"Need help with French..." Topic
8 Posts
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Dropzonetoe  | 07 Mar 2014 7:11 p.m. PST |
I am currently reading The Fourty-Five Guardsmen by Dumas but there is a number of French phrases I don't understand what they mean. I could try translating them but most time Babblefish and their like tend to butcher phrases. The trio that keep popping up are; Ventre de biche Mon Dieu Ma Foi
I have been mentally translating them as;
Son of a bitch
My god
my friend
Love to see how close I got?
Thanks,
DZT |
| Jakar Nilson | 07 Mar 2014 8:00 p.m. PST |
"Ma foi" translates directly as "my faith", and is pretty much an oath. Never heard "ventre de biche" before, but they do like getting their tummies rubbed. |
 etotheipi  | 07 Mar 2014 8:04 p.m. PST |
Ventre de biche is "doe colored", a pinky-orange hue. I'm not sure how that other thing would make sense in context. Mon Dieu is "my God", in a surprise way, like "Holy cow!", and so is "ma foi" … "my faith". Neither of these really means anything, they are more like interjections. EDIT: As I walked away, I remembered there are a number of French colloquialisms where you use various colors to indicate various unkind traits, usually linked to illness. If someone called someone else or said someone else was "ventre de biche", it would likely be translated into Texan as, "lily-livered, yellow-bellied pond scum" or possibly into Elizabethan as "makes many fish-wives". |
| Dropzonetoe | 07 Mar 2014 8:06 p.m. PST |
Ventre de biche in the text. link |
| etotheipi | 07 Mar 2014 8:13 p.m. PST |
OK … in that context, he is saying that Joyeuse is a pale (or more precicely, biege) wuss-a-saurus. |
| Dropzonetoe | 07 Mar 2014 8:23 p.m. PST |
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 John the OFM  | 08 Mar 2014 9:36 a.m. PST |
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| Jemima Fawr | 14 Mar 2014 2:59 a.m. PST |
Are you saying that the pages are covered in ejaculations? |
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