# Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert !!



## Tresley

*Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert !!*

This means "Twenty worms came towards twenty glasses of green wine". The great thing about this phrase is that "Vingt vers etc" is more or less the same pronunciation the whole way through, but has lots of different meanings.

Another French expression pronounced more or less the same, but with more than one meaning is: 

"*Au lit on* *dort*" (You sleep in bed)
"*Au Lion D'Or*" (To the Golden Lion)

Does anyone else know any more French expressions that are pronounced more or less the same, but which have completely different meanings? If you do know any, could you also provide, if possible, a translation in English please?


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## Cath.S.

*



Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert !!

This means "Twenty worms came towards twenty glasses of green wine".
		
Click to expand...

**Et même*
*Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert : vains vers ! (vain poetry!) *


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## SNTB99

Oh Bois du Djin où s'entasse de l'effroi
Oh bois du gin ou cent tasses de lait froid

try these translations (no dogmatic)

this Djin's woods where fear crams in (or heaps, or ....)
 (do) drink some gin or 100 glasses of fresh milk


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## Tresley

Merci Egueule, je viens de le corriger!


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## timpeac

egueule said:
			
		

> *Et même*
> *Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert : vains vers ! (vain poetry!) *


 
Ah! That's interesting you should say that, because with French having the huge scope for such different understandings (although some more probable than others) I often wonder what a native French person thinks on hearing such a phrase for the first time. Do you think that someone is talking about "green wine" or do you assume you are misunderstanding and ask the person to clarify exactly what is meant?

Although that phrase is made up of simple words in reading (well apart from the "vinrent" I suppose) I'm sure that on hearing it I would be completely lost as to what was being said at all. I suppose a part of that is the confidence that I lack but a native would have of knowing immediately and for sure that there was no such word as "vinvers", for example, that could make complete and obvious sense.


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## Cath.S.

I'm pretty sure any French person's mind would immediately recognize and give a meaning to the words "verres de vin".


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## Tresley

SNTB99 said:
			
		

> Oh Bois du Djin où s'entasse de l'effroi
> Oh bois du gin ou cent tasses de lait froid
> 
> try these translations (no dogmatic)
> 
> this Djin's woods where fear crams in (or heaps, or ....)
> (do) drink some gin or 100 glasses of fresh milk


 
Thank you SNTB99.  This is just the sort of expression I am looking for!

I knew the word 'Djin' from playing Scrabble a lot! I think it's a Muslin God. TYVM.


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## Cath.S.

Tresley said:
			
		

> Thank you SNTB99. This is just the sort of expression I am looking for!
> 
> I knew the word 'Djin' from playing Scrabble a lot! I think it's a Muslin God. TYVM.


Hum, Islam is a monotheist religion, Tresley. 
A djinn is more like a sand leprechaun.


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## timpeac

egueule said:
			
		

> Hum, Islam is a monotheist religion, Tresley.
> A djin is more like a sand leprechaun.


 
Here's a picture

http://forum.wordreference.com/showpost.php?p=842879&postcount=11


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## Tresley

Oi !! Stop it you two! Give me some more examples of French 'double entendre' s'il vous plaît !!  LOL !!


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## tekla

Gal, amant de la reine, alla, tour magnanime,
Galamment de l'arène à la tour Magne, à Nîmes.

On attribue ces vers à Victor Hugo, qui jouait un peu avec des rimes léonines.


(edit: misspelled "galamment"!)


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## Cath.S.

Jérémie gémirait, marri :
« J'errais, mie, j'ai miré Marie ! »


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## Tresley

tekla said:
			
		

> Gal, amant de la reine, alla, tour magnanime,
> Gallament de l'arène à la tour Magne, à Nîmes.
> 
> On attribue ces vers à Victor Hugo, qui jouait un peu avec des rimes léonines.


 
Does this mean:

Gal, amant de la reine, alla, tour magnanime. = Gal, the queen's lover, went, magnanimous tour.
Gallament de l'arène à la tour Magne, à Nîmes. = Gallament of the arena at the Magne tower, in Nîmes.

