True English

MurielB a écrit:Yes Gérard it is interesting to know. All those "faux amis" not used with their proper meanings make you look stupid don't they ?

Yes, that leads to misunderstanding.

Hi everyone,

Gosh! I don't understand much and I'm afraid I'll have to learn English for the rest of my life.   

Here is a conversation on Facebook between my niece and her friends. XMas is coming and the children begin to arrive home...
You know, I wrote that I loved such exchange as it taught me true English... but I don't understand much!!

Alison - Got my littlest man home - happiness in my life
Marie-Therese - Sweet! Gibe him lits of gubs.
Sarah - might be the littliest but certainly the tallest!! x
Alison - Marie-Therese - you on the sauce again?
Marie-Therese - Yuppp! Decided to start early!

Okay apart "Yuppp", the sentence that puzzles me is "Gibe him lits of gubs." and I'm wondering what "you on the sauce again?" means.
What is it? Casual/Slang? or simply typos?
I assume "Gibe" means "give", "gubs" means "hugs".
What about "lits"? I don't think it's literature LOL
Hm finally I would bet Marie-Therese kept her mitten to type on the keyboard.
... "you on the sauce again?" 

~~ édition - intervention de mon petit neveu :

Matthew - Have a safe flight to NZ you two. Look forward to seeing you all this time next week xx

Hi Gérard
I have found "on the sauce"in the American slang dictionary

on the sauce definition

1. mod.
   drinking regularly; alcohol intoxicated. :  Poor old Ron is on the sauce again.
   
   

but couldn't find anything for "Sweet! Gibe him lits of gubs"  I will try again later.

Muriel,

MurielB a écrit:Hi Gérard
I have found "on the sauce"in the American slang dictionary

on the sauce definition

1. mod.
   drinking regularly; alcohol intoxicated. :  Poor old Ron is on the sauce again.
   
   

Congrats and thanks for the success of your research!
Well the style of their words tho they're not American.

but couldn't find anything for "Sweet! Gibe him lits of gubs"  I will try again later.

> Gibe him lits of gubs
Don't search on! I'm sure it's a series of typos; wondering if she forgot her specs or if she did it on purpose.
Look at the positions of the letters on a keyboard: "Gibe him lits of gubs" may stand for "Give him lots of hugs".  

Hi everyone,

I met it in the past but had forgotten!

Why doesn't my dictionary give it?

When I look into my dictionary in the French part, "aïe" tells me the soft British "oh dear" or "ouch"... the word Americans use is rather "Yikes", or Yipe, or Yipes.
If I look in the English part, Yikes effectively tells me "aïe"!

Strange word with this "Yi"... in which Y is a consonent.

Hi Gérard, everyone


I didn't kwow those 3 words : "Yikes", or Yipe, or Yipes. Calais is too far away from the states. I only knew  "oh dear" or "ouch"

Muriel,

You cannot ignore the language of 320 million inhabitants, can you?
(U.S. and World Population Clock)

NB: I forgot "oops".

Gérard I have no excuse ! My older daughter has spent 6 months in New York and my younger one nearly 5 years. one of her best friends is married to an American and has loads of (oodles of   American friends). She will come for Christmas (at lunchtime to-day) I will ask her about Yikes", or Yipe, or Yipes and let you know.
Thanks for the link about US population.

Hi Muriel,

MurielB a écrit:... Thanks for the link about US population.

You're welcome.
These counters displaying population in the US and in the world are impressive with the increasing figures.

Hi Gérard
My daughter would rather say "Aw" like "Aw, I messed up,"Perhaps because she has stayed in Newyork

Gérard. a écrit:the word Americans use is rather "Yikes", or Yipe, or Yipes.

Thanks buckets Muriel.

Hi Muriel, everyone,

Is she sure it is not "ow"?
Does your daughter know about Yikes? did she already hear this?


An issue often occurs becausewhen there're several meanings behind a word.
It would be easy to have a one-one correspondance but it is rarely the case. That's what's interesting in languages: we realize there're several meanings or nuances behind a word and there's no reason to have one word in English for the different meanings.

For example: "aïe !" - The French use this in -at least- 3 cases:
- (pain) when they hit their finger with a hammer instead of the nail head
- (to express worry) - "aïe, que se passe-t-il ?"
- (anticipation) - "aïe, aïe, aïe !"
There're 3 different series of translations.

