P]

[NormanH]

Faire grincer les dents?

[Christine Animal]

Il me débecte is all I can come up with.

 

[5-element]

"Il (elle) me fait grincer des dents" - I like that, Norman. So, "Cringe-making" would be "à faire grincer des dents".

It could possibly be also "à donner la chair de poule", but you might say that about something that is a little scary.

Christine, for me, "Il me débecte" rather means "Il me dégoûte" or "Il me donne envie de vomir"?

[YCCMB]

I think Norman's captures the English idea. Larousse and a few others come up with "hérissant", which to me doesn't seem to have the same intention at all...

[idun]

 I like that NH, that sounds right to me. And a phrase that for me is easy to understand/translate.

Chair de poule is creepy, and I can think of a couple of candidates who merit that expression used on them!

[mint]

Thanks, everybody for the nice choice of expressions.  If I'd known I'd get so many suggestions, I'd have started a whole new page in my little notebook rather than try to squeeze it all in near the bottom of the page.

Yes, "à faire grincer des dents " is good and, like id, I do know someone who very often "me donne envie de vomit" as well!

I do know, unavoidably, this couple who can simultaneously make me want to do both of those things [:'(]  He is as dim as a toc-H lamp (expression learnt from OH) and she is more often than not, as exhausted as a newt.

But, what I really, really wish is that she'd stop claiming that French words all sound the same and giving the example of  "la mère", "la mer" and "la merde" as though she'd just told the funniest joke in the world.  After the first half dozen times of saying no actually they all sound completely different, I now just do that thing with the teeth as per Norman's suggestion.

The other joke, which I won't repeat because I'd just grind my teeth some more, is based on her contention that "souris" and "cerise" sound exactly identical.  Grrr.....best go and take my prednisolone tablets now or I will break out in a rash all over again [:'(][:'(][:'(] 

[YCCMB]

Sounds like she has a wooden ear for language.

[idun]

Well with my 'poor' ear for language, dessus and dessous, both sound the same unless they are said slowly, and en haut or en bas is far better for me.

And brouette and bouillotte can sound the same to me, but I don't want the former in my bed, now do I![:-))]

Sometimes these things can be amusing, but just leave me realising that it's always been very hard for me, and it's nigh on miraculous that I got as far as I did.

[mint]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Sounds like she has a wooden ear for language.
[/quote]

As she's not been unknown to get legless, she'd end up with a wooden leg as well as a wooden ear, if she doesn't watch it.

Anyway, it's not that hard if you have problems making out sounds.  You shut your mouth, open your ears, ask for things to be repeated, you try out the sounds in the privacy of your own bathroom, you try out the new sounds as practised to a trusted audience, you ask to be corrected and you shut your mouth, open your ears, etc, and repeat the process.

I reckon my dog has learnt a lot of French since my early days  here and I'd take her out for long walks, repeating "tricky" words to myself.  If only she could speak, I'll bet her accent would be as good as mine (which is to say not great!)[:D]

[mint]

[quote user="idun"]Well with my 'poor' ear for language, dessus and dessous, both sound the same unless they are said slowly, and en haut or en bas is far better for me.

And brouette and bouillotte can sound the same to me, but I don't want the former in my bed, now do I![:-))]


Sometimes these things can be amusing, but just leave me realising that it's always been very hard for me, and it's nigh on miraculous that I got as far as I did.
[/quote]

Oh, id, I hope you're not referring to your OH as a brouette, are you?[:P]

Cold as it is, it's not cold enough at the moment to have my bouillotte in the bed or I've even been known to have deux bouillottes [:D]

[idun]

What can I say, but I get hot in bed, so no need of a bouillotte or brouette, for that matter.

I cannot do what you said, get someone to repeat it and then go solo at home. I simply cannot remember other than the wrong way, my 'sound' memory is rubbish. So we have to do it there and then. eg Laitue.......... may be easy for some of you, but I had a neighbour saying it over and over again to me, and me repeating it. It is one french word I say really well, with uuuuu at the end, said proper like!

[YCCMB]

For reasons I can't fathom, I've never been able to say "poêle" properly. Fortunately, I think I may have cracked it.

One of my students can't say anything with "euil" in it, so just has a fit of the giggles every time "feuille" or "acceuil" comes up..but I think I've finally managed to convince her of the importance of distinguishing between "jeune" and "jaune", "oeufs" and "yeux" and "cheveux" and "chevaux". Which is a shame, really, as it made for some interesting conversations!

[mint]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]For reasons I can't fathom, I've never been able to say "poêle" properly. Fortunately, I think I may have cracked it.

[/quote]

Yes, poêle took some practising for me too.  Fortunately, we had 2 poêles à bois and also 2 poêles à pétrole, so I went around pointing them out to the dog and practising till I got it.

I've still got to stop for a second or two before I'd say "bouilloire" though.

