{"id":30801,"date":"2018-10-10T20:21:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T18:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=30801"},"modified":"2018-10-10T20:21:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T18:21:55","slug":"mixing-up-chocolate-croissants-and-croissant-chocolates-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/mixing-up-chocolate-croissants-and-croissant-chocolates-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixing Up Chocolate Croissants And Croissant Chocolates In French"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes I surprise myself when I make une faute<\/strong><\/a> (a mistake) speaking le fran\u00e7ais<\/strong>. M\u00eame si<\/strong> (even if) I have years of experience, I still can oublier<\/strong> (forget) words or realize I don’t know how to talk about certain subjects<\/a>. Occasionally, I just make really silly mistakes that don’t seem to make any sense, but that’s a part of learning la langue<\/strong> (the language).<\/p>\n

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Image<\/a> from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mes parents sont venus<\/strong> (my parents came) to visit me \u00e0 Paris<\/strong><\/a> recently and it was a great couple weeks of touring around the country. Beyond taking a moment to be a tourist and enjoy la France<\/strong>, the visit made me see some of the struggles les anglophones<\/strong> (English speakers) have communicating dans un pays francophone<\/strong> (in a French speaking country). To be fair, after spending a few days switching between le fran\u00e7ais<\/strong> and l’anglais<\/strong>, I started to make strange mistakes in both languages too.<\/p>\n

Par exemple<\/strong> (for example), one morning au caf\u00e9<\/strong><\/a> (at a caf\u00e9), I ran into a problem while trying to place our order:<\/p>\n

Bonjour !<\/strong>
\nBonjour !<\/strong>
\nAlors vous \u00eates pr\u00eats ?<\/strong>
\nOui, on veut deux caf\u00e9s au lait, un caf\u00e9 et trois chocolats au pain<\/em>.<\/strong>
\nTrois quoi ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello!<\/em>
\nHello!<\/em>
\nSo, are you ready?<\/em>
\nYes, we want two lattes, one coffee, and three croissant chocolates.<\/em>
\nThree what?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I didn’t realize la faute<\/strong> and thought le serveur<\/strong> (the waiter) was making a joke about the different ways to say the famous bread en fran\u00e7ais<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Je ne vais pas dire une chocolatine !<\/strong>
\nAh, d’accord. Donc deux caf\u00e9s au lait, un caf\u00e9 normal et trois pains au chocolat. C’est tout ?<\/strong>
\n…Oui c’est tout.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m not going to say a chocolatine<\/strong><\/a>!<\/em>
\nAh, okay. So two lattes, a normal coffee, and three chocolate croissants. That’s everything?<\/em>
\n…Yes that’s everything.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I immediately felt embarrassed for making such a silly mistake, but heureusement<\/strong><\/a> (luckily), le serveur<\/strong> didn’t seem to care.<\/p>\n

During all this, mes parents<\/strong> were trying to follow along and mon p\u00e8re<\/strong> (my father) thought the order wasn’t complete. He wanted to be sure to get his morning coffee before le serveur<\/strong> left and quickly added:<\/p>\n

Et un caf\u00e9 au lait aussi !<\/strong>
\nDonc trois caf\u00e9s au lait ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

And a latte too!<\/em>
\nSo three lattes?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was confusing at first, but after taking a moment to explain to both mes parents<\/strong> and le serveur<\/strong> that we didn’t need an extra caf\u00e9 au lait<\/strong>, everything was fine. Le serveur<\/strong> then shouted our order to la cuisine<\/strong> (the kitchen):<\/p>\n

Un express, deux cr\u00e8mes et trois viennoiseries !<\/strong><\/p>\n

One express, two creams, and three viennoiseries!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mes parents<\/strong> noticed that what le serveur<\/strong> shouted didn’t sound anything like what we had just ordered, making them worried we were not going to get le petit d\u00e9jeuner<\/strong><\/a> (the breakfast) we wanted. Cependant<\/strong> (however), I assured them they understood our order because those are all just different words to say more or less the same thing:<\/p>\n

Un express<\/strong> – An<\/a> espresso<\/em> (shortened from un expresso<\/strong>, which is a normal coffee<\/a> in France)
\nUn cr\u00e8me<\/strong> – A coffee with cream<\/em> (shortened from un caf\u00e9 cr\u00e8me<\/strong>, coffee with cream)
\nUne viennoiserie<\/strong> – A pastry<\/em> (a more generic term than pain au chocolat<\/strong>, but easy for la cuisine<\/strong> to understand with context)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I may have made a pretty strange mistake by accidentally saying chocolat au pain<\/em> instead of pain au chocolat<\/strong>, but in the end it all worked out and made the experience au caf\u00e9<\/strong> more memorable for me and mes parents<\/strong>. Making mistakes<\/a> is always an important part of learning, even if it sometimes leads to embarrassing moments<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Sometimes I surprise myself when I make une faute (a mistake) speaking le fran\u00e7ais. M\u00eame si (even if) I have years of experience, I still can oublier (forget) words or realize I don’t know how to talk about certain subjects. Occasionally, I just make really silly mistakes that don’t seem to make any sense, but…<\/p>\n

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