In what colours comes your cheese?
Once in Brussels my wife - a fluent French teacher - sent me out for some cheese, un Edam jeune, a 'young Edam cheese'. Unfortunately, I got a little confused with the pronunciation of jeune, young, and jaune, yellow, so after my attempt the shopkeeper replied (in French, in stitches): "But Monsieur, all our cheeses are yellow!"
Sent by: Roland
Comments
Barb
2008-08-29
Jaune - the au is pronounced "oh" [o] where as jeune is more of an "eh" sound [oe].
Jane
2006-10-12
Oh goodness! I shall be travelling to France shortly and it makes me quite nervous to read all the mishaps people have made in French-perhaps I should stick to English!
When you say JEUNE, your bottom lip sticks out but the top lip hardly moves. When you say JAUNE, the lips form a round O shape as if you are about to kiss someone. So try to remember that you do not want to kiss young people! Just yellow old stuff!!! Confused? I used my mirror by the way. But some French people do not say Jaune with a nice O sound, and indeed nearly like Jeune. Tttt
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