Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Is that you?


"As-tu pété?" and really a French speaker isn't asking if your name is Pete.
"Oui, je péte" and no your not telling them, yes you are.

English has been so strongly shaped by French that it's estimated that English speakers who have never studied French already know 15,000 words! Although the American Association of Teachers of French insist that "French is Not a ‘Foreign' Language!", all of you Peters out there should know better instinctively.


Péter is a verb and not welcome to conjugate himself anywhere without risk of embarassment and unpleasant odors until someone answers the Prize Question that Benjamin Franklin suggested to the Royal Academy of Brussels:

"My prize question therefore should be: to discover some Drug, wholesome and not disagreeable, to be mixed with our common food, or sauces, that shall render the natural discharges of Wind from our Bodies not only inoffensive but agreeable as perfumes."


French IS a foreign language even if we have thousands of cognates.
Péter is definitely a faux-ami, but flatulence? A true friend!


péter (émettre un gaz intestinal) vulgaire = to fart

un pet (gaz expulsé) = a fart

une flatulence (gaz, aérophagie) = flatulence



Photo: "Kosmos Rocket" en Allemagne, en
juin 2002

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