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Talk:Glossary of French words and expressions in English

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Zoe (talk | contribs) at 17:37, 21 July 2002 (When are these expressions supposedly used?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

I've removed the following from the article, for various reasons. Could non-french speakers please check the spelling of phrases before they add them. Tarquin

  • M'aider! -- Someone, help me! ("May day!") -- this is highly doubtful etymology. Someone needs to check this, but AFAIK the english word "Mayday" was chosen as a distress codeword because it's easily pronouceable in most languages
  • canard orange -- orange duck -- is this meant to be "duck a l'orange?"; shades of Fawlty Towers ;-)
  • clairvoyant -- clear seeing (psychic) -- I'd say this is now integrated into English. A fair test is that it would seem totally wrong used in italics
  • un auteur -- an author -- this is not used to mean the same thing as "author". however none of my dictionaries have it. probably belongs in the article but needs a better explanation
the french word auteur does have a much larger meaning that author, also the founder of a race, the perpetrator of a crime...
  • Je temps -- ? (Pronounced Ja temp) -- is this meant to be "j'attends" ?

WHEN do English speakers use these terms? "des bonbons"? "le cafe"? Not in my experience. We might say bon bons, but that's become an English term. We might say cafe, but more likely cafe latte when speaking of coffee and cafe when speaking of a place to eat, but not with the accent mark. -- Zoe

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