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Re: <i>...the correct pronounciation of "bouteille" IS pretty much "boo-tay," definitely not "boo-tie,"</i>
That brings back a memory, StCirq. On my first visit to France, I kept forgetting the proper pronounciation of that word so I just thought of KC & the Sunshine Band's song "Shake Your Booty" (even though, ironically, I believe they sing it as "boo-tie" in the song. I just remembered it was <i>not</i> the pronounciation in the song.) A great Seattle-area singer/songwriter named Laura Love has a song called "Mahbootay" but she's not referring, of course, to the container for Beaujolais Nouveau. :) http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...=Aooo20r1ay48z |
Here's another anecdote the other way around: I once took the hotel shuttle from LAX and there was a French couple on it who asked the driver to take them to the Yacht Hotel. He said he'd never heard of it and they went back and forth for a good rather heated five minutes. It finally dawned on me that these poor tourists wanted to go to the Hyatt - think about it!
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Props to beachbum for what may be my favorite phrase ever:
>>Merci y'all<< Here's a challenge: Try to order a bouteille of Bourgueil. |
OK, you guys!
You've now got all of us sitting here at our computers earnestly enunciating: "Boo-tay. Boo-tay. Boo-tay..." We must sound like a particularly dull cyber-chorus of reggae singers. |
And for <i>bouteille d'eau</i> just sing that famous song from The Sound of Music...
"Bootay doe, a derriere, a female derriere..." :) |
I found the following phrase to be quite helpful, "en englais, pouvez-vous m'dire..." which translates "in English, can you tell me....?". One of the things that helped me was "French with Michel Thomas" which is a set of 8 cd's that teaches basic, need to know French for your trip. I listened to them over and over during my evening commute. Also, "French in 10 Minutes a Day" offers some good basic info worth learning. You'll find both at Amazon.com. I never had anyone yell at me--everyone I spoke to in French seemed to genuinely appreciate the effort. Hope this helps-- good luck!
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May I recommend "En Anglais, pourriez-vous .... s'il vous plait?"
"Pourriez" is more polite than "pouvez," just as asking "could you" is preferred to "can you." And always, always, add "s'il vous plait," |
Yes, thank you! I am very concientious about using s'il vous plait in speaking ...however, I did omit it from my post. Thank you for responding. :-)
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You know, my French is very good (although not fluent) and I usually have no problem being understood, although, of course, I make some grammatical errors. Who doesn't unless you are raised bilingual? The only problem I run into occurs outside of Paris in rural areas where the accents can be daunting.
When I am not in an English speaking or French speaking country, I have the same troubles as everyone else. I carry a phrase book if I need one. The main rule is just to be polite and you will find that people will help you out. I have never had someone yell at me because I did not speak their language. I do, however, have some funny stories. In the Late Middle Ages, I was a poor student in the train station in Vienna trying to purchase a ticket somewhere or other. I got into one of those exchanges where everyone starts yelling thinking that, if he yells loud enough the other party will understand me. All of a sudden, I realized that I did understand what the train guy was saying as a few phrases kicked in from my parents Yiddish (used when they did not want "der kinder" to understand) from my childhood. Right then and there I realized I understood a good bit of German (although I could not speak any without sounding ridiculous). Yiddish sentence structure is totally different from German and the main words I knew anyway were curse words. Then there was the time in Paris when I accidentally ran a red light and was stopped by the police. I turned around to the kids in the car and told them to shut up. I immediately began to speak extremely bad American accented disgusting French and did not get a ticket or a fine; they took pity on the poor American who supposedly spoke terrible French. Ha! The kids knew what I was doing and we had a laugh about it later. Home exchanging in Germany, our exchange family's car was blocked from out of getting out of the garage by a car parked in front of it. I had to go around to the neighbors house explaining my predicament in extremely bad German (the phrase book did not have the appropriate phrases for this situation) until I found the offending neighbor (whose guest promptly moved his car and liberated ours). My son got a good laugh out of that one. When I say "extemely bad German" I meant it. I don't know how I made myself understood. And, of course, there are all the faux pas one makes attempting to be understood where we use, say, an English word that we assume is the same in French. Please do not ask where the "exhibition" is in French. You probably mean "exposition". "Exhibition" in French deals with what we call "exhibitionists" in English. LOL. |
Re: <i>Please do not ask where the "exhibition" is in French.</i>
Unless you're headed to the Bois de Boulogne in the evening. :) |
Especially the Bois de Boulogne with a bouteille de Bourgeuil!
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LOL, St. Cirq.
And, no, I was not headed for the Bois de Boulogne in the evening--with or without the bouteille (boo-tay). |
How many bouteilles de Bourgeuil could the bourgeois imbibe in the Bois de Boulogne if the bourgeois could imbibe beverages?
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Les bourgeois pourraient boire beaucoup de bouteilles de Bourgueil si les bourgeois pourraient boire des boissons!
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Ca suffit avec les bourgeois et leur bouteilles!
[That's enough with the bourgeois and their bottles]. |
D'accord, bien sûr!
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Stcirq -
that last one is great. I've printed it out to test on my wife's cousins, who are coming by this afternoon - |
some shake their BOOTY after too much Bouteille.
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Like that booty-shakin' Blackbeard, apres-rum?
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psst Underhill,
At the risk of sounding like the aforementioned french woman. Papageno (the birdcatcher for the Nightqueen in the Magic Flute) is a he. |
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