Foreign mistakes using English expressions

[poli]

But they do Peri. They do.

I know what you mean about French men. How dare they sound more dignified and attactive to women. All I can say is non!

[JPablo]

Gentlemen, you argre vergry funny... orgr too funny... Excuse-moi if my guturrgrral "rgrr" irggritate you.
Avec politesse, Jean Paul

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Interesting topic...

There's a somehow related one here:
http://forums.tomisimo.org/showthread.php?t=5681


A friend of mine is always laughing at me when I confuse "nails" and "needles" and when I pronounce "r" preceded by "g", "c" or "th", because the Spanish sound dominates.

[poli]

I have a tendency to gender-bend Spanish. I always have to think before
saying la puente and el fuente Yes, I know that the genders are crossed here.

[Jessica]

ha, very funny. I laugh a lot when my mom makes mistakes like these

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by Perikles

My ex-wife had English as a second language and would consistently get set expressions the wrong way round. This is of course not grammatically incorrect, just incredibly annoying after decades hearing things like

chips and fish
mash and sausage
socks and shoes
toes and fingers

With the second and fourth she's following the standard law (can't remember who it's named after, alas) that in set phrases with this construction the shortest word usually goes first.

[JPablo]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

Interesting topic...

There's a somehow related one here:
http://forums.tomisimo.org/showthread.php?t=5681


A friend of mine is always laughing at me when I confuse "nails" and "needles" and when I pronounce "r" preceded by "g", "c" or "th", because the Spanish sound dominates.

Yes, interesting...

Thank you for the thread!
Yes, I guess it dominates, because the Spanish soccer team tends to dominate too... well, I guess I should recognize the World Cup is over... but... well, we can be boasting of the crown for another four years... or pricing ourselves of that...

Originally Posted by poli

I have a tendency to gender-bend Spanish. I always have to think before
saying la puente and el fuente Yes, I know that the genders are crossed here.

Ha, you remind me of the joke I may already put somewhere here, the one of the British tourist at a Mallorca restaurant:
-¡Camaureurou! ¡Hay EL mosca en mi soupa!
-¡LA mosca, míster..., LA mosca!
-¡Caraumba! ¡Qué buena vista tiene!

Originally Posted by Jessica

ha, very funny. I laugh a lot when my mom makes mistakes like these

Do you remember any of those?

Originally Posted by pjt33

With the second and fourth she's following the standard law (can't remember who it's named after, alas) that in set phrases with this construction the shortest word usually goes first.

Thank you, Pjt33, direct and straight, smooth and efficient... Ali-Baba and the 40 thieves... mmh (trying to think of more examples here... "im and pressive", "im and posing" "awe and some") (In my case also "ig and norant")

[poli]

I have two words for you: be have!

[JPablo]

You are a G-news!

Well, okay, I will deport myself... before I get deported!

[Luna]

I once had a Danish boyfriend who was very fluent in English but he made a few rare mistakes in English. I had no brothers or sisters when I was growing up so he called me a "lonely" child instead of an "only" child. One time he said, "I'll never understand those veterinarians. How can they not eat meat?" We laughed a lot after I explained what he said. He got revenge by teaching me how to say a tongue twister in Danish.

Sometimes his accent got in the way.
Me: "What did you do this afternoon?"
Boyfriend: "I had them put sharks on my car."
Me: "Sharks? You put what on your car?"
Boyfriend: "Sharks!"
It was like an Abbot and Costello routine. I finally realized he meant "shocks" as in shock absorbers.

We knew a very bright Mexican kid living in the United States who spoke very good English, but he got confused about one thing. When he had nothing to do he would sigh and say, "I'm boring!" We tried to explain that he should say, "I'm bored" but he just couldn't understand the difference.

- Luna