?????


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## Tresley

egueule said:
			
		

> Jérémie gémirait, marri :
> « J'errais, mie, j'ai miré Marie ! »


 
I like these Egueule! Thank you. Are these good translations?

Jérémie gémirait, marri. = Jeremy was moaning, sorry.
« J'errais, mie, j'ai miré Marie ! = I was wandering, crumbs, I saw Mary!


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## tekla

I'm sorry I didn't clarify. It's really just a bit of nonsense.

What you have written is very close to what it means, but the point is it doesn't really mean anything.

Gal, the lover of the queen, went, magnanimous tour,
Gallantly from the arena to the Magne tower, in Nîmes.


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## Tresley

Thanks Tekla,

I liked it. Double meanings are so funny. We have them in English too!

e.g. / ex.

Four candles = Quatre bougies
Fork handles = Manches de fourchettes (fourches également)


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## buddingtranslator

From the classic Ronnie Barker Tresley...

Here's a funny one for you.

Merci beaucoup = Thanks very much
Merci beau cul = Thanks nice arse!  

BT


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## Tresley

Nice one BuddingTranslator.

What does 'ass' mean? 'cul' = 'arse' or 'bum' doesn't it?


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## Tresley

Oh! You mis-spelt it! No problem.


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## buddingtranslator

Ass is the American English version of what we call "arse". I put that in first by mistake and then changed it. Yes, "cul" = "arse" in French but it can also mean "end". That's where the expression "cul-de-sac" comes from.

Glad I can clear up these very important matters. ;-)


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## Tresley

Oh! I learnt something here today about my own language. I have heard the expression "bad ass" in American films! I didn't realise that it meant "bad bum". Their expressions make our language so colourful!


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## geve

timpeac said:
			
		

> Ah! That's interesting you should say that, because with French having the huge scope for such different understandings (although some more probable than others) I often wonder what a native French person thinks on hearing such a phrase for the first time. Do you think that someone is talking about "green wine" or do you assume you are misunderstanding and ask the person to clarify exactly what is meant?
> 
> Although that phrase is made up of simple words in reading (well apart from the "vinrent" I suppose) I'm sure that on hearing it I would be completely lost as to what was being said at all. I suppose a part of that is the confidence that I lack but a native would have of knowing immediately and for sure that there was no such word as "vinvers", for example, that could make complete and obvious sense.


You might know this already, but for the sake of thread exhaustivity*, I'll just add that "vin vert" does exist - either as the French name for the Portuguese "Vinho Verde" ; or to qualify a wine not mature (?) enough... Come to think of it, the sentence could also have been "vingt verres à vin verts"!

Now, would we understand such a phrase when hearing it?
Probably as much as we would understand _"Si ton tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton tondu sera",_ or _"En Papouasie, il y a des papous papas et des papous pas papas. Il y a des papous papas à poux, des papous papas pas à poux, des papous pas papas à poux etc."..._ Yeah, I think we'd ask for a second go, too.
All the more so since the sentence, although being grammatically correct, is nonetheless nonsensical: we all know that worms don't drink Vinho Verde, don't we?  



			
				Tresley said:
			
		

> *Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert !!*
> 
> *"Au lit on dort"* (You sleep in bed)
> *"Au Lion D'Or"* (To the Golden Lion)


Tresley, I see two different things here : the first sentence sounds more like a tongue twister/virelangue (thread or wiki on virelangues), while the second is indeed a sentence that has two different meanings depending on how you cut the words... I think some French writers did play with this a lot... I'll post later if I can find that book I'm thinking of!


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## Cath.S.

Tresley said:
			
		

> I like these Egueule! Thank you. Are these good translations?
> 
> Jérémie gémirait, marri. = Jeremy was moaning, sorry.
> « J'errais, mie, j'ai miré Marie ! = I was wandering, crumbs, I saw Mary!


Almost perfect, Tresley. 

