Story hour in French ?

[Wulf Ratbane]

A powerful stroke of lightning?

No, wait, that's foudre... But linguistically I think it's from the same root. The F-word is from an old Teutonic word that means "forked" or "split asunder."

How wonderfully evocative!

 

[Darkness]

Does she speak French?

Damn; you beat me to it!

 

[Horacio]

Hmm... If you're a native speaker and you say so, I'll take it.

French is such a... flexible... language. I had been taught the meaning was actually closer to "I don't give a f---" and the LITERAL meaning was closer to "I f--- myself with it."

That's certainly one way to express contempt or lack of interest.

Of course one should never rely on a literal translation of french.

Well, I'm not a native French, I'm Spanish, but I've lived in France for three years. My French isn't maybe very 'academic' but I can tell you that 'je m'en fous' is a normal expression that almost nobody (besides some language teacher) would considerer foul language. At least in present day in Brittany (the west corner of France). The literal meaning is... well, you've expressed it well, but your last sentence was a very good advise

 

[Ancalagon]

You know, I always thought that "foutre" meant "to put into" (use your imagination how that relates to the english F word), due to several words and expression such as fourre-tout (bag you put stuff in) or fourreau (scabard).

However, upon looking it up in the dictionary, it actualy commes from latin futuere, wich means to have sexual relations with a woman. You learn somethign new every day, even though some days the things you learn are not very usefull.

Back to the topic at hand, oui je serais intéressé de lire une histoire française...

Ancalagon

 

[Sammael99]

You know, I always thought that "foutre" meant "to put into" (use your imagination how that relates to the english F word), due to several words and expression such as fourre-tout (bag you put stuff in) or fourreau (scabard).

However, upon looking it up in the dictionary, it actualy commes from latin futuere, wich means to have sexual relations with a woman. You learn somethign new every day, even though some days the things you learn are not very usefull.

The literal meaning of the noun "foutre" is "jism" although it is hardly ever used in that sense anymore. The verb "foutre" is derived from there and does indeed mean "to put something into".

Back to the topic at hand, oui je serais intéressé de lire une histoire française...
Ancalagon [/B]

I will get down to it probably on Monday, give you guys the run down on "Les Terres Anciennes" and start pouring out the "contrendus de parties" !

Thanks for the support

A bientot