NormanH Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Don't count on using your local newspaper as a model of French.Ours (MidiLibre) is often full of glaring errors!Today a headline read 'La machine à replacer la main d'oeuvre' [:-))]I think it was based on the 'machine à vendager' pattern, but the sense indicated clearly that it should have been'La machine a remplacé....' [:@] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Good! I do not know how to decortique french and could easily make that mistake. Midi Libre, Guardian, some journalists are not as good with les lettres as perhaps they should be.[:-))] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Until Le Monde gives up having odd bits of Classical Greek on its front page,just to put the plebs in their place, I am not going to read it. With the exceptions of the Independant, Guardian and FT every English daily newspaper now seems to have a reading age of under 12. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frecossais Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 My neighbour gives us his local paper the day after he gets it and during the summer I felt very well informed about local stuff. (I also felt it improved my French, though to be honest new vocabulary is quite often in one ear and out the other these days.)But I'd often have to read a longer sentence two or three times to get the sense of it, I think due to its journalese way of writing. I used to be good at spotting spelling or grammar errors in newspapers, occasionally miss them now. Norman, not much wrong with your observation skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share Posted August 31, 2011 It's easier to read a well-written book than to read a newspaper, as in English.It is very hard to explain the newspeak in tabloid headlines to French students..Gone the days of "Sick Transit's Glorious Monday' [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 Le Canard Enchaine will no doubt pick it up !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 Surely, Norman, the example you cite is a good example of Gallic humour! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAiffricaine Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 [8-)] Gallic humour .... Sorry [:$] this French lass has lost any meaning or understanding in translation ... Whether grammatical errors are made in French or in English, in even the best of publications, when you have a young future king, Eton educated, presenting his intended wife at a gathering of Welsh dignitaries as : 'Me and Catherine etc...' there is not much hope for us the plebs [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 [quote]Gallic humour .... [/quote]Is that not an oxymoron?I actually love the journalistic style of the French provincial press. Why use one word when ten flowery ones will do? These people believe that reports of court cases, deaths and meetings of the local petanque club deserve to be fashioned in potential Pullitzer Prize-winning style. Even the grammatical errors are dressed up in ornate adjectives. As one whose own journalistic training centred heavily on conciseness, clarity and correctness, I love to see how others think it should be done. [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 [quote user="Will"][quote]Gallic humour .... [/quote]Is that not an oxymoron?I actually love the journalistic style of the French provincial press. Why use one word when ten flowery ones will do? These people believe that reports of court cases, deaths and meetings of the local petanque club deserve to be fashioned in potential Pullitzer Prize-winning style. Even the grammatical errors are dressed up in ornate adjectives. As one whose own journalistic training centred heavily on conciseness, clarity and correctness, I love to see how others think it should be done. [;-)][/quote] ......I agree. The style of the journalistic style in the provincial press is lovely and flowery. I guess they start losing their own personal styles when they start working for the bigger organisations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 An interesting example of the same mistake as in my OP, but this time done deliberately is "Sarko m'a tuer' the title of a book just out.Explanation here:http://www.rue89.com/francais-net/2011/09/04/sarko-ma-tuer-pourquoi-le-titre-de-rue89-vous-a-choquer-220327 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Not quite on topic but my daughter sent me this which is on a postcard: LA BELGIQUE SES FRITES LA BELGIQUE S'EFFRITE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Is it really that 'bad' there Wooly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAiffricaine Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Looks like it if someone can be so self-deprecating !Who says Belgian don't have a sense of humour [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 « Dominique Strauss-Kahn est un citoyen qui a le droit de se ressourcer dans son pays après les évènements qu’il a traversé ».Lack of agreement of noun in plural and past participle; possibly eric besson, possibly Le Monde journalist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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