h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi

I found this a very interesting and entertaining entry, and as an Englishman who has learnt French to a high level and German to a much more basic level (Mittelstufe mit dem Goethe Institut!), I wondered whether you were aware (I think you must be) how many of these misunderstandings and 'Faux amis' occur as a more or less direct result of French influence on the German language.

Many of the examples ( konkurrieren, mondaen, Store) are borrowings from French that have also come into English via the Normans (often developing a different, though usually related meaning along the way).

I haven't had time to look at your UNofficial list yet, but you can be sure that I will! I am looking forward to it already.

Thanks again, Vielen Dank!

Spiff

Hi Spiff - thanks for the compliments. I have in several places left hints, and have also started a small collection of these things for French. So you can either watch out for it - or have a go yourself.

The discoveries I have made when specifically asking French people are:

What do the French call "vol au vents" (pastry cases usually for a veal or chicken ragout, as a starter)
I was told that they would know what was meant by the expression, but would call them "bouches de reine"

What do the French understand by "risqué" - is there a connotation of "naughty" or "pornographic"
No - risqué is the past participle of risquer. No more and no less.

Cul-de-sac. Need I say more?

And a French-German one which caused some hilarity with a group of French and German ladies recently was the "Vasisdas" - a type of gable window. A German hears "Was ist das?" - i.e. what is that?

The crux of the problem is always that a monolingual speaker of the language being used will employ a word from a foreign language because it sounds foreign, and sounds genuine, and is utterly convinced that the native speaker of that foreign language has the same understanding of the word, and that neither party has need of a dictionary, or any further explanation. Until the misunderstanding becomes obvious, to everyone's amusement or embarrassment.

Some people, too, have absolutely no capacity for transferring the meanings of words. I was once talking to a German Engineer, who had a slight grasp of technical English. However, when told that the word "boring" meant "langweilig", i.e. uninteresting and long-drawn-out he was totally unable to detach the word from the German word "bohren" for "to drill" and apply it to the figurative meaning of something going on for ages and unpleasantly penetrating the subconscious. (Which, I have always supposed, is the origin of our meaning of the word "boring" - I may be wrong)

However, enough said. Thanks again for the compliments and keep your eyes out for malentendus.

I've heard the 'Vasisdas' actually was named after the German 'Was ist das'! Some Germans kept asking for a name of the window thing, and the French thought it was a proper name

And another frenchism in german:

"Fisimatenten machen" -means (in the Berlin area at least) to behave ugly, unpolite or stubborn. And guess where it came from?

Napoleonic soldiers during the occupation of Berlin often proposed to the women of the city to "visite ma tente" - come into my tent. Seemlingly these propositions where not considered entirely harmless by the ladies, hence the meaning of "Fisimatenten"