Marie, when do you use excusez-moi instead of Pardon?

A friend of mine went to France on a college exchange perhaps twenty years ago and he came back with the "ouais" sound that was obviously hip to that age set. Rex, thanks for the inhaled oui reference--I'd forgotten that seeming little spell, but have always gotten a kick out of it! And thanks, Harzer, for the glottal stop explanation. This is a great exchange. I posted on another thread today a website that allows one to practice/learn French while solving a murder mystery. I've only had a quick glimpse of it, but share the address here for anyone's amusement:

http://www.polarfle.com/

Hi Marie:

Yes, you were the person I had in mind who sometimes writes "ouah" in casual postings. I didn't think it meant much, so never thought to ask, but this thread reminded me that I had noticed your occasional "ouah." Airone

Bonjour,

I don't know who I'm addressing ! Could you tell me what I must do to answer such or such message, please ? For instance, I'd like to answer Cigalechanta as well as Airone... What must I do ? If I click to the thread, the window where I'm supposed to type my message comes close to the very first message of the thread... Merci d'avance !/Thanks in advance ! Marie

To Mimi : Well, Mimi, "Excusez-moi" is very similar to "pardon !", it might be considered as a bit more formal since the expression is... a bit longer !!!

"Pardon" is the "ellipse"/ellipsis of (hmm, would you say "for" ?) "demander pardon" : "je vous demande pardon..."

Here is what the Oxford-Hachette online "dico" (colloquial abbreviation for "dictionnaire&quot says about "pardon" :

(dans une formule de politesse) "pardon!" = "sorry! ; "pardon? qu'est-ce que tu as dit?" = "sorry" ou "I beg your pardon?" (GB) "what did you say?"; "pardon madame, je cherche…" = "excuse me please, I'm looking for…"; "pardon de vous avoir interrompu" = "I'm sorry for interrupting you" Bonne journée !/Have a nice day ! Marie

To Airone : Bonjour !

I try to make my posts as lively as I can to make foreign people realize what French sounds like in everyday conversations between friends, for instance ! Thus, my use of French interjections, etc. !

Now, can you tell me if one can go and edit one's posts on this forum, please ? Once it's posted, can we change anything to such or such post one has written down ? Bon mercredi !/Have a nice Wednesday ! It's been freezing in the north west of France for the past few days... Brrrrr !!! Marie

Marie, unfortunately you can't do much on Fodors except simply post a message on a particular thread. There is no way to direct your post to someone in a way that causes an e-mail notification to be sent. We do not notice new posts that might be addressed to us unless we happen to open the thread again and look at the new posts. Some people choose to have their e-mail addresses show up after their names, but most don't. This is a huge, high-traffic (and sometimes nasty) public board, so if you do have your e-mail address showing, you could potentially get quite a few e-mails, possibly more than you'd like.

If you click on someone's name, you'll get a list of threads where that person posted. That's a relatively new feature here on Fodors. I like it because I can click on my own name and check for new activity on the threads where I have previously posted.

You can do searches by using the word search function in the "search" box above, or the country search. However, the search function is very simple and limited and there are some threads that are somehow "lost" and do not come up in the search function. If you're used to the Delphi search function, this one on Fodors will seem terribly primitive by comparison.

Here's another recent discussion on a French language issue that was running at around the same time as this one regarding "oui":
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34545411 Then it continued on and on and on here:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34545680

Bonjour Marie007,

No, unfortunately, you can't edit the posts you have already posted. Even though there is "Preview my reply" fonction, I keep posting with mis-spellings and other errors.

> to make "foreign people" realize ..

It's sort of funny to see these words on this international board (besides, 90% ? of the posters are from anglophone contries, that I'm not). No big deal though.

I'm glad Kappa answered you about editing. I forgot to answer that. All you can do is to try the "preview my reply" function before you hit "post." You might catch a few errors then, but if you don't it's too late once you post!

Fodors forum can be very interesting, but the "important" functions are very primitive. On the occasions when improvements are made to the site, it's often just frivolous things like the ability to insert emoticons or change colors, but the more serious faults (to me), like the limited and spotty search and the absence of the ability to edit or delete after posting, remain the same.

Marie, when you post a reply to any thread, your reply goes to the very end of the thread. It does not go to a particular message. If you want to address a specific person's reply, you may mention that person's name in your reply as I did here.

It's freezing here in New England also, but on the whole I think I'd rather be freezing with you in the northwest of France. And thank you for your explanations of colloquial French; I am fascinated.

To Airone, Kappa, Nikki : First of all, thanks for all the info and your advice !

Kappa, when I wrote "foreign people", I meant people not being "francophones", id est, people not speaking French... I think reading posts containing French "idiomatismes"/idioms can help NNFS (non native French speakers) to visualize what my native tongue is like...

Now, may I ask you where you are from, please ? And please don't feel offended by my straightforward attitude... I'm and remain very... French !!! Cordialement. Marie who expects to see her corrected when her English is not idiomatic enough...