PalenQ

BTW fils did not say that was a proper expression- A chacun ses gouts - but if there were such an expression in current lingo, of anyone under say 70 it seems, that would be how it would probably be said.

PalenQ

Saint-Cirq - read this from "infoplease" that says A chacun son gout is hardly heard in France but is more heard from Americans who think they know French better than les francaises leurs-memes! They could only catch variations of "A chacun son gout" but not the actual phrase itself, which is not in the vernacular of many bona fide French - though it may in the Dordoge where French is a second language and English the lingua franca it seems!

un a son Gout

“Everyone has (a ) his taste”; or, “Everyone to (à) his taste.” The former is French, the latter is English-French. The phrase is much more common with us than it is in France, where we meet with the phrases —Chacun a sa chacunerie (everyone has his idiosyncrasy), and chacun a sa marotte (everyone has his hobby). In Latin sua cuique voluptas, “as the good-man said when he kissed his cow.”



Read more: Chacun a son Gout | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary...#ixzz2TIKzBqGa

kerouac

Well how about reading this? http://french.about.com/od/vocabular...n-son-gout.htm

Interestingly, English speakers use this expression considerably more than the French, though it has been slightly twisted into "chacun à son goût" (literally, "each one to his taste") or "chacun a son goût" ("each one has his taste"). The correct French expression, however, is (à) chacun son goût.

Stop twisting the language! ;-)

PalenQ

Wonder what the august Academie francaise would deem to be correct French? - I take it a chacun son gout?

I still like 'a chacun son (ou sa) egout!'

StCirq

I still like 'a chacun son (ou sa) egout!'

Proving once again that your French is mangled. You don't get to decide in French what the gender of a noun is, Pal.

Give it up. You're wrong, and you mangle the language.

And BTW, google two things, if you can: 1) The Larousse entry for à chacun son goût, and 2) recent BAC exams that have involved the expression à chacun son goût. Apparently your son didn't have any of those questions about this expression when he did so brilliantly on his BAC exam.

StCirq

Re: the Académie Française: http://books.google.fr/books?id=uao_...ncaise&f=false

jahoulih

'a chacun son (ou sa) egout!'

Should that be "égout"? To each his own gutter?

I could see the appeal of an expression along the lines of "à chacun son dégoût": to each his own disgust.

PalenQ

the Académie Française>

And any bona fide French speaker would say:

Academie francaise - heck even I know that the f in frandcais even though a title is not capitalized!

very very elementary error like my son ou sa egout.

kerouac

égout means sewer, not gutter.

PalenQ

degoutant means disgusting - I remember my son's French mother often saying to him 'c'est degoutant!'

I knew egout meant sewer from my visit to Les Egots de(s) Paris.

PalenQ

that would be, before St-Cirq corrects me, Les Egouts de Paris - which to me is one of the most interesting things to see, do and smell in Paris!

jahoulih

"sewer, not gutter."

Harrap's French and English Dictionary gives "eaves" and "gutter (of roof)" as well as "sewer."

kerouac

That's why I never use the totally inaccurate Harrap's. The Robert & Collins is ten times better.

gutter = gouttière

PalenQ

St-Cirq - here is the rule for capitalizng the word 'francaise' which you apparently do not understand from your incorrect post above:

<Explanation: The French word français has three English equivalents: French (the language), French (the adjective), and French (the person). As you can see, all three are capitalized in English. In French, however, français is only capitalized when it is used as a noun referring to a person: Les Français aiment le vin (The French like wine). When français is used as an adjective or the language, it cannot be capitalized: J'aime le vin français (I like French wine). Therefore, parlez-vous Français ? is incorrect - you have to write parlez-vous français ?

Capiche?

http://www.academie-francaise.fr/ - see the Academy of France's website to see how to use 'francaise' in that context.

jahoulih

But surely égout does also refer to something roof-related. From Larousse:

http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionar...?q=egout#27905

Partie inférieure du versant d'un toit. (L'égout ne se distingue du reste du versant que lorsqu'il est retroussé.)

And

Sorte de chéneau.

It also can be used figuratively to mean "Lieu où se rassemblent les individus les plus vils," which I think we could well refer to in English as the gutter. (From the OED, one of the definitions of "gutter" is "the typical haunt of persons, esp. children, of low birth or breeding.")

PalenQ

oh oh this discussion is getting down in the gutters, once again. Zut alors!

PalenQ

http://pinterest.com/sprinklesews/a-chacun-son-gout/

More and more sites I see use A chacun son gout as an American word - which it is - an American word that is rarely now used in France.

kerouac

Just because Americans use a term does not make it an American word.

PalenQ

Well since it ain't used much if at all in at least some parts of France it is no longer in the French vernacular but it is in the American vernacular - no I see where you are coming from but like bon appetite bon appetite is an American or English if you have it word - it is a French word too and I believe also in use in France.

But I should have said 'A chacun Son Gout is mainly an American/english expression from a French term today not often used in France where variants of the sense of 'to one's onw tasyte' have taken it's place if it ever were in mainstream French.

And this makes perfect sense why Americans like St-Cirq who speak some French may use it and not realize that most French do not use it - the Dordogne I believe speaks kind of a Franglais due to the overwhelming presence of English-speaking folk that dominate certain areas I understand.

A parallel to the a Chacun Son Gout diddy is the use of the words "snackbar" on French trains to name the snack wagon or food kiosk in the restaurant car but in Britain the exact same thing is called the "buffet" ("buffy") - in trainelese the two words are weirdly switched from their countries of origins. (I know buffet is still used generally in France but I am talking about railway parlance here).

StCirq

It is NOT an "American word." First of all, it's not a word, it's an expression. And it is widely used ALL over France, is completely in the vernacular, except apparently in whatever French Brigadoon your son lives in, and is NOT American, but obviously French, as we don't have any of the words that constitute "`a chacun son goût" in English. I'd wager than 99.9% of Americans, like you, have never even heard of the expression.

Neither is "bon appétit" (no e on the end - it's masculine) an American expression. It's French - isn't that obvious?

You don't know hogwash about the Dordogne and what and how they speak there, so stop trying to pretend that you do.

As for "snackbar," the French adopt anglicisms at an alarming rate, but it doesn't make their anglicisms any more French than the equivalents we've adopted from the French and bandy about in English - like "soirée" or "pas de deux." Things don't change from one language to another just because they are used by more than one population.