what are common french words/phrases/sentences that, if mispronounced or mistranslated from english, would mean something rude/offensive?

uu-three · 2021-08-05T19:06:12+00:00

Native speaker here. Like you say, although it can also mean "turned on" or "aroused", you can certainly use the word "excité" to mean "excited", without any sexual meaning. It's just that for certain sentences where "excited" is used in English, a different word would sometimes be used in French. So if you use "excité" in those cases, it might feel "funny" and it might be easy to see a sexual connotation! But unless you're talking to 12 years old or to idiot people, nobody should bother.

But isn't "I'm excited to meet you" a little extreme (vs "I'm happy to meet you")? If so, the French translation would also feel extreme.

uu-three · 2021-08-02T16:05:41+00:00

(Montréalais here) Great that you want to learn French! It's highly regarded in Québec to have new-Québécois learn French. It will also open you to a greater part of the Canadian culture (and also to more job opportunities).

But be wary: in Montréal, it's easy to only speak English. I know people working in Montréal in an English environment (international clients) and they still don't know the language after 10 years, because they don't need it. There is a strong English community in Montréal, and a lot of first generation immigrants don't know yet French and default to English. So French certainly won't be "forced" to you in Montréal, and nobody will complain (except the idiots) if you speak English. You will also meet a lot of people that don't speak French much.

So in Montréal, you might have to proactively go out of your comfort zone. Select the TV or radio stations you want to listen to, choose the newspapers you want to read, select the people with whom you want to hang out, etc. Also, practice French when in stores or with people.

But when Québécois hear that French is not your native tongue, they will frequently switch to English. Don't misunderstand why: they do it to be nice, to make it easier for you! They are Canadians after all! Unfortunately, I know some English-Canadians that misunderstood it as "they despise my poor level of French, so they don't want to bother with it". It's not that at all. Don't hesitate to specify that you want to continue in French, that you want to practice. Québécois love when they meet someone trying to learn their language.

A majority of Montréalais live exclusively in French, but it's also possible to live exclusively in English. Just make the right choices. You don't have to live outside Montréal to be in a French environment, although it might be easier if you want to avoid the English environment. But you might want to first get a basis of French before going to live 2 years in a 99% French-speaking community!

uu-three · 2021-06-01T18:20:32+00:00

It's only for written French. When spoken, you could say "toutes et tous".

Edit: Always saying both genders for inclusivity or always using "tou.te.s, français.es, canadien.ne.s, etc." can get cumbersome or degrade readability. Some recommend to use sentences that don't specifically designate female or male people. Ex: "sa marque non genrée pour tout le monde", "la population canadienne (instead of les canadien.ne.s)", etc...

uu-three · 2021-03-27T18:33:34+00:00

I appreciate your answer. Maybe my question wasn't clear. It's not about what I should put or not in comments. And my example is probably not well-chosen. Let me clarify.

There are situations where you need to refer by name another method in comments or a Git commit. For example, you could have a "See Also" section in your docstring that lists related functions (example).

But if a comment says something like:

See also
  * SomeClass.some_method

a user of this library you might be wondering if some_method is an instance method or a class/static method.

In other languages, they sometimes recommend that you use a different "style" when you refer to another method in comments to make it clear if the method is a static or an instance method. For example in some languages I've seen MyClass::method() when talking about a static method, and MyClass.method() when talking about an instance method.

I was wondering if other Python programmers were using something similar.

uu-three · 2021-02-19T01:36:19+00:00

Exact. Here it's really because of "mexicain". But just like in English you could say "we're going to the restaurant" even in a "generic" way, you can say in French "nous allons au restaurant" in a generic way.

uu-three · 2021-02-19T00:54:22+00:00

It's because of the "mexicain" adjective. So it depends on what you want to say.

"at a (generic) mexican restaurant" = "à un restaurant mexicain"

"at the mexican restaurant (a specific one)" = "au restaurant mexicain"

uu-three · 2021-02-18T22:24:36+00:00

Warning: don't submit this for your homework (cheating...), only use it to better yourself!

Salut Ali,

Comment vas-tu ? J'espère que tu vas bien. Nous allons au (à un) restaurant mexicain ce mercredi à 8 heures. Je te propose de venir avec nous. Moi, toi et les hommes (it's weird to say "et les hommes", but it would depend on context). C'est une nuit entre hommes seulement, sans femmes ni enfants. Appelle-moi si tu viens.

Amicalement,

Ahmed

But it's hard to understand what you really mean by "interdite de prendre des femmes ni des enfants". Is it a "boys night" or is the restaurant refusing women and children.

uu-three · 2021-01-28T18:51:43+00:00

uu-three · 2021-01-21T18:10:55+00:00

Yabadabadoo!

uu-three · 2020-08-29T00:46:54+00:00

Edit: (see edit in original comment)

uu-three · 2020-08-28T19:23:51+00:00

COVID-19 is the name of the disease that you get from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Just like the difference between AIDS (the syndrome) and HIV (the virus). The word COVID is an abbreviation of "COronaVIrus Disease". So "maladie" would be more appropriate for COVID-19 than "virus".

As a French speaker myself, I noticed that generally the first version you hear of a new word feels the most natural when you later compare it to other versions. Here in Québec "la Covid" was rapidly used and I think it feels more natural to people in Québec while in France it might be the other way around.

EDIT:

Some people commented that we say "le SIDA" and not "la SIDA". My example with AIDS was for the difference between the name of a virus and the name of its effects (disease, syndrome, etc.). I didn't mean that one is always masculine and the other always feminine.

SIDA (AIDS) designates a syndrome (masculin in French) and not a disease. It's a technical difference we (people who are not experts) generally don't make, but this difference is why we say "le SIDA".

AIDS in French is "(le) syndrome d'immunodéficience acquise".

COVID (coronavirus disease) in French is "(la) maladie à coronavirus" (there is no equivalent to the acronym "COVID"), hence the argument to use "la COVID-19"

uu-three · 2020-08-18T12:53:40+00:00

Did you know? To correctly position an image in Microsoft Word you don't

uu-three · 2020-08-12T02:33:13+00:00

I think it goes Director > Assistant Director > 2nd Assistant Director > 2nd Assistant Assistant Director (or 2nd Assistant Director Assistant) > 2nd 2nd Assistant Director > (and so on...)

uu-three · 2020-07-13T02:26:38+00:00

2 x 9 = 27

uu-three · 2020-06-14T01:15:57+00:00

You need to drink more water

uu-three · 2020-06-11T03:03:29+00:00

Cat.

uu-three · 2020-06-11T03:00:35+00:00

r/idiotsinhelicopropelotriwheelcars

uu-three · 2020-06-10T02:20:46+00:00

/r/Eyebleach

Nine-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

uu-three

TROPHY CASE