INTRODUCTION

EASIEST LANGUAGE LESSONS

EASIEST FOREIGN PRONUNCIATION

EASIEST TRAVEL WORDS

PRESS

EASIEST LANGUAGES

EASY ENGLISH

READ EASY LANGUAGES

NEXT STEPS

EASIEST FOR YOUR LANGUAGE

For Spanish

For French

For Italian

For Portuguese

For Romanian

For Germanic Languages

For German

For Dutch

For Danish

For Norwegian

For Swedish

For English

MISCELLANEOUS

Humor of French I Love You

Humor of French I Love You is a classic misunderstanding of French that became a comic routine of a young American couple for their own amusement.

A young American couple studying French together like to say “I love you” in French, because they love the way it sounds in French.

“Je t’adore!” -- pronounced [zhuh tah-DOHR] -- means ‘I love you!’ in French.

One would embrace the other and tenderly say,

“I love you -- Je t’adore! -- Je t’adore! -- Je t’adore!”

But this young couple enjoyed every occasional opportunity to turn this into a joke they never ceased to enjoy.

One would embrace the other and say only a little less tenderly,

“I love you -- Shut the door! -- Shut the door! -- Shut the door!”

They would do this whenever one of them accidentally left a door open.

Because “Je t’adore!” -- pronounced [zhuh tah-DOHR] -- means ‘I love you!’ in French -- but to an English-speaker it can sound like ‘Shut the door!’

This was even turned into a beer commercial, with the punch line:

“You shut the door!”

-----

They began to collect other examples of French that sounds somewhat like something else in English:

"À votre santé!" -- pronounced [ah VOH-truh sahng-TAY] -- is a drinking toast that means ‘To your health!’ in French -- but to an English-speaker it can sound like ‘A vote for Santa!’

(from the novel Spook Country by William Gibson)

-----

-------

Return to Humor of Language Learners.

-------

Looking for something else?

Use this search feature to find it:

Custom Search

-------

Know a Funny Story About Language Learning?

Share your humorous stories about language learning with the world.

Everyone has a few tales to tell. Tell us yours!

Anything that happened to you, or a friend. Something you heard, or read.

Any humorous stories about using foreign languages on your travels.

Any foreign signs mislead you? Any tangled translations seen abroad?

Your name will be on the story, so you may become famous on the internet.

Enter a Title for YOUR Humorous Story:

Tell Us YOUR Funny Story about Language Learning! [ ? ]

Author Information (optional)

To receive credit as the author, enter your information below.

Your Name	(first or full name)
Your Location	(ex. City, State, Country)

Submit Your Contribution

Check box to agree to these submission guidelines.

(You can preview and edit on the next page)

-----

Easiest Languages have thousands of words similar to English, so:

“This is The Easiest Way to Begin Learning Foreign Languages.”

Helping More People Begin Foreign Languages The Easiest Way.

-----

TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

SBI!