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[–] 16 points 1 week ago (11 children)

I remember an interview with Lisa Kudrow in which she described her French boyfriend's failure to remember the English word for toes, and said they were foot fingers.

English: if the people you're talking to understand what you're saying, you're ok. Even if the people you're talking to don't understand what you're saying, you're still ok. Just be fancy with your words, and everyone will like it.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 week ago (7 children)

    In french, that's really the name that is given to them, colloquially : doigts de pied (foot fingers)

    The real term is orteils (toes)

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    They're really good at it, too. Sometimes it's even charming. For example, potatoes are "earth apples."

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    I wonder if the meaning of pomme was broader in Old French, like how meat (from mete) used to mean food in Old English.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago

    Yes it was the case, broadly pomme meant fruit.

    Originally tomatoes were called pommes d'amour. There is pommes de terre (potatoes) pommes de pin (pinecones). If we would translate literally pomme de pin it would give us pineapple.

    There were also other fruits beginning with pomme originally but I can't seem to recall them.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    It's the same in Dutch - "aardapple" - but using the Dutch words for earth and apple rather than the French ones.

    And don't get me started on French numbering - for example 98 is "four twenties eigtheen".

    One doesn't get it for one's own language because all the weird stuff is "normal" but when you're learning other languages you discovered they're all riddled with funny constructs like this (and then there are expressions, which are often hilarious - for example on of the Dutch expression for wasting time on small details literally translates to "fucking ants")

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