Embarrassing French language fails: Part 2

Glad I realized my mistake before the convo went on any longer! #frenchlanguage #frenchlanguagefun #learnfrench #frenchmistakes #frenchforbeginner #french #learnfrenchonline

[@branlotin]

I am french and once kind of made the mistake in dramatic fashion. We were at work, being delivered wine cases by one of our suppliers and I realized they had changed the color of their carton boxes from black to white since their last delivery. We had to remove the black ones from storage, put the new white boxes in their place and then the old black ones on top of the pile so that they would be the first to be sold. I wasn't sure my employees knew this was the way to go so there' me yelling from the entrance of the shop, right on the street "vous avez bien viré tous les noirs?" which could really have been understood as "did you get rid of all the black people?" by someone passing by. One of my guys just made round eyes and I realized how it could sound, fortunately it was in the morning and the street was empty, it could really have been embarrassing otherwise!

[@desertduke1]

Thank you for posting "Language fails". I have had so many, and some are HUMILIATING. It's good to have the company of others such as yourself!

[@SuperLove1507]

😂😂😂😂😂 I'm French and I laughed hard loud at this!!!!

[@karenjp5848]

Diane, your skin is flawless! I am from Montréal, Québec, Canada. Many, many years ago, a bunch of friends got together welcoming new friends from Ontario - only English speaking. Most of my friends were bilingual but one of my friends still had some difficulties. She was explaining a recipe to our new friends explaining that she “raped” the carrots… we burst out laughing explaining to her that in English the word is “grate”. We knew that she had literally translated “râpé les carottes” 😂😂😂

[@TMD3453]

Thanks for saying- obviously you learned re that grammatical mistake. Partitive construction in French is hard. I still don’t get it but I’m closer. And good for you, obviously, to be able to explain so much to your doctor in French! Cheers 🇺🇸🇫🇷

[@ouranos9290]

I'm french and it's not the first time i heard this mistake :) no worries, first mistake, we are: "uh ?o_O wtf i just heard ?!!! " but next, we understand easily what you really talk about. ( I imagine the doctor's face, and that's make me laugh :D )

[@Rachel-rs7jn]

Oh man, that one's a bad one! 😬😬 So glad you realized it in time to correct it before you left!

[@dmphotography.prints]

Ooohhhh yikes. That’s a big one 🤦🏽‍♂️

[@michelesauret7779]

😁

[@azizpunkmetal]

Fear of the dark, fear of the darrk, I have the constant fear that somethin's always near Fear of the dark, fear of the dark, I have the phobia that someonr's always there (Iron Maiden).

[@pamelam.roberts8825]

Been there 😂

[@CallieMasters5000]

Little words go a long way! Good to hear you're not racist! 😁 Is there a French word for the Boogey Man monster, though?

[@timotheelegrincheux2204]

le Croque-mitaine

[@davidpierce3217]

Oh wow how embarrassing LUL I'm sure we've all been there though :)

[@JJtoutcourt]

xD why did you use the plural form in the first time ? x)

[@ladysparkymartin]

😅 I would’ve done worse!

[@timotheelegrincheux2204]

When I was little I never wanted to hide under my bed because of the monster because the monster was actually under the bed. Is that how others reacted to a fearsome monster's presence?

[@ericlovestztot3626]

I realize that we have only the word "noir" for the 2 english words "dark" and "black" ! But I'd like to say that in France, when we are talking about black people, we most often use the english word "black" instead of the french word "noir". For exemple, I could say : "Ce black est très beau !" but I'd never say "Ce noir est très beau !" I don't know why, but this last sentence sounds racist, but with the english word "black" it sounds neutral. Anyway, thank you to share this with us.

[@georgepetzen4686]

Doite vs. A Doite.

[@Sayitlikitiz101]

"Du" or "des" both statements are, unfortunately, correct when it comes to people in the US. 😞 It's the #1 unspoken argument in favor of gun sales. I went to a gun show, here in Ohio, and one of the sellers side-eyed a group of Black people and said: they're getting armed, won't you? I bought national parks car stickers and left.

[@lsq7833]

Don't look up FBI statistics.

[@dominique9934]

sadly to say in 2023 that statement may be true for some people in the US.

[@ericlovestztot3626]

Sadly, not only in the US, France has the same disease !

[@mynewyork165]

Shamefully, there's some truth to that & it manifests into the inherent problem of racism that we still have in this country.

[@messinalyle4030]

Agreed.

[@rowenn1729]

people must be forgiving when you are not using your mother language

[@hichembenaissa]

C'est juste parce que t'est américaine. Les gens ont tendance à penser que vous êtes tous racistes

[@didierjacob250]

je pense que vous avez une vision tres basique de la France et des Français. Décidement sans doute les américains ont perdus beaucoup de valeurs simples. Maintenant, les frais de santé en france, sont bien moins chers qu' aux etats unis . Si vous avez besoin d' une infirmiere en plus , pour vous " protéger " du médecin, alors vous pairez plus... il est malheureux qu aux etats unis , pour accoucher, payer tres cher,, en france c est gratuit!!! normal!! vous faites peur aux américains...