_Gémirait_ is the conditional, not the imperfect (=_gémi*ss*ait_) of _gémir_ => _would moan._

_Mie_ here has nothing to do with bread, it's an old French word - still to be found in dictionaries, though - that is short for _amie,_ it can also mean _sweetheart. _

_Mirer_ is more precisely _to contemplate._


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## geve

A few additions thanks to the book I mentioned _("Pour tout l'or des mots", Claude Gagnière, chez Robert Laffont):_
These double-meaning rhymes are called *holorimes*, which means "qui rime en entier" (each syllable rhymes). A good word to google!  
The one quoted by SNTB99 was written by Alphonse Allais.

I'll just quote this one from Lucien Reymond:
_"Dans cet antre, lassés de gêner au Palais,_
_Dansaient entrelacés deux généraux pas laids."_


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## Tresley

Thanks everyone for your contributions.  

Thank you especially to Geve.  I didn't know the words 'virelangues' and 'holorimes'.  Your contributions are good too, especially the 'ton tonton....' and 'papous papas...' ones! I'll have to see if I can find 'Pour Tout l'Or des Mots' in an Internet bookshop.

I was asking my colleagues at work if they knew of any English ones.  The best they could come up with was:

Stop! Police!
Stop! Please!

My colleague thought that the police were stopping him in the street when someone said 'stop, please' to him! It turned out to be someone just needing directions!!!


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## timpeac

Tresley said:
			
		

> Stop! Police!
> Stop! Please!


 
And even that one is not 100% there. I think that English is far too clear a language to have the scope for holorimes that French does  <<runs and hides>>

Holorime - cool word Geve - what's the etymology of that? I would have guessed a better dressed cousin such as "homorime" based on "homophone" etc.


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## DearPrudence

Ah, "les papous à pous papas et les papous à pous pas papas..." Toute ma jeunesse (or rather, endless hours of torture  ).
Juste une petite parenthèse (après je vais me cacher avant qu'on me lance des oeufs pourris), est-ce que ça pourrait marcher en anglais:
"*an ice cream"*
*"a nice scream*" (even if it doesn't make sense, I know. And if said very very fast)?


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## paulvial

buddingtranslator said:
			
		

> Ass is the American English version of what we call "arse". I put that in first by mistake and then changed it. Yes, "cul" = "arse" in French but it can also mean "end". That's where the expression "cul-de-sac" comes from.
> 
> Glad I can clear up these very important matters. ;-)


i thought an ass , is someone stupid : don't be an ass !!! 
while an arse is your "derrière "


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## Tresley

Dear DearPrudence,

You just reminded me of a saying in English!

"I scream for ice-cream, we all scream for ice-cream"!

Does anyone else know anymore French ones?

Tresley.


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## geve

timpeac said:
			
		

> And even that one is not 100% there. I think that English is far too clear a language to have the scope for holorimes that French does  <<runs and hides>>
> 
> Holorime - cool word Geve - what's the etymology of that? I would have guessed a better dressed cousin such as "homorime" based on "homophone" etc.


from the greek "holo" = entier, they say in the book above mentioned 
_"Alors que, d'ordinaire, la rime ne se manifeste qu'à l'extrême fin du vers, dans le cas de l'holorime elle s'est hypertrophiée au point d'être devenue, à elle seule, tout le vers"_

"Too clear a language", really? Heureusement que DP est là pour rehausser le niveau de l'holorime anglais... 

Et maintenant, le défi : Qui nous écrira un bel holorime bilingue français-anglais ? (bien sûr, on acceptera les approximations) (mais pas un banal "mercy buckets", s'il vous plaît, hein !)


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## timpeac

C'est parti !


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## Tresley

Paul,

In the UK an 'ass' is someone stupid, but apparently in the USA it means your 'derrière'.  This was news to me too!


