True English

Hi everyone,

Tonight, on TV, I heard something I didn't know.
It was a documentary on female managers in France (even ladies at the head of companies -or owners-).

I heard "manager", "to manage", etc. came from the French "ménagère" and this showed ladies were better than men at leading companies.

Hi everyone,

gerardM a écrit:Hi everyone,

So "tall" is definitely the adjective to express an important dimension in the vertical direction ie "things" which are mainly high (higher than wide or long or deep or thick, etc.): a person, a tower, a tree, a mast, grass, a building, a chimney...
Don't use another adjective: long, high or whatever, you would be wrong.
...

Well, I was saying "you'd be wrong"
It's possible/permitted -when a native- to say wrong things (but avoid when a foreigner)...
Today I read "He's getting big..." in comment on the photo of a 5-year-old, posted by his proud grandma. Obviously the guy is not speaking about his waist as the kid is cute and slim.

gerardM a écrit:

Today I read "He's getting big..." in comment on the photo of a 5-year-old, posted by his proud grandma. Obviously the guy is not speaking about his waist as the kid is cute and slim.

Hi Gérard !
you have mentioned "Big" which makes me think of "large" and "fat" which are quite different
"large" greater in size than usual
"fat" an animal or a person with a lot of extra flesh
"big"large in size
is there much difference between "large" and "big" ? I wouldn't say "the little boy is large " but "the little boy is big"
Is "big" more affective ?

gerardM a écrit:Hi everyone,

Tonight, on TV, I heard something I didn't know.
It was a documentary on female managers in France (even ladies at the head of companies -or owners-).

I heard "manager", "to manage", etc. came from the French "ménagère" and this showed ladies were better than men at leading companies.

Hi Gerard, everyone !
I have read somewhere than when when mediocre ladies are at the head of companies, it will be a great step forward in the path of equality between men and women.
In other words, women must be brilliant to lead a Company

Hi everyone,

First of all I'd like to say my posting was messy and ambiguous.

gerardM a écrit:Hi everyone,

gerardM a écrit:Hi everyone,

So "tall" is definitely the adjective to express an important dimension in the vertical direction ie "things" which are mainly high (higher than wide or long or deep or thick, etc.): a person, a tower, a tree, a mast, grass, a building, a chimney...
Don't use another adjective: long, high or whatever, you would be wrong.
...

Well, I was saying "you'd be wrong"
It's possible/permitted -when a native- to say wrong things (but avoid when a foreigner)...
Today I read "He's getting big..." in comment on the photo of a 5-year-old, posted by his proud grandma. Obviously the guy is not speaking about his waist as the kid is cute and slim.

I'm back from vacation and didn't have the subject well in mind.

There's no "wrong" word above.
In the example I gave: "He's getting big..." in response to the granny who posted a photo of her grandson, the "big" has nothing to do with the height nor the weight.
Height was the subject of some former posts of mine - I wrote that "tall" was the only adjective.
The poster didn't mean the kid was tall nor fat but just that he changed with age and looked more like a child than a baby.
I'm sorry for my mistake!! We've got only one word in French ("grand") where Americans have 2 different ("tall" for the height, "big" for the shape).

True that I often heard Krystyna speak of a "big boy" regarding the age and also say "You're a big boy!" just to congratulate.

Hi Muriel, hi everyone,

MurielB a écrit:Hi Gérard !
you have mentioned "Big" which makes me think of "large" and "fat" which are quite different
"large" greater in size than usual
"fat" an animal or a person with a lot of extra flesh
"big"large in size
is there much difference between "large" and "big" ? I wouldn't say "the little boy is large " but "the little boy is big"
Is "big" more affective ?

Yes "big" can be affective.
The word "big" is used to mean a kid is now shaped like a child and no longer like a baby.
The usual expression to say our French "Tu es maintenant une grande fille !" (nothing to do with the height) is "You're a big girl now!" (nothing to do with the size of the waist nor the weight).

To say someone is overweighed, they could say "fat" but they prefer "overweighed" as "fat" is negative (such as we French, would prefer "en surpoids" to "obèse").

gerardM a écrit:
trop petit pour comprendre

".

Hello Gérard ! everyone
How would you translate that sentence ? do you think "too young to understand" is ok ? A lot of thanks

Muriel,

Tu m'attribues une phrase que je n'ai pas écrite
Si tu utilises le bouton "Citer", tu ne dois pas modifier ou à la rigueur, ne prendre qu'un extrait de ce qui a été écrit.

MurielB a écrit:

gerardM a écrit:
trop petit pour comprendre

".

Hello Gérard ! everyone
How would you translate that sentence ? do you think "too young to understand" is ok ? A lot of thanks

I would say "too young to understand" but you could also use "too little to understand" (but not "too short").

Thanks Gérard for answering. From now on I will be careful with "citer"

Hi everyone,

These words were posted by Susan:

Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, apple, peaches, bananas, kiwi, beetroot, lemon, lime, orange, dash of plain yogurt, coconut water. Yum

Beetroot?? I guess it's for the color only. I wonder if beetroot is something special in the US as my dictionary (as well as Reverso) tells me "beetroot" in the UK is "betterave"... what is it in the US then?

