2005-06-09

French in all its purity

Here are two contrasting samples, one of French-English code-switching, one of pure French with no English at all.

Hier on est alle faire une hike de six miles dans le Blue Hills. On a fait trois sommets, up and down, et ensuite on a pris un trail qui nous a amene pres de Clear Pond. Les guys etaient en forme mais Helen avait l'air tired. A la fin on s'est tous entasses dans la station wagon de Bob et on est alle bruncher chez moi.

Jean-Marie ecoute son transistor, un verre de Scotch a la main. Apres le flash d'information et l'interview d'un chanteur de rock, il enfile son jean tout neufs et descend au parking du building. Le trafic du weekend etant impossible, il decide de prendre sa Harley-Davidson pour aller au match de rugby.

(I'm told that "building" is no longer current in French.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd say 'building' is still in use, but this noun has aged, it's not trendy anymore. 'station wagon' on the contrary is pushed by the marketing but not really used, we prefer to use the word 'break' for this kind of cars.

Anonymous said...

Concur with Damien. Ze building would translate back as high-rise or sky-scraper [inasmuch there's such a thing this side of the pond].

Anton Sherwood said...

At least one can't say you have an accent. <rimshot>