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## KaRiNe_Fr

Ton thé t'a-t-il oté ta toux ?
(ou j'ai rien compris ?  )


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## DearPrudence

Bon, on rame pour ceux en anglais. Il doit bien y en avoir pourtant.
Par exemple, c'est dommage que ça ne soit pas la bonne préposition parce que sinon:
*'you're a part of everything'*
*'you're apart of everything'* (but I know it doesn't work)

Could this one work?:
*'it smiles away'*
*'it's miles away'* (très très approximativement. Merci Paul McCartney (c'est pas moi qui l'ai dit d'abord))


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## Tresley

geve said:
			
		

> Et maintenant, le défi : Qui nous écrira un bel holorime bilingue français-anglais ? (bien sûr, on acceptera les approximations) (mais pas un banal "mercy buckets", s'il vous plaît, hein !)


 
Hi Geve,

When my French exchange friend was staying with us he said:

"Et ça ne fait rien"?

My mother then asked "Who is Fairy Ann"?

She thought that he had said:

"It's Ann, Fairy Ann"

Does this meet your challenge?


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## timpeac

My try -

Oui, il est heureux.
We'll let her err.


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## timpeac

geve said:
			
		

> "Too clear a language", really? Heureusement que DP est là pour rehausser le niveau de l'holorime anglais...


 
Haha, well obviously I said that tongue-in-cheek but I _do_ believe it is much easier in French.

Someone said that French was the clearest language in the world in its expression. Be that as it may, my opinion is that it has to be. When you start not pronouncing the final letters of all your words, you stop giving each word its stress and do it per phrase and flatten many diphtongs you need to be sure that the words you use are clear in themselves!!


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## geve

Tresley said:
			
		

> Hi Geve,
> 
> When my French exchange friend was staying with us he said:
> 
> "Et ça ne fait rien"?
> 
> My mother then asked "Who is Fairy Ann"?
> 
> She thought that he had said:
> 
> "It's Ann, Fairy Ann"
> 
> Does this meet your challenge?


Well, that's good enough to start the ball rolling!! Let's see what we can get here where many bilingual people hang out with nothing better to do than bilingual puns  

(dépêchons-nous avant qu'egueule revienne !!!*)

Oh, I see Tim has started!  
(the problem is that now I'll picture you speaking French like that  )

Bon, il faut que je me concentre. L'honneur de mon pays est en jeu.


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## DearPrudence

Sorry folks, I had misunderstood you and tried to do an "anglo-anglais" one. But I think that I'll be even worse doing bilingual ones (and don't forget that it's late now. Et dire que pendant ce temps-là, certains gens normaux dorment ...  ).


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## timpeac

Why did the over feline float the 3?

Because 1245 (under cat sank).


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## geve

Ok. 
Désolée, je vais être obligée d'être vulgaire. Vous pouvez arrêter de lire si vous êtes sensibles.
You'll have to imagine I speak English like a French person (as far as you know, that might very well be the case)

_I threw the ball, I am silent._
_Aïe, trou de balle, aïe, âme si lente !_

Ben oui, j'ai honte.


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## Tresley

geve said:
			
		

> Et maintenant, le défi : Qui nous écrira un bel holorime bilingue français-anglais ? (bien sûr, on acceptera les approximations) (mais pas un banal "mercy buckets", s'il vous plaît, hein !)


 
Hi again Geve,

This doesn't really meet your challenge, but I'd like to tell you about my French teacher who made our French lessons so much fun! He used to have a bucket that contained pieces of paper with French expressions written on them. We would pass the bucket around class, choose a piece of paper with an expression on it and have to read it out aloud to the whole class. The person who read it would then have to try and translate it. On April Fools' Day one year he put a joke expression in the bucket. It read as follows:

"Pas d'elle yeux! On, que nous".

The boy read it out aloud in class and everyone started laughing. Ha Ha ! The poor boy didn't know why we were all laughing, but it sounds like the English:

"Paddle your own canoe"!

This is an English expression that means "do it by yourself and leave me alone"!


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## timpeac

Tresley said:
			
		

> "Pas d'elle yeux! On, que nous".
> 
> The boy read it out aloud in class and everyone started laughing. Ha Ha ! The poor boy didn't know why we were all laughing, but it sounds like the English:
> 
> "Paddle your own canoe"!
> 
> This is an English expression that means "do it by yourself and leave me alone"!


