Language….

[Just smiffy]

My Brazilian says “Merda” a fair bit and I’ll add it sounds like “Murder” so I was having a laugh with her about the scenarios it could lead to…

Murder on the orient express…
Murder she wrote..
A perfect Murder…
Murder by death…
Anatomy of a murder..
Dial M for Murder…
I could murder a good curry…


We do have a laugh about the differences in our language sometimes…

Can you come up with a few…. Just for fun…

 

[DBK]

I'm making a half hearted attempt to learn French and keep tripping up on what are known in English as false friends or faux amis in French.

The obvious one is travail which doesn't mean travel but work. And a coin isn't something you spend but the corner of a room.

At the checkout at a super market they wish you bonne journée which doesn't mean have a good trip but good day.

There are many others.

 

[Just smiffy]

Well… I always thought bonne journée was good journey…. I never get too old for learning this stuff….

 

[CAB96]

Midi always gets me.

Been going to Brussels-Midi for years before I realised it meant South, and wasn't in the middle!

 

[dunnah01]

Grand Prix means Big. .





Prize

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[gus-lopez]

Well… I always thought bonne journée was good journey…. I never get too old for learning this stuff….

No that is Bonne route:

 

[ChrisL]

Well… I always thought bonne journée was good journey…. I never get too old for learning this stuff….

Jour is day, journée is daytime, but bonne journée is have a good day.

 

[Graydo]

My Brazilian says “Merda” a fair bit and I’ll add it sounds like “Murder” so I was having a laugh with her about the scenarios it could lead to…

Murder on the orient express…
Murder she wrote..
A perfect Murder…
Murder by death…
Anatomy of a murder..
Dial M for Murder…
I could murder a good curry…


We do have a laugh about the differences in our language sometimes…

Can you come up with a few…. Just for fun…

Taggart,

There's been a murrrderrrr.

Graydo

 

[Northernraider]

Apparently coc au van isn't sex in a camper

Who knew

 

[cliffanger]

I was flummoxed as to the French for ‘you’ - ‘vous’and ‘tu’. I asked yodeli Frankie what the difference was. She said one was used when you had got to know someone well enough to be familiar.

My next question was - when do you know when the changeover occurs?

I think I remember Frankie saying that she had never felt able to call her mother in law by the informal ‘you’.

Now for me, that poses a problem. I am a mother in law (not really -Covid robbed us of the wedding), but if our Catie referred to me as ‘vous’ instead of ‘tu’ every time we met, I would feel hurt. Also if I referred to her as ‘tu’, would she feel affronted, being that she referred to me as ‘vous’.

It’s all so complicated - I think that’s why the preferred global language is English

Just in passing - who gets to decide if ‘new’ words are feminine or masculine?

‘Internet’ and ‘wifi’ are masculine - who decided that to be the case?

It’s all too complicated for me - but as long as we holiday in Beni we’ll be fine.

When we went to Corfu, I really tried to speak as much Greek as I could, only to be told by Tomas, the taverna owner ‘why you speak Greek - no need here - we all speak English’

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[suavecarve]

I saw a couple of crows, is that a murder or was that an attempted murder ?

 

[bobnick]

I am told sometimes i have Mafi Muck...........................Arabic No Brain.

 

[L' Hobo]

I'm making a half hearted attempt to learn French and keep tripping up on what are known in English as false friends or faux amis in French.

The obvious one is travail which doesn't mean travel but work. And a coin isn't something you spend but the corner of a room.

At the checkout at a super market they wish you bonne journée which doesn't mean have a good trip but good day.

There are many others.

There are 2 books, the original is called Merde, and the 2nd called Merde Encore!

These will teach you the 'real' French.

(I have both which, if I remember, I will bring to the Bash auction next year.)

By the way Just smiffy , probably what your Brazilian is saying is similar to the French.

PS. I love languages and know enough in 4 to get me into trouble BUT not enough to get me out again!

 

[steve69]

I thought Aperitif was a set of dentures.

 

[sciac2001]

An innuendo: a Spanish suppository

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[Widge]

And a Baguette is not only a long loaf of bread, baguette is a descriptive word.
baguette magique, magic wand
baguettes chinois, chopsticks
Even the bits of metal you use to fill in the gaps on kitchen worktops are baguettes.

The one word that we found the most uncomfortable to use when we first moved here, was demand, in english demand is quite a strong word, you are insisting that somebody does something, i demand that you leave now, you get a final demand for a utility bill etc

In french you use demandé to ask somebody to help you or do you a favour,
Eg, sorry to disturb you, but can I demande your assistance.