Ouch, oops, ow, yikes, yipe(s), gulp, oh dear!, oh no!, aye, ayyayya, ojojoj...

She also said that she would rather say "Fuck it" but i did not know if i could write it on the forum! 

Shocking!   

Hi everyone,

I recently wanted to comment on an article and needed to subscribe.
As the site was hosting blogs, I also created an individual area for later. I didn't fill up the boxes of the form (I'll do this later).

I was surprised by a pre-filled box stating:

Tagline: This WordPress.com site is the bee's knees

??? didn't know what it meant!

So, do you know what this expression "the bee's knees" means?

Here, it means "good, excellent, top quality"

The origin of the expression is not known.
I kept 2 alternatives:
- a bee is carrying the pollen betwwen its front knews
- it's an alternate pronunciation for business and business means pro/excellent - "b's and e's" theory (short for "be-alls and end-alls") and a corruption of "business" ("It's the beezness.")

However, there are other suggested meanings:
- something impossible
- very small (bee's knee) - abandonned for "gnat's bollock"   
- nonsense expression
- etc

Read this web page, it's funny -> The Phrase Finder.

Other links also refer to "bee's knees" but they are not as accurate:
- Urban dictionary
- The Free Dictionary
- ec English

Hi everyone,

Another interesting web page is "Talk:bee's knees" from Wiktionary.
The "Talk:" page is the special page where persons in charge of definitions discuss to find an agreement and write the final public page; say kinda rough draft.
-> Talk:bee's knees

I also found this expression in my dictionary: "to think one is the bee's knees[!] se prendre pour un crack[!]."

Hi,

Such as "bee's knees", English speaking people do like to use expressions that don't have necessarily sense but just for fun.
The French also use this but far less.

rhyming slang noun: argot consistant à remplacer un mot par une locution qui rime avec ce mot.

By the way, EMT's even have a web site to find out good rhymes -> Rhyme Zone

A few examples:
- bee's knees
- cat's pajamas
- eel's ankle
- capybara's spats
- kipper's knickers
- dog's bollocks
- etc.

Something ridiculous or impossible easily has the connotation of something rare and excellent such as:
- snake's hips
- cat's whiskers
- monkey's eyebrows
- elephant's instep
- snake's hip
- Gnat's Wing
- etc.

Hi everyone,

We must not confuse between

- dessert pronounced di'ze:t
- desert pronounced 'dezet

No need to give the translation as they are obvious.
But the pronunciations are not obvious at all for French people.
NB:
- the ' shows you the syllable which is stressed
- the : shows the length of the sound
Pls learn how to pronounce properly these words... not easy for us, French.

Hi everyone,

My nephew is so good at English that I don't even understand him; though he's a French cituzen, his French is not that good!

Eek not really digging this whole leaving scenario

Gosh I needed help on 2 words!!
(a clue: he left Dubai this morning and he had to leave his girlfriend)

False cognate?

English "spouse" is used for masculine as well as feminine, did you know it?

gerardM a écrit:Hi everyone,

My nephew is so good at English that I don't even understand him; though he's a French cituzen, his French is not that good!

Eek not really digging this whole leaving scenario

Gosh I needed help on 2 words!!
(a clue: he left Dubai this morning and he had to leave his girlfriend)

Hi Gérard, I am trying hard but I don't understand what you mean.  

Hi Muriel,

MurielB a écrit:Hi Gérard, I am trying hard but I don't understand what you mean.  

I said my nephew left Dubai this morning for Nottingham, England after the Holiday's season and he wasn't very happy to leave his parents, family and girlfriend.
So he posted this

Eek not really digging this whole leaving scenario

There are 2 words I didn't understand: "eek" and "dig"
Eek is not in my dictionary.
I don't know about to dig in this context.
... now I know.

Thank Gérard for explaining i also had to look "eek"Up in the dictionary

Muriel,

Eek -
This word has got lots of meanings. Take  alook at The Urban Dictionary or even the Merriam-Webster
Here it's

eek
Used when scared, in trouble, impatient, angry or just generally distressed
('eek' Is suposed to sound like a mouses cry)

to dig -

To find attractive, pleasant, to enjoy. “I dig on that Trim, man; girl is fine!”

This meaning was very common at the Hippie period   . I don't know if it's in fashion again.

Thank you Gérard. I didn't know that "to dig" had more or less the meaning of "to like"