 
I think it does Tresley - that's a great one!

Geve - yours made me laugh too, you're right it does make you think of that lovely French accent speaking English.


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## geve

timpeac said:
			
		

> Why did the over feline float the 3?
> 
> Because 1245 (under cat sank).


I think I need an explanation...



			
				Tresley said:
			
		

> "Pas d'elle yeux! On, que nous".
> 
> The boy read it out aloud in class and everyone started laughing. Ha Ha ! The poor boy didn't know why we were all laughing, but it sounds like the English:
> 
> "Paddle your own canoe"!


Great one!  It's actually true, when you read the words, it's hard to understand how the pronunciation makes it funny for those who only hear it...


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## geve

I think that Charles Aznavour would have enjoyed this thread..._You are the one for me, for me, for me, formidable_
_You are my love very, very, very, véritable_
_Et je voudrais pouvoir un jour enfin te le dire_
_Te l' écrire Dans la langue de Shakespeare_
_My daisy, daisy, daisy, désirable_
​(Full lyrics here)


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## DearPrudence

Good one Geve (though I'm still really shocked, maybe even traumatized for the rest of my life) but I think that we must recognize the English foreros are beating us (well, only you actually. Sorry not to help you more). The thing about 'paddle your own canoe' makes me think of that silly joke.
A gives someone a piece of paper in the shape of a curved cylinder and B holds it with both hands (one at each end). Then, A writes "green, green" on a paper and B have to read it out. But when you're French, it sounds like "dring, dring" and so A picks up the paper B is holding as if it were a telephone... My god, that is bad (but it's late (my excuse for everything)). Just to point out how good French accent is.
Come on Geve, on compte sur toi pour sauver l'honneur des Français, on est avec toi (en tout cas Karine est là aussi).


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## KaRiNe_Fr

Bon alors si on y va de sa chansonnette...
http://www.bide-et-musique.com/artist/280.html
"Où est ma ch'mise grise ? Où ? Où ? Où ?" (Grease) 
Shame on you! <=> J'aime tes g'noux !


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## geve

DearPrudence said:
			
		

> Come on Geve, on compte sur toi pour sauver l'honneur des Français


Y a pas à dire, la France est mal barrée.


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## DearPrudence

Bon, j'en ai une encore bien pire (mais qui n'est pas de moi. Je cours déjà me cacher. Bon, ça va, il est tard, les enfants sont au lit).
Let it be = les p'tites bites
Désolée, désolée, c'est pas moi qui l'ai dit d'abord, c'est les Rolling Bidochons (haute référence culturelle je sais). 
Alors tu vois Geve, c'est pas moi qui vais venir te sauver.


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## timpeac

A few of my favourite things -

oui, ski, or, djinn, mec, mie, huppé

Whisky or gin make me happy


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## geve

Ok, you win. Tu l'as bien mérité.

(But I'd still like the explanation to your post #40! Or maybe I'll understand it once I get some sleep)


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## Tresley

DearPrudence said:
			
		

> Let it be = les p'tites bites


 
Dear DearPrudence,

This is soooooo funny! Thank you for sharing this with us! I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I read your contribution. That is so funny. I'm loving this thread and am so glad I started it. (I just became a senior member because of this thread).

Thanks to everyone for your contributions!

Ha Ha, I'm still laughing!


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## DearPrudence

Tresley, if you could avoid mentioning my name, I would appreciate it  . I thought (and wished) that it the end, nobody would notice it. Happy you enjoyed it. Thanks for making us burn some neurones (I doubt it makes sense, sorry).
Congratulations, Tim. I think you deserve a drink now.
Geve, well done as well. La revanche sur un autre terrain?


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## timpeac

geve said:
			
		

> Ok, you win. Tu l'as bien mérité.
> 
> (But I'd still like the explanation to your post #40! Or maybe I'll understand it once I get some sleep)


 
Yes - I think you may well get it but if not PM me - I fear we are sailing very near to the edge of chat in this thread so I'd better not add to it now


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## Tresley

timpeac said:
			
		

> Why did the over feline float the 3?
> 
> Because 1245 (under cat sank).


