Ask M. White for help with French translation

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Herr Redd, that looks a lot like furrin talk up there and since I have no idea what Krum is to the boches, I'm afeared I can't be of much help.

Aimless, I have told you I don't know how many times now that garlic presses are for consumerist housewives and just between me and you, if you're going to insist on wearing a skirt and sweater set ensemble, make at least a small effort to see that they match and maybe shave the legs at least once in a while.

Michael White, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:42 (sixteen years ago) link

I'd expand that to consumerist housewives who enjoy tricky washing up.

Madchen, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:48 (sixteen years ago) link

(no comment on the leg shaving)

Madchen, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:48 (sixteen years ago) link

I actually DO own a garlic press but I only use it for ginger. I can't be bothered to shave my legs, though, and that's the primary reason I've given up wearing skirts.

Michael White, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:53 (sixteen years ago) link

I now use my garlic press for pest control purposes only.

Aimless, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:15 (sixteen years ago) link

And not your pepper grinder?!

Michael White, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:21 (sixteen years ago) link

The pepper grinder is not so ergonomically designed.

Aimless, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link

Are you buying all your domestic appliances and gadgetry from some kind of sadist?

Michael White, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:38 (sixteen years ago) link

I will admit to using a garlic press -- for garlic -- when I make salad dressing.

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:47 (sixteen years ago) link

Chacun à son goût

Michael White, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:49 (sixteen years ago) link

You know, whenever I have heard a French person say that it immediately precedes a conclusive condemnation of someone else's taste. "Chacun à son goût... mais ---"

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link

À chacun son métier

James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:51 (sixteen years ago) link

Tracer, I didn't mean it with any ambiguity. I'm not a big fan of diced garlic; it's hard to avoid burning and often gives me a bit of an uspet stomach if overused but it has its uses and a press is time saving for people likely to cut their fingertips off, which is often the case for me. I mostly crush it these days. For salad dressings, I cleave a clove in twain and rub the exposed part around the salad bowl.

Michael White, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:58 (sixteen years ago) link

Best (only?) movie depiction ever of somebody slicing garlic was Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 19:00 (sixteen years ago) link

Google has favored me with the following translation:

Votre pression établie selon l'ergonomie d'ail a estropié ma main et j'exige la satisfaction dès que je pourrai une fois de plus saisir le couteau d'un chef.

While this may be anatomically correct, it seems to be affected by a certain grotesquerie that unpleasantly obtrudes itself, like Jennifer Lopez's hindermost equippage.

Aimless, Thursday, 4 October 2007 01:30 (sixteen years ago) link

Pression = pressure, so I think, though I'm not sure, that you'd want to say pressoir à ail except you wouldn't 'cause it sounds abjectly unwieldly in French. I'm not sure what you mean by a chef's knife, though. Perhaps you could clarify for me.

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 14:29 (sixteen years ago) link

Je pense que M. Aimless boit de la bière pression.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 14:53 (sixteen years ago) link

C'est presque certain, Jacques.

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 14:55 (sixteen years ago) link

Je mande un Kebab

ken c, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link

You're sending kebabs, ken c?

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link

errrr

je mange un kebab!

ken c, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link

(i had my first ever french class last night so you have to forgive me!)

ken c, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link

Je pensait qu'il avait dit "je demande un kebab.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:21 (sixteen years ago) link

No worries, ken c. Mander isn't a verb you see much, it means 'to summon' or 'send for'.

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:34 (sixteen years ago) link

I think you see Spanish speakers using their equivalent, mandar, a lot more.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:38 (sixteen years ago) link

Garlic press = presse-ail

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link

Thanks, Zelda.

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:44 (sixteen years ago) link

Good day = Bonjour

ken c, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:47 (sixteen years ago) link

Thanks, Ken.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:49 (sixteen years ago) link

mangouste, nf = mongoose

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:50 (sixteen years ago) link

Thanks, M. White, I didn't know that.

Someone once told me a French verb which means "to say Mass twice in one day", but I've forgotten what it is.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:54 (sixteen years ago) link

M. there are a bunch of quotes of Sade in John Fowles' the Magus that I've always wanted to know. Mind if I post them? I remember running them by this French TA in college (an unbelievable Algerian girl from Nantes... wow haven't thought about her in a while) and she was totally stumped!

gff, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:56 (sixteen years ago) link

Who's teaching that French course of yours, Ken? Steve Martin? Eddie Izzard?

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Moi j'utilise régulièrement un presse-ail, mais c'est vrai que c'est pratique aussi pour le gingembre.

baaderonixx, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Someone once told me a French verb which means "to say Mass twice in one day", but I've forgotten what it is.

I pray that it's not a verb you need to use often.

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link

gff, why not?

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link

KC, have you learned about Système D yet?

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 15:59 (sixteen years ago) link

Part One

Un débauché de profession est rarement un homme pitoyable.

DE SADE, Les Infortunes de la Vertu

gff, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:00 (sixteen years ago) link

A professional debauchee is rarely a pitiful man

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Maintenant ma vie n'est que metro, boulot, dodot.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Part Two
Irrités de ce premier crime, les monstres ne s'en tinrent pas là; ils l'étendirent ensuite nue, à plat ventre sur une grande table, ils allumèrent des cierges, ils placèrent l'image de notre sauveur à sa tête et osèrent consommer sur les reins de cette malheureuse le plus redoutable de nos mystères.

gff, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:03 (sixteen years ago) link

et peut-être "typo" aussi

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:03 (sixteen years ago) link

This is gonna be fun

baaderonixx, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:03 (sixteen years ago) link

donc: boulot, métro, typo, dodo

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:04 (sixteen years ago) link

OK, a bit of messing around on the Internet and I've discovered the word for saying Mass twice in one day: biner (also binar in Spanish). I'll try slipping that one into the conversation sometime soon.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:05 (sixteen years ago) link

Irritated by this first crime, the monsters don't stop there; they lay her out naked on a large table, they light tapers, they place pictures of Our Savior at its head and dare to consumate in the loins of this poor girl, the most redoutable of our mysteries.

Michael White, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link

xp hahaha awesome!!

Part Three
La triomphe de la philosophie serait de jeter du jour sur l'obscurité des voies dont la providence se sert pour parvenir aux fins qu'elle se propose sur l'homme, et de tracer d'après cela quelque plan de conduite qui pût faire connaitre à ce malheureux individu bipède, perpétuellement ballotté par les caprices de cet être qui dit-on le dirige aussi despotiquement, la manière dont il faut qu'il interprète les décrets de cette providence sur lui.

gff, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:07 (sixteen years ago) link

hahahhaahha it's suddenly occurring to me that the TA maybe didn't want to tell me what she was reading...

gff, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:08 (sixteen years ago) link

à plat ventre + consommer sur les reins = anal sex, I'm pretty sure...

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:09 (sixteen years ago) link


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