John recently wrote about mixing up words when speaking French. It’s a common occurrence for those of us using multiple languages to communicate… And a story that reminded me of a funny error from my own past!

Un lit avec des oreillers blancs et des cousins bleus.

I was just 16 years old when I went to France the first time. I was fortunate to live with an extraordinary family that year (and beyond) and one of the great experiences I got to have was une semaine au ski (a week skiing) in the French Alps. With a group of friends, mon frère Fabrice (my brother Fabrice) and I, nous avons pris le train (we took the train) to spend a week at one of the friends family houses in St. Gervais.

While heading off to spend a year à l’étranger  (abroad) at 16 might seem bold, I was still just a kid, and a kid with allergies to boot. Which explains why my première nuit (first night) in St. Gervais I couldn’t sleep. You see, all the beds had down pillows! The next day, tired from a lack of sleep, I showed up at the breakfast table and said:

– Est-ce que quelqu’un peut me trouver un orteil sans plumes?

A question which earned me a bunch of confused stares and a few chuckles. Which makes sense when you know (as I do know!) that orteil means toe!

What I should have asked, of course, was: Est-ce que quelqu’un peut me trouver un oreiller sans plumes?

Useful vocabulary:

I like the poetry of oreiller and oreille. In French, the word for pillow is basically a thing to rest your ear on. Un coussin is also a pillow, but not for sleeping. It’s more a cushion (throw pillow, sofa cushion, chair cushion). You may also run into the word (or to the actual thing!) traversin which translates into English as bolster, and is a sort of long pillow that spans a whole bed.

If you want to review some oreiller/coussin -related vocabulary, check out this post from last November where I talked about a little food-induced sleeping.

Photo by Malidate Van from www.Pexels.com (CC0)