True English

Hi everyone,

Something strange and funny (maybe):

- as far as I remember, there were R'n'R singers whose name included "long" due to their heights

- my grand father was not American but I remember he laughed telling me -when I was a kid- about the nickname of a friend of his "Jules, le long" because he was tall and this permitted to distinguish him from another Jules.
Why long? Was he often lying?

- Johnny Hallyday has a friend whose singer name was Long Chris and this friend became his father in law; yes, he was Adeline's father.
See Wikipédia -Christian Blondiau.
I don't know if this nickname translated Christian's height.

So both in English and French, there seems to be this alternative for "tall": long to qualify the height of a guy.

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.

As we're at it, let's pause a while on this word to discuss a few expressions or idioms around "tall".

1st stage, questions:

it's a tall order
that's a bit of a tall order!
a tall story ou tale
to stand tall
to walk tall
to feel (about) ten feet tall

Except in these phrases, "tall" has got only one meaning, the one written above that will be translated into French by "grand" or "haut".

The expressions above are not obvious. However, I suggest to try to imagine, before searching the response.
Would you try to guess the meanings or better, the corresponding expression in French?
See ya.

Hi everyone,

gerardM a écrit:... Same variety with "petit"... "trop petit pour comprendre, petite promenade, une toute petite femme, le monde est petit, un petit gros, un petit défaut, un petit rhume, etc."

How would you translate "un homme de petite taille"?

Krystyna always uses "short".
Google uses "small".
My Oxford dictionary uses "small" or "short".

Hello Gerard, everyone
Il would also say "Small short" (Size)
Young (age) This child is too young to go to school
mean, small petty (He has not a good heart)
modest (unpretentious)

Hi Muriel, everyone,

gerardM a écrit:... Krystyna always uses "short".
Google uses "small".
My Oxford dictionary uses "small" or "short".

I just responded to "How would you translate 'un homme de petite taille'?"

Hi everyone,

I just thought of something I didn't know till recently (I made the mistake).

... "le magasin est ouvert", "la porte est ouverte", etc.
I translated sometimes by "open", sometimes by "opened" without knowing well what to do.
In the sentences above, we must not translate by "opened"; "ouvert/ouverte" is not a past participle in English... I don't know if they call it an adjective but kinda and the translations use "open" - the shop is open; the door is open; etc.

That's what I wanted to tell you tonight.

Hi everyone,

I posted something about prefixes in English or German that transformed intransitive verbs into transitive.
For instance:
- to wait for... -> to await
- (German) wachten auf+D -> erwachten+A
In German, it's mostly the be- prefix (very frequent if not a rule)


My words below are a bit different; I didn't inventory thouroughly but I wonder if it is common in English.
I'm thinking of "alive", of "awake", of "ashamed".

What do you know? what do you think?
What's the use of these a- prefixes?

Tx

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 !