Telephone call you can't translate

"Hello ? Are you there ? What's your name ?
"Whatt's my name"
"yes, what's your name ?"
"My name is Watt. Aren't you Jones ?"
"No, I'm Knott."
"Will you please tell me your name ?"
"Will Knott."
"Why wont you ?"
"I say my name is William Knott."
"Oh, I beg your pardon. "
"Then you'll be in this afternoon, if I come round, Watt ?"
"Certainly, Knott."

Hi Muriel,

Thanks for this text, I laughed a lot.

In French, these mistakes are less easy than in English, at least that's what I think though...
It reminded me of an old record I had when a kid: "Les deux sourds" but you're way too young to know about it.

Are homophones as frequent in French as in English? more? less? Why?

aient - third person plural subjunctive of avoir
aies - second person singular subjunctive of avoir
ait - third person singular subjunctive of avoir
es - second person singular present indicative of être (to be)
est - third person singular present indicative of être
et - (conjunction) and

Il semble y avoir beaucoup plus d'homophones en Anglais
http://www.bifroest.demon.co.uk/misc/homophones-list.html et je ne savais pas qu'il y en avait tant

Thanks for your message Muriel.

ai - 1st person of singular of the present simple of indicative of avoir

> son "é" difficile à reconnaitre en Français
When I was at primary school, our school master taught us differences between "et" and "est" (though it was in Provence, a region where we tend to open the vowels) but nowadays, these differences are not used any longer.

Very funny, Muriel !

Hi Krystyna ! Hi Gerard
I am pleased you enjoyed the "telephone call " story. It is from Roger Malevez from Bruxelles who has given me polyglot magazines he published in 1972
As I am from the North of France
All the aient - aies - ait - es - est - et - sound the same.