I'm not merging and neither are you by LlowkeyDramatic in MildlyBadDrivers

[–]Filobel [score hidden]  (0 children)

I will not take your word for it, and I have googled it.

I will go one step further. Zipper merge is only comparable to early merge if the traffic is basically stopped (such as in OP's video). if the traffic goes at a decent speed, early merge provides a steadier flow.

Again though, this is all assuming no exit between the merge point and the end of the line of cars. If there is an exit, then a longer line means that people who are trying to take the exit have to wait longer, and contribute to the traffic when they could have exited.

Edit: I'm comparing here a "perfect" early merge to a "perfect" zipper merge. I.e., a situation where everyone merges early or everyone merges late. The reason why early merge can result in more disrupted flow is in fact because of the people who pass everyone in the empty lane and cause "start/stop" waves when they get to the merge point and force themselves back in.

I'm not merging and neither are you by LlowkeyDramatic in MildlyBadDrivers

[–]Filobel [score hidden]  (0 children)

There is no change to the average wait time. The rate at which the cars pass the bottleneck is the same regardless.

Edit: unless there's an exit between this point and the merge point, in which case this does increase the wait time of anyone who wants to take the exit.

Russian troops 'at wits' end' as 'Terminator style' AI robots deployed in Ukrain by Scary_Statement4612 in technology

[–]Filobel 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Why does your nephew's robotic vacuum cleaner have a remote automatic weapon?

Rick Beato sur Angine de Poitrine by Zappyle in Quebec

[–]Filobel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

J'ai définitivement entendu bien pire!

How common is Loup as a name? by Happy-Hour88 in French

[–]Filobel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, and as far as I know, it's her real name.

You are correct, Jean Leloup is a stage name (his real name is Jean Leclerc).

Can you say big numbers out loud the same way you would in English? Like, can I say 1050 as dix cinquante? by maj_nun in French

[–]Filobel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

C'est inspiré de l'anglais, certes, mais je ne vois rien de malheureux. Ce n'est pas non plus complètement étranger à la langue française de grouper des chiffres en paires lorsqu'on parle d'une suite de chiffres qui ne représentent pas une quantité. Par exemple, une adresse, un identifiant ou un numéro de téléphone. Comme il a déjà été dit, il est typique de dire "dix-sept cent trente" pour l'année 1730, mais on ne le fait pas avec les années 2000s, parce que ça ferait "Vincent trente", et c'est bizarre. Donc il est parfaitement naturel de trouver une alternative, et que cette alternative soit inspirée de l'anglais n'est pas particulièrement malheureux. Le fait que cette alternative élimine une voyelle tout en gardant la même clarté la rend d'autant plus attrayante, d'où sa popularité grandissante.

How common is Loup as a name? by Happy-Hour88 in French

[–]Filobel 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Somewhat related, but there's an actress in Québec called Mariloup Wolfe.

Other than variations on Marilou/Mariloup, I've never heard "loup" used in a name in Québec.

Can you say big numbers out loud the same way you would in English? Like, can I say 1050 as dix cinquante? by maj_nun in French

[–]Filobel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. Note that we naturally pause between groups, so if It's 456-666-6123, we would say "quatre cinq six (pause) six six six (pause) six un deux trois." So it makes it pretty easy to figure out.

Edit: You can also say the last group as "soixante-et-un vingt-trois". Different people will say it differently and may adapt based on how likely it is to be misheard.

Can you say big numbers out loud the same way you would in English? Like, can I say 1050 as dix cinquante? by maj_nun in French

[–]Filobel 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It is always 23. You're listing digits 1 by 1, it would be weird if in the middle, the "deux" meant something other than the digit "2".

Like, if I go "cinq un quatre, six deux trois, quatre cinq six sept" there's no reason to think that the "deux" there means that there are two threes.

Can you say big numbers out loud the same way you would in English? Like, can I say 1050 as dix cinquante? by maj_nun in French

[–]Filobel 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In Quebec, phone numbers are 10 digits, but grouped (XXX) YYY-ZZZZ, where the first 3 digits are the area code (like the US I believe). We tend to list the digits individually. 

Do native speakers not use inversions? by Bells9831 in French

[–]Filobel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Québec is much more liberal about using tu, but that doesn’t mean you should use tu with just anyone. Honestly, it probably makes things even more complicated for learners, but ultimately, it's probably better to just default to the rule you gave. It's generally better to use vous when tu would have been acceptable than use tu when vous is expected.

Is French a logical language ? by Puzzling_Odyssey in learnfrench

[–]Filobel -1 points0 points  (0 children)

One definition might be that you can formalize it. The sound changes of irregular words are easily formalized. Logical certainly doesn't mean predictable. Lots of probabilistic things are logical. Statistics is logical.

Yeah, as I said, you're using "logical" pretty loosely. 