Anyway! Here's the outcome ->

...
I found beetroot (UK) is named red beet in the US... still don't know what "beetroot" is in North America.

~~ edit
If I judge thru this video ( http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-harvest-beetroot ) beetroot is not our "betterave" as it's hardly bigger than a big radish.

Hi,

Something strange -

It seems there's no word to translate our French "giboulées de mars"!
Here again my dictionary only provides me with "April showers" in the UK (no translation for the US - gonna get id of this bloody dictionary then).
What is strange is:
- in France, the event is in March, in GB it's in April
- they translate by showers - sorry but even a heavy shower doesn't translate "giboulées" which is shower+hail+wind+snow/snowstorm, or say a bit of everything showing the fight between cold air and mild air. I suppose they have the same type of weather in the UK, no?

I could submit this onto WordReference.

~~ edit
Investigations lead me to words I'm not familiar with: sleet, downpour.
I can see that common translation is hail, sleet, snow together.

Hi Gerard
I have looked up in my dictionary and seen that "beetroot" in American English is "beet(s)". you have written "redbeet" ( are there different colours ?).

Hi Muriel,

MurielB a écrit:Hi Gerard
I have looked up in my dictionary and seen that "beetroot" in American English is "beet(s)". you have written "redbeet" ( are there different colours ?).

> "beetroot" in American English is "beet(s)".
Do you mean GB beetroot is US beet? If so, that's well what I wrote.
Among them are (US) red beets.
If we have a look at pictures of beets in the US, we can see different veggies and fruits, that I'm not able to recognize.

Hi everyone,

Yesterday in a TV game, a girl-candidate told us about a story of its own...

When a teen or a young adult, in a small French city, with another girly, they liked to attend basketball matches... mainly to look at these handsome sportsmen and make their choice

There was an American player whom she desired to approach and read on the Internet about his birthday. She also discovered into which nightclub, players were going.
So, both girls went to that nightclub. She took her courage in both hands and went to the guy with a drink for him and tried to surprise him with a "Happy Birthday"!!!

He responded it was not his BD.
She said that she read this from the Internet.

Did you guess??
She made a confusion regarding the American date format.

American usual date format is Month/Day (and not the European Day/Month)!!
Think of it! Learning words and grammar is not enough, cultural stuff is important too.

For instance in England people would say
"the 15th of December, 2013" or 15/12/13
while in the US, people would tend to say:
"December 15th, 2013" or 12/15/13
Thank you Gérard, it's very important to know

Hi Muriel,

MurielB a écrit:... while in the US, people would tend to say:
"December 15th, 2013" or 12/15/13...

The example of 12/15 is obvious (because there's no month #15.

4/6 is less evident.

Let's remember, the sad past events are said "Nine Eleven" (9/11 the 11th of September).
Note that Nine-One-One is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).
Note that Americans are concious of their date format: it's their standard and they sometimes call it "month-day date notation" (they also use "day-month date notation").

gerardM a écrit:Note that Nine-One-One is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).

strange !

Hi Muriel,

MurielB a écrit:

gerardM a écrit:Note that Nine-One-One is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).

strange !

Dono if it's strange: people immediately noticed the attacks took place on 911.
I don't remember but there's also something odd regarding the date of attacks in London or in Spain (don't remember which one): the date is related to 9/11 too.

Muriel,

The attacks in Madrid took place on 3/11, 2004. People pointed out there is the 11 and 3-Mars is 6 months before/after 9-September: they said the date was especially wanted.

NB: London was July 7, 2005 (nothing to do with 9/11, 2001 nor 3/11, 2004).

Hi everyone,

Something I'd forgotten:
"Curfew" is a word that was taken from the French.
"Poor" English guys who desperately wanted to pronounce the French word as properly as possible I don't make fun with them, on the opposite, I'm moved to see their efforts.

Hi everyone,

In order to try to keep things tidy, I repost here (cf https://www.cafe-polyglotte.com/t2139-quiz-what-american-accent-do-you-have#9257 ):

As we're at it, you can notice the American form "What American accent do you have?" while the Brits would prefer "What American accent have you?" (at least when I was younger).
- "To have" is well an auxiliary in American grammar e.g. in the present perfect "I've seen the Eiffel tower" or ""She's been learning English for ages" but except this, it's not a special verb. American language prefers "do you have", "don't have" to "have you", "haven't"
- by the way, American language definitely prefers past to present perfect: "I saw" to "I've seen"

Hi Gerard, everyone
When I was studying English, it was difficult for us to choose between present perfect or simple past in a past action. . Past was used when the action expressed by the verb was determined and completely separated from the present. When the action expressed by the verb continued into the present or had an impact on the present, it was the present perfect.
What about American English ? Is there a rule ?

Hi Muriel,

Present perfect is rare in American.

> Is there a rule ?
I don't know for sure. I very often read and post on American public and private forums. I roughly personally tend to use the perfect when I'm laying stress on the duration of the action (with a continous form if it's still on); this use is what I could determine when reading my Am. colleagues' texts.

Thank you Garard !