I didn't put it into a translation engine, but that translates to "the wisdom is to be mad when the circumstances are worth the pain?"

Or did I get that all wrong?

:-)

A classic example of whay electronic translations are pretty useless.

I've never heard that expression before, but my translation would be "wisdom means being crazy when circumstances warrant it."

I guess my translation is not bad (I did it pretty literally), but StCirq's is a little more idiomatic.

I really enjoyed reading all those "French" sentences everybody wrote here! LOL!
If you allow me I'd like to correct some of them :-B (no big mistakes in general but some parts could sound funny for the Frenchs...)
Bonjour matelot, êtes-vous nouvel en ville ? "nouvel" is "nouveau" for a boy (except with a word starting with a vowel like in "nouvel an")
This sentence made me laugh! as a woman I don't imagine myself saying that to a man! "Hey sailor! are you new in town?" your friend made fun of you! ;-)

"Peut-etre un petit peu, mais je voudrais apprendre le parler." = "apprendre A le parler" or "je voudrais l'apprendre"

"Vous pourriez me enseigner de le parler." = "vous pourriez me l'enseigner (or me l'apprendre)


"Eh, bebe – ma petite chou" chou is masculine so it is "mon petit chou" even for a girl (I know it is hard to tell) and "désirez-vous FAIRE le hoochy-koochy avec moi" (I almost can see you doing it! :-d )

Gekko I'm sorry but I didn't understand "mon mec fou" (my crazy boyfriend?):?
but anyway congratulations and forgive me for MY English faults!

Much better: vous pourriez me l'enseigner

My French is incredibly rusty. I guess this one will go on the blog.

Dang! Mon French est plus stinky!

" Donne-moi dix dollars et dine chez moi "

Said Absolutely tongue in cheek :D

If anyone asks if you wish to see their Japanese stamp collection, it is the equivalent of asking if you wish to "come up and see my etchings" in English....

Travelbunny, I heard about "estampe japonaise" too more than once, could be a popular line for people of certain age. It's possible that today they rather say it as a joke. At least it sounds a bit subtler and erotic than "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi". By the way would there be anyone who really say that (voulez-vous coucher ..? ) except prostitutes and non-francophones?

Well, for one thing, <i>coucher</i> is a <u>transitive</u> verb that means <i>to put to bed</i>, so &quot;voulez-vous coucher avec moi?&quot; is not intelligible French.

<i>To go (put oneself) to bed</i> is rendered with the <u>reflexive</u> verb <i>se coucher</i>, and requires a reflexive pronoun. So &quot;do you want to go to bed with me?&quot; would have to be <i>voulez-vous <u>vous</u> coucher avec moi?</i> or, using the more intimate form, <i>veux-tu te coucher...</i>?

This is an egregious example of why Francophones laugh at Americans' questions and answer them in English.

Robespierre, you are wrong. Here's the quote from the Petit Robert:

<i>Coucher avec qqn</i>: partager son lit, sa chambre avec lui. <i> Fam.</i> Avoir des relations sexuelles avec qqn.

On the other had, the <i>vous</i> form sounds somewhat incongruous in such circumstances.

R, I'm not sure if I agree with the reflexive nature of coucher in this context.

vous vous couchez = &quot;you lie in bed&quot;

But I could see phrasing this as nous instead -- so I guess perhaps nous nous couchons ensemble would be more appropriate.

So to be grammatical, I think that I'd rewrite the entire sentence: We go to bed together?

But it sounds like coco is a native French speaker. Perhaps (s)he can clarify this point.

In any case, they're verbs that are reflexive that function non-reflexively. When they take a subject, the pronoun is dropped.

I'll have to ask my friend next time about this. I've never thought about this question.

Robesp.,
...grammatically imperfect in more ways than one, because lovers would not be using the 'vous' form to begin with.
The song lyric story is clearly about a prostitute making a proposition to a client, which may account both for the 'vous' as well as for the lapse in perfect grammar. Not even all French people are well-educated in grammar, despite Henry Higgins's claim that &quot;the French don't care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly.&quot;

I just googled the couchez phrase and it turns out the phrase as it stands has a distinguished literary history.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/enc..._avec_moi1.htm

Ok, I guess Michael agrees with me.

Thanks for the citation.