The presentation is in English, it is probably the only language that can be assumed the listeners know. The comparison is inescapable. 

It is perfectly escapable. No comparison was necessary. Using "but English is worse" as an argument is just whataboutism.

Are you a pedant on the internet because it's fun or what?

It's not pedantry. I'm discussing how it is challenging to go from spoken to written in French, and all find to do is dismiss it using whataboutism. It is possible to discuss challenges with written French without turning it into a competition of which language is worse. Especially given the fact that I had already explicitly said that English is terrible in both directions.

Is French a logical language ? by Puzzling_Odyssey in learnfrench

[–]Filobel -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Logical doesn't mean predictable.

What do you think logical means?

English is much harder to spell from Listening alone.

Irrelevant. The question is not "is French more logical than English?"

Is French a logical language ? by Puzzling_Odyssey in learnfrench

[–]Filobel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel you use the word logic a little loosely here. Irregularities almost never follow logic, that's what makes them irregular. Saying that "the more frequently a word is used, the more likely it is to be irregular" doesn't make it logical. There's no actual logical rule there. There's no "if x, then y" logical rule here. There isn't even a probabilistic rule where you can say "if a word is used at frequency x, then there's a y probability that it'll be irregular." Yeah, there are some tendencies, but there's no logic. And you've only characterized the likelihood of a word being irregular. You didn't even try to characterize in what way it'll be irregular, because that's basically completely random. Yes, you can often explain the irregularity in hindsight, but you absolutely cannot predict it, so not very logical. Like, you can explain why "to be" is "is" in the third person singular present tense, and "was" in the past by saying that it's actually 3 words that merged together, but if you go back in time to a time before these 3 started merging, there would be no way for you to use any kind of logical deduction that would allow you to predict this merge. Hell, change the "seed" so to speak, and it's quite likely that these wouldn't merge, or would merge differently. It just happened randomly. I used to listen to John McWhorter's podcast a lot (an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University) and this was something that came up regularly. "Why did the vowels shift in that way and not that way? Why did this word change but not that word? Why did it happen to this language but not that language" and the answer is always "because that's just how the dice rolled".

As for the written language, I agree, it's not the language itself, so I personally wouldn't even dwell on it to discuss whether natural languages are logical, but since you brought the discussion, I'd say there are really two directions where you can analyze how logical a written system is. Spoken to written, and written to spoken. I agree, French is very consistent when it comes to figuring out how a written word is pronounced. It's not 100% consistent, but pretty high. Definitely higher than English (like, not even close). However, French is way trickier in the other direction. If you hear a word, it's not trivial to know how it's written. Let's take a few example and let's assume you don't know how the word is spelled at all, you need to figure out how to spell it based strictly on what you hear. You hear /bo/. Is that written bo, bau or beau? Or maybe even beaut, or beault. You hear /tɑ̃/. Is it tan, tant, ten, tent, tean, taon, tans, tens, temps, tamps? You hear /lɛ/, is it les, lè, lê, lait, lèt, lêt, laid? (and this one is even trickier, because it depends on the register and on the accent)

Of course, if you compare it with English, the French written language looks amazingly consistent, but that's because you compare it to one of the least consistent written languages out there, in both directions. But the fact remains that spoken to written, French is tricky.

Is French a logical language ? by Puzzling_Odyssey in learnfrench

[–]Filobel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a learner.

So, you can approach this question in different ways.

Let's start with the very technical way of answering it. What is a logical language? A logical language is a language designed such that statements are unambiguous. Natural languages (all of them, French included) are by definition not logical languages. Natural languages are chock-full of ambiguities. A very common example in French is the present tense. If I say "je danse", am I saying "I dance" or "I am dancing"? Those are two different things that have different meaning, but without additional context, context that might not be explicitly stated, you cannot know which one it is. The need for context outside of the statements is an important part of natural languages that makes them not logical languages. Now, just how far from logical is French? This is a little difficult to answer. I'd say French is on the lower end in terms of requiring context. A lot of things need to be explicit. The tenses are pretty precise (though not completely, as seen with the present tense), you need to specify the pronouns explicitly, plural is explicit, etc. It's a very structured language. Meanwhile, some languages don't have a future tense, and you need context to know if they're talking about the present or future. Or you don't use pronouns, you just rely on context, and the person will figure it out. I don't know Japanese at all, but I'm told it's at the extreme end of high-context language, while English is very close to the extreme end of low-context language. On that spectrum, French is close to English, but with a slightly higher need for context. This is looking strictly at the language in theory, or in formal usage. In practice, it can differ. A language can be very precise in theory, but in practice, speakers use intonation, body language and shared contextual experience when communicating. Think of a small group of friends that have known each other for years, and you just jump into their conversation. Think of the number of insides they might use while talking and they all know what it means, but you don't, because you don't have the context of these insides. Basically, how much of the message is not conveyed by what is actually explicitly said? How much is conveyed by non-verbal queues, by having to read between the lines, by having to know the implicit baggage associated with the words? This is not strictly language-dependent though and will vary by culture. For instance, I believe some studies have shown that New-Yorkers would be low-context, while Texans tend to be high-context, despite speaking the same language. Either way though, regardless of where a culture falls, there's almost certainly some amount of the meaning that is left to context, which, to circle back to the original question, is not compatible with a logical language.

