Why French is fun.
Is this your daughter?xxxxIs-this what it-is your daughter?xxxxEst-ce que c'est votre fille?
When was she born?xxxxWhen is-this who'she is born?xxxxxQuand est-ce qu'elle est neé?
As distinct from English, which is, of course, relentlessly rational.
Ou est-ce que la piscene?
ReplyDeleteIn the country high school where I took french we were all amused that swimming pool was pronounced pee-seen. We've had lots of pee seen at our house this weekend!
Where, indeed.
ReplyDeleteRoughly equivilent to when my Catholic all-boys class learned, while reading Caesar's Gallic Commentaries in Latin 2, that the Latin word for a small piece of kindling wood was translated by our dictionary as "a faggot".
Curiously, none of the Latin dictionaries I just looked at seem to carry that word now.
I think I'll keep silent on the really tacky, not to mention, libelous and legally actionable, observation that occurs to me.
you are translating
ReplyDelete"est-ce que" incorrectly.
it is literally "is it that"
so it becomes,
"is it (true) that this is your daughter"
"when is it that she is (was) born."
You are clearly correct. Thank you!
ReplyDelete