From the article: Typical French Mistakes
We've all made plenty of French mistakes over the course of our language learning, but some are far worse than others. You know what I'm talking about: the ones where we inadvertently embarrassed or even insulted someone, just by using the wrong word. It could be fun, interesting, and possibly even cathartic to share the stories of the worst French mistakes we ever made, so don't be shy - share your worst French mistake, and we can all learn to avoid these treacherous French pitfalls. Share your story
Researching the wrong stuff
- Some years ago I worked at CERN, a huge research centre on the French/Swiss border devoted to the study of particle physics. One day I was invited to give a speech in Geneva about the workings of CERN. Unfortunately, instead of talking about "particules" I repeatedly referred to "pellicules". The audience thus learned that CERN is a multi-billion euro establishment, with thousands of employees and numerous Nobel Prize winners, entirely devoted to researching dandruff.
- —Guest SimonBrock
giving a tip
- Once when I was leaving a hotel in France, I couldn't find a trash can for sack of trash left over from moving out. Seeing a cleaning maid, I handed it to her and said, "C'est pour la pourboire" (tip), thinking that I was saying "poubelle" (trash can). Later I understood why she had such a blank expression on her face.
- —Guest Jerry
Phrase book roulette
- Early on in France, I was in a restaurant and wanted mustard for my steak (that's what they all use), but the waiter couldn't understand me. So, I whipped out my handy phrase book and pointed to "mustard". Unfortunately, my finger slipped when I turned the book around to show him and I pointed to "mustache" instead. You should have seen the look on his face.
- —Guest French Mistake
Dressing
- Having just graduated from high school, I went to Montreal. About to eat a salad in restaurant, I realized the waitress had forgotten to bring salad dressing. I looked up the word in my dictionary and then asked for for "un pansement." She looked puzzled, but came back with a band-aid. I picked the wrong "dressing"; what I should have asked for was "vinaigrette!"
- —Guest philotimos
Sylvia
- In a French hotel, at the bar, I asked for grilled chicken which was very dry and tasteless. Since I had ordered my meal where drinks were being served, I asked for a piece of lemon which was in abundance behind the counter. Having recently studied Italian I made the mistake of mixing up the Italian 'limone' and asked for 'limon'. The bar man treated me with disdain and then a kind English-speaking patron pointed out that my 'limon' was actually silt found at the bottom of the river!
- —Guest citron
Wrong word for hunger
- After a very nice main course at a restaurant I turned to the female colleague sitting beside me, leaned towards her and whispered, "Je n'ai plus femme." I thought I had said, "Je n'ai plus faim" but something about the shocked look on her face told me otherwise.
- —Guest Faim ou femme
Silly Dessert
- In a restaurant in Paris one night, the waitress asked what I wanted for dessert. I had seen on the menu "Chantilly" and thinking it was something different I ordered it. She asked me what kind of ice cream I wanted I said (thinking Chantilly was a cake-I didn't want ice cream on it) I said "Pas de glace". She was taken aback "Pas de glace?". I said yes. So I was served a sundae glass with only whipped cream with sprinkles.
- —Guest French Mistake
I'll never forget..
- ..being approached by the floor manager of a small furniture shop while admiring a sofa, and as he was clearly saying what a fine sofa it was, I agreed, saying: "Qui, je t'aime!" he turned pink and started to correct me, but then he got the giggles and when I realised my mistake we both ended up laughing - the more he laughed the more he made me laugh, it was hilarious!
- —Guest Rozin79
No mouse, no worries
- I thought I'd try a bit of *slightly* informal French and said to a woman who bumped into me in a shop: 'Pas de souris'. My wife laughed: 'Do you realise what you've just said?' I hadn't. You said - 'no mouse'. I had meant to say, of course, 'pas de soucis' - or 'no worries'. No wonder the woman looked at me oddly!
- —Guest Phil Greaney
Les cadeaux
- I was working in Paris at Galleries Lafayette as part of a work-exchange program for university students. On my first day I was very nervous. Several customers asked for their purchases to be wrapped as presents. Each time they asked me a question which I thought meant, Is this included in the price? Absolutely! I assured them. Later I decided to check my dictionary and discovered to my horror that they'd asked me had I removed the price tag? And I hadn't.
- —Guest Mistranslation
Baisser v Baiser
- Instead of saying 'je vais baisser la luminosité', meaning i'll lower the brightness (of the screen) I kept saying to my colleague 'je vais baiser la lumière' which apparently means (i'll kiss/screw the light). After that incident I always mind my 'ss' and 's' sounds.
- —Guest Phani
The wrong type of excitement
- I'm sixteen and have just finished my GCSE exams, but when I was in Year 8 at school, during one writing task entitled 'A Day in the Life', where we had to write imagining ourselves in a certain profession, I used the phrase 'Je suis excité' to say that I was excited about my job. My French teacher at the time had a good laugh to himself - I imagine - whilst marking it. He still chuckled a bit when handing it back to me, telling me that that's a 'different kind of excitement'. I know now that 'Je suis enthousiaste' conveys my sentiments more correctly and appropriately.
- —JamesOld
I'm WHAT???
- When in France on a missions trip in 1994, my friend actually made two funny mistakes: 1) he was trying to tell someone that he was having a bad hair day, but the way he worded it he actually told them that he had a hangover. 2) Another time some people came to visit us, And I was upstairs sleeping. When they asked him where I was He wanted to say I was upstairs taking a nap, But what he ended up telling them that I was up stairs giving birth
- —Guest Mark
Was it 15 or 50?
- My friend and I were travelling across Canada on the train. It stopped for a break to which the trainman informed the passengers, in English, that the stop would be 15 minutes. A French couple sitting beside us asked for clarification. We told them that it would be a stop of 50 minutes, confusing the word quinze (15) with cinquante (50). The train pulled out without them. They made it by taxi to the next train stop and came aboard. Both my friend and I were so embarrassed and offered to buy them a meal in the dining car. They were really great about it, but did refuse our offer. Perhaps they didn't quite trust us just yet.
- —Guest libby
Guest Joseph
- Pronunciation is important!! When I first arrived here, there were several instances when I would want to speak the subjunctive form "fasse" but, unaware, I would actually pronounce it as "fesse" which brought me a few strange looks.
- —Guest Aix_American
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