 
Pour Geve.

On joue avec les mots 'over' et 'under', ainsi que les chiffres: un, deux, quatre, cinq.

Un deux quatre cinq = _Under cat sank_ (il semble veut dire ça à l'oreille anglais)

Pourquoi le chat (félin) AU DESSUS a-t-il fait flotter le [chiffre] 'trois'?

_Why did OVER feline float the 'three'?_

Parce que le chat EN DESSOUS s'est enfoncé!

_Because UNDER cat sank!_


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## timpeac

> Pour Geve.
> 
> On joue avec les mots 'over' et 'under', ainsi que les chiffres: un, deux, quatre, cinq.
> 
> Un deux quatre cinq = _Under cat sank_ (il semble veut dire ça à l'oreille anglais)
> 
> Pourquoi le SUR chat (félin) a-t-il fait flotter le [chiffre] 'trois'?
> 
> _Why did OVER feline float the 'three'?_
> 
> Parce que le SOUS chat s'est enfoncé!
> 
> _Because UNDER cat sank!_


 
Bonne explication, Tresley - à ajouter qu'on a fait flotter le 3 parce que le 3 manque dans la série 1245.


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## marget

"Merci beaucoup = Thanks very much
Merci beau cul = Thanks nice arse!"


But coup and cul don't exactly rhyme!

*Merci beau cou* rhymes with merci beaucoup, but that's not as interesting.


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## Cath.S.

En 1960, DH Lawrence fit scandale avec son roman, _Les dix chatteurs lisent l'ovaire_ (que certains Français appellent d'ailleurs _Les dix chatteurs lèsent l'ovaire_).


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## Agnès E.

Sans oublier le célèbre LV4-26 et son cultissime _Qu'on gratte tous les jeunes_ (_Congratulations_) !


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## kertek

Jokes from my high school French teacher:

Why does a Frenchman only have one egg for breakfast?
Because one egg is _un oeuf_.

And the motto of the French navy:
A l'eau, c'est l'heure! (I'll let you work that one out...)


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## deadlock

I've often heard it said that Ass is the American for Arse.  I don't have any references for the first dates of usage of the word Ass in an anal context, but as far as modern contextual usage goes, I disagree.  As an example, in most parts of Scotland, people will use Arse to connote the anus, but Ass to describe the whole buttocks-wobbly-material-stretching apparatus.

The idea that the two are equivalent has led only in the last couple of years either to American people growing invertedly pompous about why we spell it "arse" (because it's a different word, fool) or even worse to English people, who have three different pronunciations of the letter A, trying to be cool by using the wrong A in Ass or trying to be pseudo normative and Old-Country by using words such as FatArse (in either case sounding like their own uncool dad).

Off topic a bit, perhaps, but I felt the need to let it out.  Of my arse.

Lewis


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## calembourde

DearPrudence said:
			
		

> Could this one work?:
> *'it smiles away'*
> *'it's miles away'* (très très approximativement. Merci Paul McCartney (c'est pas moi qui l'ai dit d'abord))



That one reminds me of the lyric "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky", misheard as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy." (And sometimes it was even deliberately to sound like that, as a joke.)

I am sure I have thought of a bilingual one in the past but I can't remember it.


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## zaby

Un petit en français que j'aime bien :

_il faut pacifier, il faut désarmer_
_il faut pas s'y fier, il faut des armées_


Je tente un bilingue approximatif, à la grammaire encore plus approximative, en demandant l'indulgence du jury  

_Doux Yougoslave, y a pas ristourne ou y'a ? _
_Do you go slow via Paris to New-York ?_


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## Jim69

Dans le genre jeux de mots (bien) pourris (mais pas bilingues) on a la chanson de Charles Trenet :

_Je t'attendrais à la porte du garage_ (I will be waiting for you in front of the garage gate)
_Je tâte André à la porte du garage_ (I touch André in front of the garage gate)

http://www.paroles.net/chansons/10160.htm

Sacré Charles va


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## rraphaell

Tresley said:
			
