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Yeah - it could work


Pierre ZFP

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please don't read further if easily offended - not that I can imagine that any of you lot would be.

I work with a French guy whose English is excellent so much so that he comes up with idioms and phrases that usually only a native Brit would use but this time he surpassed himself.

He was bemoaning the fact that the project he was working on had more and more people assigned to it so that they really didn't know where they were or what they were doing any more.

'It is a case of too many cocks spoiling the brothel' he said

After I had recovered I thought, yeah, it could work

 

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I used to have a German lady who used to buy in  our Antique/general shop quite regularly and she had similar gems, translated from German to English.

eg. I am not liking this man, he is like a pair of open trousers!

He is as cold as a dog's nose!

I used to tell her English ones but not quite correctly.

Don't count your chickens untill they have crossed the bridge.

I won't put the others on.

Regards. 5 mins St.Malo.

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[quote user="Miki"][quote user="You can call me Betty"]The wonderful Mrs Overall[:D]. People say I look like her, you know.[/quote]

Yeh, you wish          [;-)]


[/quote]

 

Stop it now, you're breaking my feet.[:P] Anyway, you're only being nasty because I've dumped your mate Cassis for a man with a merguez.

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Only a merguez? What's wrong with an andouille? (apart from the smell of course).

I knew a German who, not knowing the word for the TV remote control, referred to the 'long distance knob job'. That was one of his more repeatable efforts with the English language.

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At aperos with a neighbour our host said that he had not slept much because of problems with his waterworks the previous night.

Jude asked me to translate to him "You must have been up and down like a fiddler's elbow".

I did so and he said with a wink that he was a bit too old for that.

I think something was lost in translation along the way.

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[quote user="You can call me Betty"]

[quote user="Miki"][quote user="You can call me Betty"]The wonderful Mrs Overall[:D]. People say I look like her, you know.[/quote]

Yeh, you wish          [;-)]

[/quote]

 

Stop it now, you're breaking my feet.[:P] Anyway, you're only being nasty because I've dumped your mate Cassis for a man with a merguez.

[/quote]

This mergie chap, is he a big or little squirt ?

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[quote user="Miki"] [quote user="You can call me Betty"] 

Stop it now, you're breaking my feet.[:P] Anyway, you're only being nasty because I've dumped your mate Cassis for a man with a merguez.

[/quote]

This mergie chap, is he a big or little squirt ?

[/quote]

I live in hope that I can win my love back.  We only lasted about 5 minutes the last time but I hope to do better in the future.

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I have solitary Finnbarr Saunders moments in my Arabic class.   How sad is that?

For example, when my hyperventilating brain lets me connect with the outside world, I hear that the Arabic for monkey sounds very like "el turd".

But then we did words beginning with the letter D, and she said "il y a, par exemple, le mot 'dik'.  En français, ça veut dire 'coq'."

Two in one sentence, and no-one to share it with.   It's lonely down here!  [:D]

 

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When I first moved here my french was appaling but 10 out of 10 for effort and all that.

We were eating supper with my then future in-laws and when my hubbys mum asked me if I wanted a second helping I replied "Non merci madame - je suis pleine"   Litterally translated this means  "No thank-you madam - I am full"  

In french however it means  "I am pregnant"  but also that I am maybe a cat or a dog or a cow[:)]

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