Oh sure, it's fine to know how to say Good Morning and Thank You, but here are the 3 most valuable additions to my rudimentary French (handy to have a little notebook to write these in):

1. laverie automatique (lah-ver-ee otto-mah-teek), noun = laundromat

2. emporter (om-pour-tay), verb = "to go" as in food to take away

3. distributeur bancaire (dees-tree-boo-tur bahn-care), noun = ATM or cashpoint

Fluent speakers and French teachers everywhere, feel free to improve on my pronunciation guide!

How about this: (from my old high school french)

Zut alors! (zoot ahlorz) = Gosh darn!
La telephone est fait de gomme! (la taylayfon ay fay du gom) = The telephone is made of rubber!
Maudit salope! (moh-dee salop) = (rude thing to say to rude woman)
Je n'aime pas les jambes de grenouille frites. = do you have any hamburgers instead?
Pourquoi sont toutes en greve? = Why is everything closed?
Ou dans cette ville trouve-on Sadam? = Where can I meet some of your other international guests?

Ha ha...

*ROTFLMAO* @ MD ;-D

And from a long-ago holiday in France I remember: 'tete de con'! Still don't know exactly what it means, but whenever someone bothered us (me and my girlfriend) we used it and the French guys were always VERY shocked!

MD, LOVE your translations! ROTFLMAO. I'm sure there are lots more...My husband learned the verb egare (it needs a few accent marks)= to misplace. But when I told someone I had "egare" my husband, it got a laugh because I guess you only misplace things, not people. They just don't know him.

There was a line in a french movie I saw, where the guy goes away muttering "Quelle con!". It meant "what a c*nt".

The French are very scatalogical and explicit, so I'm not sure why theywould be shocked; unless they never expected to hear a tourist say such a thing, or it was a slur on their gallic manhood.

My step-sister told me of some banter when she was studying in Paris - the fellow says laughingly "That's the trouble with American women - no taste!" She replies "I should hope not! I bathe every day!"

I seem to recall that the title of the play "Oh Calcutta" was a play on a similar French expression.

Carola: I suppose then what you were saying was 'c*nthead'! hehe like it, bit like us saying dickhead I suppose.

Hi all,

I have found that "La plume de ma tante est sur le bureau de mon oncle" to be very useful, no matter what the occasion.

Oooh La! ceci fait mon mal de tête !

Con simply means idiot....

mitchdesj: maybe in your dicationary it means idiot, but no lady of any upbringing would use it. Just like the F-word is liberally used today, it doesn't necessarily show class.

The 3 indispensable words every hitchhiking female needs to know: Je vais vomir (juh vay vohmeer) I'm going to vomit...gets the frisky male driver to stop on a dime and get you out of his beautiful car everytime.

mitchdesi is absolutely correct. In French, "con" simply means imbecile or idiot. It's interesting to try to peg it to similar-sounding English words, but in reality it just means idiot or imbecile.
And whoever said the French are much more explicit than we are is correct. Feel free to use " merde" and "con" and other such words if your French is up to it in situations that warrant it.(By "your French is up to it, I mean you can carry on a logical conversation with someone about most any topic."

I heartily recommend the books "Merde! The French They Never Taught You In High School" and "Merde Encore" (More of the same...) by Genevive something-or-other. Among other things ;ike body parts, it teaches you about African-French, which makes my copy of "Tintin Dans Le Congo" that much more fun to read.

How about "Wicked French"? Any of you seen that book? It's the best example of the sort of hilariously useless French that MD wrote earlier. And it's part of a series...

I am also reminded of Monty Python's "Hungarian-English Phrase Book".

Some choice lines:

"My hovercraft is full of eels."
"I will not buy this record, it is scratched".
"Please take off your panties, I cannot wait til lunch."
"I am no longer infected."

first, it wouldn't be "quelle con" because quelle is a feminine adj. form, it would have to be "quel con"

I don't quite agree that it simply means stupid and idiot. Yes, it is used that way as a pejorative just like such vulgarities are used in other languages. Merde certainly has a specific meaning even though it is used liberally to mean a lot of other things. Con (or conne for fem.) is used as an insult, but it is slang for a female body part. It is a vulgarity and should not be used liberally, and I especially think certain vulgarities that may be used in common argot by French speakers should not be used by foreigners who don't know the language well because it comes off sounding worse and perhaps more vulgar.

Hi

And to be up to date, use :

mecs, murfs, clopes, caca, mdr, etc.

Very trendy !

Slight annoyance can be expressed by vache. Can also be used as vachement.

Peter
http://tlp.netfirms.com

La seule phrase que je peut parler en français est celle-ci.

Pronunciation guide: "La sul fraz k'zhuh puh parlay onfransay ey sel-see."