 

[Shrimp]

Je nee parle par Francais
Spelling is probably not correct!

 

[L' Hobo]

A Kingdom, a family planning device for Royals.

Nor is a Palisade a drink for young Royals.

 

[L' Hobo]

Je nee parle par Francais
Spelling is probably not correct!

It's near enough and IMHO, I think the word Spelling is correct.

 

[PP Bear]

My Croatian girlfriend couldn’t say certain words:

Worm was wob
Lollipop was lillyhop

There’s more but I need to fink of them

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[L' Hobo]

The only one I have never been able to grasp, is the only one I have a certificate in.

That's Swedish!

Before I could live there and work (which I did for a couple of years) I had to go to college and become understandable in basic Swedish.
This I did and got my certificate BUT later whenever I tried to practice, everyone , hearing my accent, immediately started speaking English. Very frustrating!

PS. They will tell you that if you can speak German, you can understand Swedish, that's not what I found!

 

[lorger]

Taggart,

There's been a murrrderrrr.

Graydo

Fun fact, this saying was only used once in one episode and seems to be his catchphrase even though Taggart never said it

 

[bladerunner]

My father used the Berlitz school in the 70's to learn German.
He had a nice new Phillips tape recorder to practice.
One morning whilst making tea he thought it would be nice to put the recorder outside to record the dawn chorus.

Later in his group lesson he cheerfully announced that he had recorded his birds.

2 problems:
1; He used the word Vögeln (f**k) instead of Vogel (bird)

2; He had placed the recorder on the windowsill outside the loo, so the only sound was his prolonged morning pee!!!.

 

[Widge]

The only one I have never been able to grasp, is the only one I have a certificate in.

That's Swedish!

Before I could live there and work (which I did for a couple of years) I had to go to college and become understandable in basic Swedish.
This I did and got my certificate BUT later whenever I tried to practice, everyone , hearing my accent, immediately started speaking English. Very frustrating!

PS. They will tell you that if you can speak German, you can understand Swedish, that's not what I found!

I worked for a Norwegian company, and for a couple of years i was part of a Norwegian/Swedish team working in SaudiArabia, every week we would have a team meeting to discuss progress and problems, normally in english.
This one time we had some issues with one of the pieces of equipment, and at some point someone dropped in to scandiwegion, and the conversation continued in Norwegian/Swedish for about another 20 minutes discussing what a solution could be, someone made a suggestion, and i piped up saying no we cannot do that and why, the whole room went silent and they looked at me, realising what had happened, the team leader said, I didn't know you understood Norwegian, I said I don't, but it was a technical conversation, i understood the problem and there was enough English/Norwegian common words said, that i could easily fill in the gaps.

 

[Gaston aires]

Even Monkeys can speak French, Avez vous cuppa !
Phillipe.

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[L' Hobo]

I worked for a Norwegian company, and for a couple of years i was part of a Norwegian/Swedish team working in SaudiArabia, every week we would have a team meeting to discuss progress and problems, normally in english.
This one time we had some issues with one of the pieces of equipment, and at some point someone dropped in to scandiwegion, and the conversation continued in Norwegian/Swedish for about another 20 minutes discussing what a solution could be, someone made a suggestion, and i piped up saying no we cannot do that and why, the whole room went silent and they looked at me, realising what had happened, the team leader said, I didn't know you understood Norwegian, I said I don't, but it was a technical conversation, i understood the problem and there was enough English/Norwegian common words said, that i could easily fill in the gaps.

Interesting how something have an international meaning but it's in the conversation pronouncement I found difficult.
For instance, my girlfriend's name was Kerstin, how would the Brits pronounce that?

Some of you will know, it's pronounced Shastin.

And 2 doesn't sound like two, more like another number.

 

[bigtwin]

Fun fact, this saying was only used once in one episode and seems to be his catchphrase even though Taggart never said it

Quite possibly but he was heard to say “Fur goodness sake Jean, I’m in the middle of a murrderr case”.

Ian

 

[Orion]

I saw a couple of crows, is that a murder or was that an attempted murder ?

It’s a conundrum isn’t it?

I saw a few owls, is that a Parliament or was it a Westminster Cesspit?

 

[Branston]

A person who speaks 3 languages is tri-lingual, 2 languages is bi-lingual and 1 language is English!

 

[bobnick]

I'm obviously bi-lingual, English and rubbish.

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