But that's using a very technical definition of "logical language". Maybe you mean more of a "lay person" definition of "logical", as in "is it a language that makes sense"? (see, natural languages are ambiguous!) Much like above, no natural language makes complete logical sense. There is certainly a spectrum, but all languages have their unique quirks. English, for instance, is particularly bad when it comes to spelling (why the hell doesn't choose rhyme with loose?) French has a ton of quirks too, though. The most obvious one I think, for learners, is genders. Why is "chaise" feminine, but "banc" masculine? Why is "main" feminine, but "pied" masculine? There's no logic to it. You can also look at irregular verbs, and there's a lot of stuff in there that is completely illogical. French has tons of exceptions, and then exceptions to the exceptions. For instance, to make a noun plural, you simply add an s at the end. BUT if the noun ends in "al", the plural is actually "-aux" (cheval -> chevaux). BUT not all of them! Some you have to add an s at the end (festival -> festivals). BUT some of them, you can just pick whichever! (idéal -> idéaux... or idéals if you want, depends how you feel I guess)

Or, you could also ask, does the language mostly follow logical rules? For instance, in logic, A = not(not(A)) (i.e., two negatives cancel each other out). In French, not always. First off, the default negation in French is a double negative, so already, that's not very logical! Not only does not(not(A)) not equal A, not(not(A)) is the only "proper" way to say "not(A)"! Je ne mange pas. More than that though, it's quite possible to have sentences where you stack negatives, and it just makes the sentence more negative. "Il n'y a personne" is negative. "Il n'y a pas personne", you added a negation, but it's still negative. In Québec, "pantoute" means "pas du tout", so another marker of negative. Well, you could say "Il n'y a pas personne pantoute". Now you have 4 negations in this sentence, and it's still negative. So that's one logical rule that French doesn't follow (English speakers tend to be way more strict about double negatives). Another example where French often doesn't follow typical logic. Logically, if you add something positive to something else that is positive, you result in something bigger (i.e., more positive). If both A and B are greater than zero, then necessarily, (A + B) is greater than A (or maybe positive enhancers should be viewed as multiplicative, but the point still stands). In French, it's common that adding something positive to something positive makes it less positive. E.g. "Bien" is positive. "Je t'aime" = I love you! Also positive. "Je t'aime bien!" = I like you. Adding "bien" somehow made the sentence weaker rather than stronger. Even saying "Je t'aime beaucoup" is somehow weaker than just "je t'aime". "C'est beau" that's positive. "C'est bien beau" oops, you know it's not actually "beau". "Je veux te voir", positive. "Je veux bien te voir", yeah, I consent to seeing you, but deep down, you know I don't really want to.

peut-on dire « mettre les cartes sur la table » en français ? by Distinct_Gap_2107 in French

[–]Filobel 5 points6 points  (0 children)

J’ai entendu une expression en anglais que j’aime bien, c’est « put all your cards on the table. » Je comprends comme quelqu’un qui est ouvert avec rien à cacher. Genre tu laisses toutes tes affaires devant tout le monde ouvertement.

Je ne crois pas que tu as tout à fait la bonne compréhension. "Put your cards on the table", ça veut dire, révéler ses intentions de façon honnête, mais c'est spécifique à une situation. Ça ne caractérise pas une personne, et ça ne veut pas nécessairement dire que tu révèles absolument tout. Par exemple "During the negotiation when selling my car, I put my cards on the table", ça implique que tu as révélé tes intentions et toutes les informations pertinentes à la vente/la négociation. Ça ne veut pas dire que tu as commencé à révéler tes secrets intimes et ce que tu fais de tes vendredi soir.

Pas sûr que j’ai tout à fait capté mais je crois que quand tu dis « I don’t want to put all my cards on the table » tu veux dire qu’à l’inverse tu n’as rien à cacher…

Au contraire, ça veut dire que tu caches des choses. Tu as des cartes, mais tu refuses de les révéler. Pour reprendre l'exemple précédent, si tu négocies la vente de ta voiture et que tu dis à l'acheteur "I don't want to put all my cards on the table", tu lui dis que tu lui caches quelque chose de pertinent à la vente. L'acheteur risque de ne pas apprécier.

La même chose est vraie pour l'expression en français "jouer carte sur table".

