cooperlola Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Nobody had ordinateurs when I learnt French but I do remember being told off when I said I'd watched something or other "sur la tele" and was told that that meant that it was physically on top of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 [quote user="ericd"] Am working from home now (unless I travel) so I can answer.....j'etais a mon ordinateur......j'etais sur mon ordinateur .....or.....j'etais dans mon ordinateur??????? [:P].....answer please without cheating.[/quote]Je l'ignore, but, surely, you've got to be en face de l'ordinateur?[geek] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I find this explains these little problems really well. Invaluable, imho.And Bill Bryson's take on a similar theme but in English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 ....non.......je suis (en train de travailler) SUR mon ordinateur !!! [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 [quote user="ericd"]....non.......je suis (en train de travailler) SUR mon ordinateur !!! [:)][/quote]What's the verdict for the TV thing, Eric? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Mais il est au bureau, derrière le bureau ou couché sous le bureau ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 [quote user="cooperlola"][quote user="ericd"]....non.......je suis (en train de travailler) SUR mon ordinateur !!! [:)][/quote]What's the verdict for the TV thing, Eric?[/quote]Je l'ai vu à la télé.Et je l'ai entendu à la radio.Wot, who ?Mais Ericd ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 [quote user="Christine Animal"]Mais il est au bureau, derrière le bureau ou couché sous le bureau ?[/quote]Je suis a mon bureau, sur mon ordinateur.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Il bosse sur son ordi, mais il n'est pas vraiment sur l'ordi, il est devant. [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Yes, Christine, that is far more akin to what I thought was correct (but I'm often wrong and as I said, computers were pretty rare when I learn French and I still struggle with the related language in both French and English!)Here's another one for you. Do you look something up a or sur l'Internet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Nous faisons des recherches SUR l'internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Ah, thank you. I might learn 21st century French yet![:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 You know Coops, there are so many things I don't know in today's English (I learn some on here!). Many terms I know in French, I have never heard in English.So where is Sweets, elle est encore partie dans sa campagne ?I wanted to say Sweets about your sur le parking instead of au parking. I think you can say both, depending of/on/about what you are talking. [:D]In the case of Lidl, it would be sur le parking as in sur le terrain. But when you have an enclosed parking as in multi storey car park, or underground car park, you would say "ma voiture est au parking" or "on se retrouve au parking". That's how I see it anyway. Maybe 5E or Ericd can confirm or correct si jamais ils sont sur leurs ordis.Also when you fix a rendez-vous if you buy a lustre or something else, you can always tell each other what car you have so you can find each other easily. Ca évite d'attendre "des lustres" (a long time, one lustre being five years!). [8-|] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 Et me voila!Thank you, Christine, all is now clear about sur le parking.As for the lustre, it was magnifique but I also bought two others, from another place totally, which are en cristal de Murano avec beaucoup de pampilles. Sorry, showing off, not so much about the magnificence of the lustres but about the word pampilles that even my French friend does not know. Hah, felt very smart....As for sur la télé or sur l'internet, I felt that was fair enough.What I do have a problem with is "il s'est tombé dans les escaliers"! O la, la, how does one fall inside the stairs? The mind truly boggles... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Or even: "Il est tombé dans les escaliers" (not reflexive).(Pedant's hat off now!)Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 Ah, yes, il est tombé dans les escaliers et il s'est cassé la jambe....is that better, Angela?[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Yes that's right Sweets. I guess in France you fall in the stairs, not down the stairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Actually, Sweets, my greatest triumph during my earlier post was learning how to do a French accented e on my iPad! I reckoned if I was going to be so grammatically nitpicking, I had better not lay myself open to mockery on that!Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbie Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 [quote user="sweet 17"] O la, la, how does one fall inside the stairs? The mind truly boggles...[/quote]I managed it once while we were rebuilding an old staircase which turned out to be even more in need of repair than I thought[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Hope you didn't break a leg! I've just noticed Sweets, it's better to say "il s'est cassé une jambe", rather than la jambe (unless of course you say la jambe gauche or la jambe droite). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 [quote user="Christine Animal"] I've just noticed Sweets, it's better to say "il s'est cassé une jambe", rather than la jambe (unless of course you say la jambe gauche or la jambe droite).[/quote]Interesting comment !!!.....!!!! both can be said.....IMO..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Yes you're right, maybe that's why I didn't think the same last night! Both legs then! [:D] Depuis je me suis cassée la tête et le nez ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 .Alouette ! [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 [quote user="ericd"].Alouette ! [:D][/quote]Hah, that's a skylark! Even I know that [:P] because I looked it up only yesterday when OH said that we have some "pieds d'allouette" in the garden. Must find pictures of these flowers sur l'internet.So, altogether now, I'm sitting in the room with my piano as well as ordi...one, two, three, commensez...well, you all know the tune, don't you?[:D]It also occurrred to me, Christine, that, in English, you can fall off the stairs as well as down them and, if you are Rabbie, you can also fall in the stairs.En plus, believe it or not, the OH actually fell up the stairs when we first moved in here! Well, he was coming up the stairs with a carton of milk in his hand and fell up the stairs, spilling a lot of milk ........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 [quote user="sweet 17"] En plus, believe it or not, the OH actually fell up the stairs when we first moved in here! Well, he was coming up the stairs with a carton of milk in his hand and fell up the stairs, spilling a lot of milk ........[/quote]Hi Sweet, is your OH called Perette ??.... www.lafontaine.net/lesFables/afficheFable.php?id=138 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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