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

Entry: Handy French Phrases - A761645
Author: Existential Elevator - the original blast from the past- visit the Temple @ A802333 - U195643

It might need a little work, but I think it is good enough...I'd really appreciate any help....Thankyou

Hi there!

This is a good start for an Entry, but I've got some points here (don't worry, it's mainly grammatical stuff):

There are a few grammatical errors:

vous avez un nez grand (you have a big nose) = vous avez un grand nez - I think adjectives that are physical descriptions go before the noun, and all others after

je tu adore (I love you) = je t'adore (where t' is 'te')

je vous déteste (I hate you) - well, to be in conjunction with the above, you could use 'je te déteste', depending on the target object

je me lave les cheveaux (I wash my hair myself) = 'cheveaux' should be 'cheveux', and you could use 'mes cheveux' if you want to be pedantic

je voudrais une bière, sil vous plait (I would like a beer, if you please) = 'sil vous plait' should be 's'il vous plaît'

Ennuyant (boring) = Ennuyeux (horrible to pronounce)

--

Just as a sidenote, you could mention that the French language is very picky on where to use 'tu' and 'vous', depending on the person you are talking to... 'tu' if you know them very well and 'vous' if they're someone older than you or a random person on the street...

--

Here's a few more phrases you could add:

Greetings/Meeting people

Salut (Greetings!)
Je m'appelle... (my name is...)

Insults

T'ai toi! (shut up!) - not sure on the spelling, though

Votre famille est une bande de idiots et tu est une grande pile de merde! (Your family is a band of idiots and you are a big pile of s**t!) - you can split this up if you want

Une fourmi âgée a fait plus mieux que tu (An elderly ant did better than you) - not sure on the grammar

Going Out

bon voyage! (good journey!)

Illness

J'ai des hémorroïdes (I have piles/haemorroids)

Parting

À bientôt (see you soon)

That's all I can think of at the moment!

La feuille d'inscription est très bonne! (The Entry is very good!)

Caper Plip

Hiya PC,

sorry for the double-take corrections!

just for the record, you'd be wrong to correct 'les cheveux', not pedantic!

If it is attached to your body, its a job for inviolable possession! I just that phrase (bet that was meant to be !)

Je m'en bas LES coui... oh no, better not say that, i'll get into trouble!

Oh yeah, and where'd you get 'Feuille d'inscription from?

*hoping it was a gag and not a machine translation job*

Well, it's in the vocab for my French coursework... thought I might pop it in... not machine translation...

Oh, and I suppose you could put 'zut alors!' in there...

Caper Plip

Thankyou very much

I've made the updates and really appreciate your help

oops, multiple thread probs!

Hey EE, you shouldn't have 'corrected' 'Je me lave les cheveux'. It was right, and now it's wrong. see pr thread for details.

ah, er, so this *is* the pr thread then!

Or even 'Cette année, les Bleus ont été très m***e/mal/pitoyable (do you pluralise them? Totally forgot...), n'est-ce pas?' (This year, the Blues (ie the French national football team) were very s**t/bad/pathetic, weren't they?

L O L O L O, What's goin' hon 'ere, then?

I put a translation and everything... my one that they moderated was only a valid comment about the French football team's performance during the World Cup...

I used Zut Alors! in here ... A812288 ... and I'm getting away with it so far.

Well, i think you'd get away with 'Dash it all!' in English, DrMonty.

I notice that you have 'Je suis pleine' as 'I am pregnant', which is correct. It may be as well to say that as 'pleine' literally translates as 'full', it would be the wrong thing to say after you had eaten a meal, for example.

I heard of someone refusing a drink that way, and the boy who had been buying her drinks looked at her left hand and then shook his head!

That reminds me of 'je suis célibataire' (I am single)

Well, 'je suis pleine' is a perfectly acceptable thing to say if you had had enough to eat. It means just what it does in English (if you happen to be a girl).

Meanwhile, 'pleine' meaning pregnant is usually only when referring to an animal, like a mare or something.

No self-respecting girl who wanted to announce the good news would use this word this way!

The usual expression would be, "Je suis enceinte."

more slang version would be "Elle est en cloque." (i don't think that gets used much in the 1st person! )

Do me a favour and stick in "Je suis creve(e)." Means I am knackered.

Actually punctured. Like "Mon pneu est creve". But that's idioms at work I s'pose.

Mont.

- This would have done well as a collaborative entry but would have ended up like a French-English dictionary, only with lots of mistakes in it.

Ooh, looks like the Mods had a change of heart... they're back...

hey PC, did you know there is an adjective from m**de?

Les bleus ont vraiment étés m**diques au Japon cet été.
The 'blues' were really cr**py in Japan this summer.

*awaits moderation*