k&k episode 72 - the one where they talk about French words that have been bastardised in English... and stuff...
With our superb mastery of English and French (admit it, you know that you all want to speak as coherently as us), we decide to take it upon ourselves to teach you some French words that are commonly used in English, and which have often been distorted from their original meaning. There are some really good ones in there, so buckle up and start listening to episode 72! (Show links)
This episode was brought to you by all the words that we talked about on the podcast. Ahem.
k&k episode 71 |
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| k&k episode 73 
Cul-de-sac is one of my faves as well which I like to translate into English as the bag's ass, hehe. Another one we slaughter in pronunciation is: hors d'oeuvre that comes out something like "oar durve". Also, in regards to English in French in my town, please refer to a Kebab place called Titi Food and a hair salon called Hairlices. Haha!Here's a link I found with a list: http://french.about.com/library/bl-frenchinenglish-list.htm
oh, oh, i'm glad you guys said pot-pourri!! my SIL got some for her b-day last weekend, and when they were passing the little sachet around, my FIL asked what it was. i said "c'est du pot-pourri", and he looked at me like i had two heads, so i said "oh, must not be called that in french".but then we went into a store yesterday at the puy du fou, and they were selling home-made pot-pourri, and it was labeled "pot-pourri" in french. so i googled it when we got home, and there were a ton of french sites selling it under that name. who knew? (apparently not my FIL *S*)and for your "o-fay" - were you talking about "au fait" [o feht]? i hear it quite a bit in french, and i've always taken it to mean "by the way". for a long time, i thought people were saying "en fait" (which also exists), but then realized a lot of times they were actually saying "au fait".ps. tee-hee "cul de sac"!!!
Don't forget "coup de gr‰ce", pronounced "coup de gras" by Americans that are convinced that all final letters are silent in French.And my resident Frenchie said pot-pourri means 'assortment' or 'diverse', so you can see where that got stretched to mean a room freshener made up of diverse flowers/plantsL
Since you asked... according to this, the french use the term "deja vu" the same way we do.