• jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      This just reminded me of a time I, an American, was in France and some French dude tried to talk shit outside of a bar. He said, in a very French accent, “I ate l’Anglais”. Please allow me to break down what is wrong with this sentence.

      1. First and foremost, I’m pretty sure he had not actually eaten anyone and instead was trying to communicate his strong dislike for me.

      2. He also started off the sentence in English, which was a brave effort, I must admit. Especially seeing how he never learned to pronounce the letter H in his English class (see point #1), this took real courage to attempt to talk shit in a language with which he clearly struggled. However, as you can see in the second half of his sentence, he reverted back to his native tongue, so I can’t give him too much credit.

      3. Finally, “l’Anglais” is French for “the English”. As I mentioned earlier, I am American, which is not the same as being English. We had a rather nasty war a few hundred years ago that settled the matter, but apparently they have not heard about that in all areas of France.

      All in all, he had 3 major errors in a sentence that contained 4 words. 2 of the words be “I” and “l’”.