I encourage people to read the Wikipedia entry on voulez-vous etc. It's funny. Whoever wrote it has a good sense of humor.

oh, I hadn't before seen on my screen Michael's previous comment about the incongruity of the use of vous

elaine, your link is basically from Wikipedia, except Wikipedia has another punch line at the end which is very funny (about the plural vous).

I think that Wikipedia is frequently pirated by other websites.

The formality of vous aside, I think that Michael's citation makes the important that R. is incorrect. You do not use the reflexive form of vous in this case (or, as I said, I could see a case for the reflexive in the nous form).

Scarlett, you want me to pay you ten dollars so I can have dinner with you?

Oh. I get it.

=D&gt; :d

111op
sorry, answers are passing each other in space.
I just found the entry in wilkpedia, the other was clearly cribbed, and I love the wilkpedia final joke about vous.

Je vais me coucher maintenant. Bonne nuit.

No problem, elaine. Just the way things are.

I'm signing off as well. I don't usually check this forum at this hour, but well, you know, once I start checking, it's hard to stop.

It's an addiction.

:-)

France is a Latin country, and as such, any casual conversation between men and women is assumed to be an attempt at a pick-up. Men talk to women mainly for the purpose of initiating sexual relationships, and women assume that any man talking to them has this purpose in mind.

If you're a woman, and a French man talks to you spontaneously, it's safe to take for granted that he is trying to pick you up. If you speak to a French man, he will assume that you are inviting a pick-up. If you're a man, and you speak to a French woman, she'll assume that you're trying to pick her up; and she is unlikely to talk to you unless she is inviting a pick-up, since she knows how it works with French men.

This aspect of the culture can be good or bad, depending on what you're looking for during your visit to France. The absence of platonic interactions between the sexes may be good if you don't want people of the opposite sex to &quot;just be friends,&quot; but it may also be bad if platonic friendships are exactly what you're trying to initiate. In any case, it's quite a contrast with countries such as the US or UK where platonic friendships between the sexes are far easier to establish (for better or for worse).

Antony, that is so true! I've found myself in hot water more than once after innocently (I thought) chatting with French guys. They could get quite indignant when they realised that I was just being polite/friendly and had no intention of going home with them. (&quot;mais pourquoi tu m'as parl&eacute; alors?&quot;).

One of the classic lines that guys would come out with was &quot;Quand est-ce qu'on se revoit?&quot; - when will we see each other again? which seemed to be taken as a given if you spent more than 2 minutes talking to them.

Mind you, I can't be totally impervious to the Gallic charm - my husband is French! ;)

good morning!((#))
111op, I think Robespierre is right for &quot;se coucher&quot; but it is different from &quot;coucher avec&quot;, in that case Mickael is right.
you can also say &quot;je vais coucher les enfants&quot; ou &quot;je vais mettre les enfants au lit&quot; (same meaning, I'm going to put the children to bed)

so &quot;se coucher&quot; &quot;coucher avec&quot; and &quot;coucher quelqu'un&quot; are all different!
hanl I'm not surprised your husband is French when I read your perfect french!

Anthony, very interesting analysis and quite true (not all the French men are like that fortunately!)
have a nice day! :-)

I researched this about 40 years ago, but I must perforce acknowledge that my sources weren't authoritative - an 18 year old boy and a Parisian whore.

But isn't anyone going to mention ending a sentence with a proposition?

I went to see Robert Bresson's &quot;Pickpocket&quot; last night, and I was thinking that the last line almost works as a &quot;pickup line.&quot;

&quot;Oh, Jeanne, what a strange way I had to take to meet you!&quot;

People who've seen this movie may appreciate the humor in this.

Unfortunately the French was sort of over my head. It'd been nice to find the original quote in French, but I can't locate a source in French.

If someone has this on DVD or knows what the quote is in French, I'd appreciate it.

Anthony, or anyone....I have a question regarding the suggestion that that men don't associate casually with women unless it is a proposition of some kind. Does this also hold true in social atmospheres such as jazz clubs? My Mom and I went alone to a jazz club last year in Paris. We were quickly asked to dance by two gentlemen who were obvious good dancers and both were single. My Mom also danced with a French man that was there with his wife. Are two married women alone asking for trouble going some place like this? WE had no problems leaving the fellows behind! But, you got me to thinking.