		

> *Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert !!*
> 
> This means "Twenty worms came towards twenty glasses of green wine". The great thing about this phrase is that "Vingt vers etc" is more or less the same pronunciation the whole way through, but has lots of different meanings.
> 
> Another French expression pronounced more or less the same, but with more than one meaning is:
> 
> "*Au lit on* *dort*" (You sleep in bed)
> "*Au Lion D'Or*" (To the Golden Lion)
> 
> Does anyone else know any more French expressions that are pronounced more or less the same, but which have completely different meanings? If you do know any, could you also provide, if possible, a translation in English please?


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## rraphaell

on could have added "vingt vers verses" before the 20 worms to indicate twenty hard verses de......


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## vince

Ail ou radis?
Are you ready?


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## Pur Esprit

When I was a school boy (...a long time ago in a galaxy far beyond the milky way...) my English teacher used to ask us to declaim loud voice and by insisting on the english way to pronounce the "d" : "Didon dina de deux dodus dindons".... Now I wonder where my f@@@!@?! stress is coming from... !


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## CandyApples

Bonjour!

Je suis des états-unis, I think I can clear up this whole "ass" thing, since there don't seem to be any americans in this thread...

Ass means, en anglais amèricain:

- stupid (also: 'asshole', not referring to the anus but as someone who is very meanspirited, I don't know English-English equivalents.)
- butt, the jiggly part, not the anus (also, in very urban areas, known as a 'badonkadonk,' a street slang term)
- donkey

But the phrase 'bad ass' doesn't mean that your derrière is not nice to look at at all -- it means that you are a 'tough guy,' or something is really cool, usually in a masculine sense. 

So, one could say that the old Arnold Schwartzenager movies are 'bad ass,' like the movie Predator or The Terminator, because they are very masculine. Or you could say that because of his physique, Mr. Schwartzenager himself was 'bad ass.'

Sometimes when you see something you really like, or are really amazed by, you can say "that's really bad ass." It's a two word adjective. If I saw someone making an impromptu drawing that was extremely good, I'd say "wow, that's really bad ass, Jean." Referring to either his skills or his drawing.

So in reference to 'ass,' you are usually saying the shortened version of 'asshole,' which means jerk or mean person, and the like:

- _You are an ass._

OR in reference to someone's bottom/bum/derrière:

- _She has a nice ass._
Also:
- _She has a fine ass._

In this case 'fine' means, in a slang term, 'really good,' or 'awesome.' SO if an American tells you that you have a fine ass, they mean you have a wonderful ass, not that it's _fine _as in _okay_, or not bad. This meaning of 'fine' is only in terms of your overall appearance, however, and in reference to your butt or boobs:

- She is fine.
- She has a fine ass.
- She has a fine set of breasts (tits).

Alors, I think that's it... hope this cleared things up. 
And DeadLock, don't be so hard on the Americans... not everyone is a hick here.

Et alors, j'ai un double-entendre pour vous!

_Je t'adore..._
_Shut the door..._

FIN!


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## DearPrudence

Dingue à quel point on s'est éloignés du sujet original 
Mais pour vous, voici un autre fil sobrement intitulé "*prononciation*" qui pourrait vous intéresser


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## brij

cerf-volant (kite)
cerveau lent (slow brain?)


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## geve

Yes Brij, this works well 

Ah, je savais bien que j'avais gardé ça quelque part... Suite à ce fil, des holorimes bilingues avaient fleuri sur ce forum, et je les avais gardés dans un coin. En voici quelques uns, mais continuez à les guetter : il y en a d'autres.


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## Pur Esprit

Un soir, tard, je m'alcoholisais avec une amie à "La Closerie des Lilas", célèbre et littéraire brasserie Parisienne... Au moment de décider de la suite de notre nuit, elle griffonna sur un carton à bière :
"Laclos se rit des lits las" ("Laclos laugh at tired beds")...


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## lpfr

Here is a rule of three:
  Si 6 scies scient 6 cyprès, 600 scies scient 600 cyprès.


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