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Do any of you guys speak French?
My French ... er, sucks, to be blunt**; I took it -- rather apathetically -- in high school, but all I remember now are random bits of vocabulary. So I'm trying to write a single line in French in something which appears to be a Highlander story (*hides*) and I could really use some help -- the line is "A cup of tea for the lady, please?" (to a waiter)
Is "Une tasse de thé pour la dame, s'il vous plaît?" correct? Is it grammatical? (One of the many, many things I can't remember about French is whether you can drop verbs and such, the way that you can in English, and still be comprehensible ...) Is that what one would actually say in a situation like that, or would it sound more natural to a native speaker if it was phrased in a different way?
** Just to give you an idea, the last time I tried to speak French in public was at a Tim Horton's in Quebec, a few years ago, and the person who was attempting to take my order actually went and located a co-worker who spoke English so that she didn't have to deal with my laborious butchering of her language. It was very sad. Ironically, one of the things I was trying to order was a cup of tea.
ETA: I have an answer; thank you very much! :)
Is "Une tasse de thé pour la dame, s'il vous plaît?" correct? Is it grammatical? (One of the many, many things I can't remember about French is whether you can drop verbs and such, the way that you can in English, and still be comprehensible ...) Is that what one would actually say in a situation like that, or would it sound more natural to a native speaker if it was phrased in a different way?
** Just to give you an idea, the last time I tried to speak French in public was at a Tim Horton's in Quebec, a few years ago, and the person who was attempting to take my order actually went and located a co-worker who spoke English so that she didn't have to deal with my laborious butchering of her language. It was very sad. Ironically, one of the things I was trying to order was a cup of tea.
ETA: I have an answer; thank you very much! :)
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Assuming that one is trying to be a little bit chatty and flirty, do you think it would come across as improper or sarcastically insincere to use "la demoiselle" for a woman who is visibly older than oneself, like 10 or 15 years older? or still flattering?
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I've always kind of wanted to go back and learn to speak it properly, or at least to read it properly (my accent is undoubtedly a lost cause), but it's just one of those things I haven't managed to do yet.
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Your sentence is fine, and if you need more, send me a PM:)
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When I was in Paris, I was looking over a menu with supreme confidence when I noticed a phrase that looked familiar, but I couldn't quite remember what it meant. "Ha!" I thought, "I'll be brave and order that!". So I did. And the waiter, in heavily accented English replied, "Oh I am sorry, Madame, we are all out of 'closed Monday' - may I make an alternate suggestion?"
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Yeah, I'd love to regain some familiarity with the language; I've thought about taking a class at the local university, but unfortunately their language classes are really set up for full-time students rather than part-time commuting students - they're 5 credit-hours and meet four days a week, which would be difficult to do.
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And to answer your question from the other thread, of COURSE there is Methos. *g*
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It wouldn't surprise me at all if SGA/HL crossovers exist, though. :D
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Nikola is my new boyfriend. *grin*
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And TESLA! I love Tesla so much. :) I'm really looking forward to new episodes coming back!
Also, er ... while I'm at it ... I really don't want specific spoilers if possible, but is there any canon in the Highlander series for how Methos deals with children? Do we know if he hates them, gets along well with them, avoids them, etc? I just kinda need to know for keeping him in character in this scene, if there is any canon that specifically addresses that issue -- I know some characters (Rodney comes to mind here) have really specific reactions to children, and I'm not sure if Methos is one of those.
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You've seen "Chilvary" now, which is what
I just watched the pilot of Sanctuary and... didn't hate it? But it didn't really grab me either, since I'm not a fan of the paranormal/monster stuff. (Give me Star Trek aliens who are treated as sentient equals, thanks.) I think I'll give A:TLA a whirl instead.
But I would love to read any HL fic you wrote!
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The status of my french is 'read-only', sadly. Handy for reading graphic novels, but no use for anything else.
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I noticed that you've been into Leverage lately! ... I've still got Leverage icons? *uses* I actually was pretty into the show in seasons one and two, but, I don't know, I drifted away from it during season two and haven't seen the last few episodes of the season or anything beyond that. One of these days I'd like to go back and finish, but I'm not sure what happened; I think I just wandered off to other things.
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ROTFL -- excellent.
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Soon the plot bunnies will smell the glowing perspiration; attracted, they’ll gather around you and then they'll start breeding.
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Zombie Bunnies
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"A cup of tea for the lady, please? "
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... yeah, I thought about that. They're mostly speaking English, though, and I just wanted him to drop into French to speak to the waiter, so I was trying to indicate that. I can see other contexts in which I'd just render the whole thing in English.
It's hard to do language-switching in fiction without having it come across sounding forced!
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Sorry, I would not want you to make any changes..........
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Yes, that is what I was trying to have him say! Thank you!
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/random
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