Have you ever made a bloomer?

My wife’s command of everyday French is excellent, but she caused great hilarity on one occasion in French company, when the vocabulary was a little more unusual. She was explaining that we had been to visit an abandoned village way up in the mountains, and had been very impressed to learn that even well into the 20th C every single thing they consumed had to be carried up there “strapped to the back of mules”. Unfortunately, she confused “mulet” = mule with “mulot” = tiny field mouse. The mental image is indeed entertaining.

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I have a little story from the other side, as it were. Not really a bloomer just a little story about language.

Last year I worked with a French woman who was an excellent English speaker. We were discussing “les volets roulant” and she didn’t know the English words so decided to take a guess. Based on our description of items such as tablecloth and lampshade she came up with “electric curtains”. Well it made me smile and I told her it was a brilliant guess and that I wished that they really were called that.

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:frowning:

Imagine if she had wanted to use ‘Ane’ and instead said ‘Nain’ LOL

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Hi Kirsten… I have learned (the hard way) to always say the name “Annie” rather than “Ann”… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I have a friend called Anne (British who was living in france) who is very small

@Mark

My “bloomer” concerned a neighbour’s wife … seems she was not well liked and folk seemed content with what they assumed was my way of insulting that lady in her absence. :grinning: However, one person took me aside and gently explained…:dizzy_face:

To help not make a bloomer… Consider these English phrases in French