Chancer Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 I Watch a lot of nature programs on French TV and have noticed that for many, if not all animals they use not only the general name like requin or chauve souris but another name that I cannot find in any of my dictionaries so I may have got the spelling wrong.For the bats they generally call them "les rousettes" and for the sharks "les squales" (spelling may be wrong) there are many others but my mind is a blank.Are these familiar names or something else? Why are they not to be found in a large dictionary?And finally can you remind me of some of the other common ones please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 chouette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Squales are sharks and I thought that roussettes were too. But I think roussettes covers a few animals so could be chauve souris too.I have watched far too many years of Thalassa (still do) to not have heard these expressions........[:D]Mind you, I always think if I hear rousse in any word, there is red associated with it, and maybe there is a red shark, I just cannot think of one[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Where the word should have been in the dictionary, if my spelling was right I found rouspéter [:D]Always a problem when you hear words and mistake their spelling, which is not always evident, I thought that cailloux was cayou, was writing devis as devi for ages but dear Quillans "divi" really made me laugh unless he meant that the builders were divvys [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Squale...from squaliform, which is , I think, a sub species or genus or whatever you call it, of the shark family.. It's also a make of diving watch, isn't it?Eta here you go, knock yourself out. The roussette also crops up. Mystery solved. They're just different types of shark,http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/vie-sauvage/requin/178170 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 [quote user="Chancer"]Where the word should have been in the dictionary, if my spelling was right I found rouspéter [:D]Always a problem when you hear words and mistake their spelling, which is not always evident, I thought that cailloux was cayou, was writing devis as devi for ages but dear Quillans "divi" really made me laugh unless he meant that the builders were divvys [:P] [/quote]Thankyou chancer, I would never have written rouspeter, and when I have tried to look it up haven't been able to find it as I hear houspeter. And I do know what that means. I've not got a 'good' ear..... I obviously have a fairly good vocabulary of words I don't know how to write...............so thanks again[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 "Mastodon" and "cétacée" [?] always threw me, specially the latter, which I heard as "c'est assez" !Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 And not an animal, but sounded like one to me, 'donkey shot'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 I heard a weird one the other day, I think it was just the French penchant for wanting to remame something in an Anglophone manner and cocking up the spelling.It was a Bull Shark that they called un requin boule-dogue [:D]In a similar vein I read this yesterday:Un énorme merci , du fond du coeur , pour nous avoir suivi et supporter (dans les 2 sens du terme lool), vous êtes géniaux! !!Lool?????I had to resort to Docteur Google, it was indeed a pi55prononciation of LOL [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.