Best French Mistakes

Oh no! That’s brilliant!

Helpful Rude French
For when you’ve finished eating the sofa.

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Whilst I was paying for some oysters at the local market the lady said “Vous êtes doux”.
“Merci madame vous êtes très charmant aussi “, I responded, politely.
“Non non non “ she reacted, “Vous êtes d’où ? ---- d’où êtes-vous ?

On a similar note, I was in a queue waiting to pay in a supermarket in Cazeres when the old lady to whom I was chatteing noticed my accent. She asked me where I was from. I told her I lived in Fousseret (a village about 10 km away in the next commune). “Yes”, she said “I could tell by your accent you were not from around here”

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Yet another new word in my french vocabulary, not sure if I will need to use it :face_with_hand_over_mouth::crazy_face:

“Please may I have two baguettes and 12 small owls?”
Alternatively, “I’m looking for a parcel for my frying pan”
(I was mending the wood-burner)
And, on my first visit to France in my teens, “At what weather does the cafe close?”

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Did you get the owls?
My Dad accidentally told the waitress at a cafe that he was pregnant when she asked if anything else was required.

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«Une pain, un baguette» in our local bakers when we first arrived.
After a few days of this (and the assistant got to know me a bit more from frequency of visits) she kindly corrected me when no-one else was in the shop… très gentil! Not made the same mistake since :wink:

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Was that just gender or does une pain have a completely different meaning?

just gender Paul - pain is m baguette is f.
I know it’s not a general rule (here’s a can of worm opening) but I have found that words ending in ‘e’ are often (not always) feminine…

Un baguette could be slightly misconstrued.
And as for the words ending in e being mainly feminine, they do it deliberately to confuse the English!

I was ordering a rather complicate meal in a restaurant and making a pig’s ear out of it. I apologised to the waitress because I speak French “comme une vache espagnole”

The meal arrived and was dumped on the table with a resounding thump. I watched with embarrassment as the waitress stalked off.

A diner at an adjoining table leaned across and said “she’s Spanish”.

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Oh no!

Yes, however gender can trip you up - you need to be *very* careful with - eg feminine cat,

ah yes… the difference between cat and pussy :rofl:

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And here’s me trying to be polite :wink: :slight_smile:

One reason I called ours «cooking fat» to avoid confusion…

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I did read once of a lady saying to some Frenchmen that she had been delayed because she’s been stuck on theIr soft verges - love to know if it was true

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Oh yes, never tell a Frenchman he has soft verges.

On my french exchange years ago, I got in the car at the airport with my french family and the daughter was chatting to me. She told me she has ‘deux caniches’. I really didn’t know what they were so thought I’d have a stab at it. ‘Ils sont oiseaux?’

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It happens in all languages. When I first met my wife in Australia it was still the days of ‘easy virtue fantasies’ by the average Australian male. My wife is an identical twin, and they both were working as waitresses as starting jobs, and their English was not bad, but couldn’t cope with Dinkum Aussie speak. Anyway tips came easy fo them,and they enjoyed the attention. However Licensing laws at the time meant last orders for drinks was 10.00pm, and the men kept asking for them after hours, which led Colette to ask another Australian waitress what she should say. Autralian women can be as direct as Australian men, so the girl said ‘Oh tell’em to piss off’
I broke up when I heard that Colette with a big smile just repeated this in her French accent, wnich came out as 'so sorry ‘pees-orf’ I had visions of all these randy Aussies looking all confused and wondering if they had been insulted or not!

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