Would love to hear your student saying "seuil" [:)]

[Chancer]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Anyway, it's not that hard if you have problems making out sounds.  You shut your mouth, open your ears, ask for things to be repeated, you ask to be corrected and you shut your mouth, open your ears, etc, and repeat the process.

[/quote]

Very true and as you say some people just seem incapable of it, mind you the french round here may even be worse than your aquaintance, probably only one in 10 is capable or truth be known can be bothered to hold a conversation with me and 9 out of 10 of those are female, the others, well I just cant be ar5ed with them any more.

I have a dear friend in England, the nicest chap that you could ever imagine, he would give you the shirt off his own back, known him for close to 30 years but what a terrible listener, he is just completely incapable of recieving, like a talky-walky with the button stuck on transmit, when you can actually get a word in you have to repeat things many times over before he finally hears them, as a consequence you cannot rely on the very person whom you should be able to most rely on in the world, well thats not true you can rely on him to get things wrong. [:(]

Now he is an exception in the UK, he's a very nervous type and I think it stems from that, I dont know anyone else in the UK quite like him but around here there are loads and its not nerves in most cases but arrogance and disinterest.

[mint]

Hi, Chance, I've just been thinking about you this afternoon.

A book bought on leboncoin arrived from Arras today so I was just reading up on the city.  I do this you know, read up on where my purchases come from and get an imaginery tour of the place as well as the item bought!

Anyway, after all your dreadful stories on here about where you live, I actually would love to visit Arras.

[NormanH]

Something I enjoy doing is using Google Earth in Street view mode to have a virtual tour of places I hear about or see adverts from.

I just visited Arras like that ....

[IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh80/bfb_album/Screenshotfrom2013-02-04221003_zps9398bd3c.png[/IMG]

[mint]

And it has such an interesting history too.  I was quite disheartened to think that the Romanesque cathedral was destroyed at the time of the French revolution [:'(]

Also, the First World War events that unfolded there were very sad on account of the destruction and the loss of life.

I only ever associated Arras with tapestries and felt very ill-informed and ignorant even on a quick look at Wikipedia.

Tell you what, it quite brightened the rainy afternoon up once I got a bit absorped in reading about it (and the book which came:  La première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs miniscules" by Philippe Delerm).

 

[Chancer]

I like Arras and its inhabitants a lot, no-one there has made me cringe yet [:)]

I also like the people and the city of Amiens although people tell me that the Amienoise are even more unfriendly than themselves (said with a tinge of jealousy I might add), my experience has been far from that but in fact all the people I know in Amiens are not born and bred but have moved there for their careers.

Arras is one of those places that I can never get my bearings, I think that I would need to spend several days on foot there to get a sense of orientation, by car its really confusing.

[simone46]

If you think you are surrounded by people you think are arrogant and disinterested, and as one person mentioned of all your 'dreadful stories' of where you live then it begs the question - why choose to live where you live?

You get good and bad everywhere - it's what people make of it that counts.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="simone46"]If you think you are surrounded by people you think are arrogant and disinterested, and as one person mentioned of all your 'dreadful stories' of where you live then it begs the question - why choose to live where you live? You get good and bad everywhere - it's what people make of it that counts.[/quote]Sometimes you find the right property and buy it before you realise the people are not your type.

It is not always so easy to move at the present time

[mint]

[quote user="Rabbie"]

Sometimes you find the right property and buy it before you realise the people are not your type.

It is not always so easy to move at the present time

[/quote]

Rabbie, you are soooo right.  We have had 2 years of utter bliss here in a beautiful village and we arguably had the best plot on the edge of the village with lovely views towards the south and a huge bank full of trees on the north side to shelter us from cold winds.

Then, the market continued to drop and a large, stone house that would have "normally" sold for in excess of 280k euros went for little over 80k euros.  So, the inevitable happened, people with little money and even less consideration for others have moved in.  This is probably their first house and I'll bet they've never lived in any place near civilisation in the past.

They have cut down in excess of 70 trees, many fruit, acacia and other beauties.  The high bank is now a destablised mound of mud and, with the recent rains, a lot of mud has now washed down into the road right outside our house.

The fires he has lit to burn what is really green cuttings have left dark, unsightly deposits on our cars, our drives, our terraces, our windows, our shutters.  Some of the mud has inevitably left my floors a lot dirtier than they would ever have been.

The smoke has been stinging my eyes and throat and I have had to have double my usual asthma medication.  Would I move?  Yes, reluctantly, because prior to such undesirable people moving opposite to us, I thought I'd died and gone to paradise.

[Cendrillon]

That is not good news Sweets, would you consider moving back to the "chateau near Bordeaux" and selling the Dordogne pile?

(Sweets as we know each other please understand that this comment is not meant as a sneer rather more "tongue in cheek"[;-)])