A duck to Palais Royal
On a trip to Paris a friend of mine attempted to buy a book of tickets for the Metro. He had a look at the phrase book. But somehow his mind went blank in front of the ticket booth. He confidently asked for un canard. The whole staff burst into laughter. What my friend asked for was a duck! He should have asked for un carnet.
Sent by: Andy
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I was staying in Paris for the summer and sharing a flat with a French guy, and he told me he had seen a cockroach in the kitchen. I said I would sort it out and asked him for the French word for cockroach, he told me cafard, which I then repeated over and over to myself to try to memorise it.
The next day I went out and found a shop selling household supplies and very confidently told the man behind the counter: Je voudrais quelque chose pour tuer les canards. I was sure this meant: 'I would like something to kill cockroaches'. The man looked perplexed, he repeated to me: Pour tuer les canards ? I was confused, I was sure I had said it right, so I said: Oui, il y a des canards qui habitent dans ma cuisine. Now everyone in the shop started laughing and staring at me. It was only then that I realised I had asked for something to kill the 'ducks' that were living in my kitchen!
Hilarious! But then if you don't have a go - and risk making a fool of yourself - you never learn.
When I was living in Paris, an English friend of mine wanted to buy a 'weekly ticket' but asked for un billet hebdobadudaire. The lady behind the counter just started laughing and corrected her pronunciation of hebdomadaire. 'Hebdobadudaire' might sound nice, but it certainly doesn't mean anything.
I had a good laugh at poor Marcus shouting quatre connards - four arseholes - instead of quatre canards - four ducks - when working in the restaurant kitchen in this week's episode of "Excuse my French"!
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