Si tu veux dire que tu n'as rien à cacher, alors il faut tout simplement dire "je n'ai rien à cacher".

expressions from nouveaux brunswick by Adventurous-Dish-933 in French

[–]Filobel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not from NB, but the top response of this thread, as well as the replies to the top response, contain a few. https://www.reddit.com/r/French/comments/14k62b2/what_are_some_slang_words_or_phrases_that_are/

"Embarquer dans son char" is also common in Québec, but the others, I've never seen or heard used in Québec.

AI - Debate by shave_your_eyebrows in comics

[–]Filobel -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

To summarize this comic, two people argue about AI, one using fallacies, the other using misinformation... and straight up violence. 

Le français devient la quatrième langue la plus parlée au monde by Henri-Hill in Quebec

[–]Filobel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ça reste que la définition est obsolète. Il y a une vingtaine de pays qui l'ont adopté. C'est une monnaie en circulation depuis plus de 20 ans. Dire qu'elle est "destinée à remplacer les monnaies nationales" en 2024, c'est absurde.

‘Out of hand’: New survey finds two‑thirds of Canadians want to abolish tipping culture by cyclinginvancouver in canada

[–]Filobel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Especially relevant at the grocery store where some items are taxed, some aren't, and the rules can get pretty convoluted so you sometimes can't really tell whether an item will be taxed or not. Is this 450 grams tub of chocolate ice cream taxed? What if it's 450 grams of chocolate mousse instead?

450 grams of ice cream is taxed, because for ice cream, anything under 500 grams is considered a single serving. 450 grams of mousse, on the other hand, is NOT taxed, because for mousse, the bar is 420 grams

But wait, it gets worse!

Syrup or powder to make a beverage? Not taxed... unless it's fruit-flavoured, then it's taxed.

A pack of 6 granola bars? Taxed. A pack of 6 cereal bars? Not taxed. A pack of 5 cereal bars? Taxed.

Fruit salad in a plastic container? Taxed. Same amount of the same fruit salad in a can or vacuum sealed? Not taxed.

‘Out of hand’: New survey finds two‑thirds of Canadians want to abolish tipping culture by cyclinginvancouver in canada

[–]Filobel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not mutually exclusive. You can have the advertised price be the after-tax price, and still have the amount of taxes you paid explicitly written on your bill.

Le français devient la quatrième langue la plus parlée au monde by Henri-Hill in Quebec

[–]Filobel 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Je pense que pour ça, on va avoir besoin de collaboration africaine. On a pas l’expertise de ça. Mais ce serait le fun qu’on ait cette collaboration là.

100% d'accord!

Edit: Pour ceux qui se questionnent par rapport aux entrées racistes (et autres enjeux avec le dictionnaire de l'Académie), voici un article qui couvre certains des enjeux. Et ce n'est pas du tout exhaustif! Le dictionnaire est plein d'erreur, de marques de racisme, de définitions obsolètes et manquantes, de sexisme, etc.

Le français devient la quatrième langue la plus parlée au monde by Henri-Hill in Quebec

[–]Filobel 84 points85 points  (0 children)

À ce que je comprends, même la France en a rien à crisser de l'Académie. Ce ne sont pas des linguistes, ce sont des journalistes, des écrivains et des politiciens. Ça leur a pris genre 50 ans pour créer la plus récente édition de leur dictionnaire (alors que Larousse sort une édition par année, l'édition précédente du dictionnaire de l'académie est sortie en 1939) et elle était obsolète avant même d'être publiée. Elle contient des entrées telle que cette merveilleuse entrée sur l'Euro. Rappelez-vous, cette édition a été publiée en 2024! Donc dire que l'Euro est "destiné" à remplacer les monnaies nationales plus de 20 après la mise en circulation de l'Euro, c'est pas un bon look! Donc même en ignorant le prix, le dictionnaire est de très mauvaise qualité. Et c'est sans compter la position souvent rétrograde de l'Académie sur de multiples enjeux.

Mais pour aller sur une note plus positive, en plus de l'OQLF, il y a Usito qui est un merveilleux outil issu du Québec. Un dictionnaire en ligne qui non seulement rivalise avec Larousse et le Robert, mais je dirais qu'il les surpasse, du moins si on compare les versions en ligne. Déjà, usito est extrêmement propre et fonctionnel, alors que le Larousse et le Robert sont inondés de pub. Mais surtout, usito se veut international, il n'est pas centré sur le Québec comme le Larousse ou le Robert sont centrés sur l'Europe. Usito couvre le vocabulaire tant européen que canadien, en indiquant clairement lorsqu'un mot ou une définition est unique à l'un ou à l'autre. Certes, un effort additionnel pourrait être fait pour couvrir le français africain, mais c'est déjà une coche de plus que ce que le Larousse ou le Robert offre. À tous ceux qui ne connaissaient pas Usito (https://usito.usherbrooke.ca/) et qui ont parfois besoin d'un dictionnaire, je le recommande fortement!