Post by: krissel on September 03, 2009, 03:50:16 AM
Post by: Xairbusdriver on September 03, 2009, 08:08:40 AM
Only ones I can use now are "Cordon" and "Bleu," usually together and in that order. 
But it is a beautiful language to my ears! 
Post by: Johanbgoot on September 03, 2009, 08:47:22 AM
TTFN
Johan
Post by: Highmac on September 03, 2009, 08:55:04 AM
Post by: Xairbusdriver on September 03, 2009, 07:24:30 PM
QUOTE
have you ever kept a rendez-vous, had a tête à tête, been in a mènage à trois
Well, we've had two dogs and now have a cat. But I can't say we've ever kept a rendez-vous. Can they be house broken? Not sure about that second one. I try to avoid letters with things growing out of them! Now that mènage thing...Is that the fluffy stuff made from whipped eggs that is put on top of many pies? I'm not fond of that stuff. 
Even if it does come in three layers. 
You are correct, of course, English borrows/steals from any language found laying around! Of course, once adopted by Americans, the spellings are 'normalized' from the way the "Islands" usually misspell things...
And how many languages end up with many words spelled exactly the same but with completely different meanings?! Wind (that blows), wind (a watch)! Bark (on a tree) & bark (dog sound), bear (the animal) & bear (the pain of English!). Et cetera ("borrowed from Latin")(I suppose that means South America, or would it be Spain...).
Post by: Highmac on September 04, 2009, 01:39:50 AM
Enough already
Post by: krissel on September 04, 2009, 04:47:58 AM
genre, rouge, garage, mirage, barrage...
Post by: kimmer on September 04, 2009, 12:50:35 PM
pear, pair and pare
their, there and they're
read and red
and so on ....
Post by: pauline on September 04, 2009, 01:58:02 PM
liquorice -licorice, criticise-criticize .....
Post by: Johanbgoot on September 09, 2009, 09:05:15 AM
One thing the French have is L'académie française, it is the defining institution as to how French is spelt and written, and boy do they get their knitters in a twist sometimes, they argue over the use of Le or La, i.e., the word judge is le juge so how do you say Mr Justice Smith M. le juge Smith, but what if it is Madam Justice Smith, Mme. le juge Smith but it Mme. le juge is a contradiction. We in canada use Mme. La juge but l'académie frowns upon this as their rulings and recommendations are not binding.
Post by: krissel on September 10, 2009, 03:12:04 AM
I've learned so much from TS members.
Post by: Highmac on September 10, 2009, 03:48:12 AM
QUOTE(Johanbgoot @ Sep 9 2009, 03:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
...We in canada use Mme. La juge but l'académie frowns upon this as their rulings and recommendations are not binding.
So Canadians do to French what the Americans do to English
Even here, though, English has changed a lot since I left school. One small example of quite a recent change: 'Their' is being used instead of 'his/her', 'he/she' when both genders are being included in a sentence. Grammatically incorrect but it looks a lot tidier in print and doesn't stop the reader in their tracks in the same way. (Still stops me, but I'm older and haven't really accepted it yet!)
Post by: Xairbusdriver on September 10, 2009, 09:30:49 AM
I believe it is developed by the lack of reading and too much audio/video input! 
What is their problem?! They're driving me crazy! And it's a short trip there for me, anyway!