A smile on the floor
- Telling a waiter I had seen 'Un sourire sur le Plancher' instead of 'un souris'.
- —Guest Chris Ellis
Be careful of expressions
- Someone asked what I did the day before (I was doing homework I was supposed to of already done). I said almost nothing. Then I saw the difficult question I skipped and said. Regarde, je l'ai sautée. A girl had just walked into the foyer. When he realized what i actually meant he busted up laughing. Yep, learned a new expression that day
- —Guest Dennis
Be careful mixing languages...
- I met a guy in a hostel in france. I saw him later and couldn't remember which language he spoke so I said salut, but halfway through the word I thought he spoke english, so I said hello. Unfortunately when you mix salut and hello you get salaud...
- —Pharm400
Not Rocket Science
- I blew a fuse in my dorm room one day, and had to look up the word "fuse" in the dictionary. You should have seen the look on the cleaning lady's face when I said, "Madame, j'ai fait sauter une fusée dans ma chambre."
- —Guest Barbara
Know Your Grammar
- A few weeks after I arrived in Belgium, my host mom had my host brother and I go outside to do some yard work. I wanted to ask my host brother, "What do you want me to do?". Unfortunately, my French grammar wasn't very good at the time and I asked him, « Qu'est-ce que tu veux me faire ? » He instantly burst into laughter and explained that I had just asked him what he wanted to do to me.
- —Guest Keaton
haircut
- I knew that a friend in Lille was to go to the stylist, and so tried to say "so, you get your hair (cheveux) cut today"; and instead said "so you get your horses (chevaux) cut today. Needless to say, it took a while for him to recover. But after rolling on the floor, he helped me with the corrections most willingly.
- —Guest Mandy Davis
Granny, I'm pregnant!
- in a french prelim, my friend had to translate "gros bisous" or something similar. it was meant to be that on mother's day you should give your grandmother hugs and kisses but somehow, in looking it up, she found the word pregnant. so she wrote you should tell your grandmother you're pregnant. (this was an article based at young teenagers)
- —Guest student
Going to bed NOT having sex!
- It is 'Je vais ME coucher' not 'Je vais coucher'. Easy mistake to make but one which can be rather awkward to say the least!
- —Guest Shannon Jenkins
Se sentir/sentir
- One of my French pen-friends had been feeling poorly, so I wrote in a letter that "J'espère que Sylvain sent mieux." My friend wrote back very quickly to tell me that Sylvain showers every day and does not smell bad at all! oops. Les verbes pronominaux/non pronominaux sont très difficile...next time, "J'espère que Sylvain *se* sent mieux !" Lucky for me he has a good sense of humour as well as a good sense of smell!
- —Guest smells like a rose
late or stupid
- I have always taught my students to apologise in French if they are late to my lesson. One little boy once came in late, opened the door and after thinking about it proudly announced in the broadest English accent: "excusez-moi Madame je suis un retard"!!! It was a good 10 mins before I could resume the lesson :-)
- —mdk11
Bad choice
- On my first business trip to France many years ago I was dining alone in a smaill hotel near Avignon. The rather jolly lady who owned the hotel came to my table after my main course said" Et qu'est-ce que vous voulez comme dessert,monsieur?" I replied "Une patasserie s'il vous plait". Gales of laughter from madame who rushed into the kitchen to inform the chef that instead of a pastry I had asked for a house of ill repute!
- —Guest Brian Mathson
missing someone
- i was embarrassed when i told my girlfriend ``je te manque`` instead of` tu me manque ``yet i was her teacher
- —Guest mutai
Is this poison?
- This isn't the worst french mistake but it's still fresh from mind so... I was having lunch one day with my grandmother from my dad's side, who's a native Swiss. She made me a dish filled with salad, fish and tomato. To fill the silence, I looked at it and asked (with my 'se débrouiller' french) 'C'est le poisson, n'est-ce pas?' but pronounced it like 'poison'. After a few hand motion explanations from my grandmother, I laughed embarassingly. At least I made lunchtime fun.
- —emilyperrin07
Enjoying things too much
- In highschool when I was still learning french I said la fille jouit dans la voiture > later did I learn that i did not tell the class that the girl plays (jouer) in the car, but she enjoys herself sexually(jouir).
- —Guest Steph Joss
"Je sui pleine."
- Newly arrived in France, I was the guest of a friend's family. They served a dinner of many courses, and kept offering me more food. I declined graciously, saying, "Non, merci, je suis pleine." There was a conbination of embarrassed looks and a few congratulations, after which I finally sorted out that I had announced not that I had had enough to eat, but rather that I was pregnant.
- —sbdupuis
