Idioms the French don't agree on.
Some will tell you they aren’t correct, some will tell you they’re okay… The truth is that the French language is evoluating and some changes are operating. The “purists” have hard time dealing with that, while other people have absolutely no issue with anglicisms, or basic changes.
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“Ceci dit” instead of “Cela dit”
= That being said.
Some don’t consider “Ceci dit” correct because originally, “ceci” refers to what is about to be told while “cela” refers to what had been told already, hence “ceci dit” doesn’t make any sense. The mistake’s root leans in the “punchy” repeated sound “i”, more pleasant to the ear. The mistake starting to be mainstream, it yet remained and now, is also considered correct.
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“Malgré que” instead of “Bien que”
= Even though, despite
The mistake happened because of two reasons :
1 - “Malgré que + avoir” is a very formal structure. However, it can’t be used with any other verbs than “avoir” and the meaning is completely different from “bien que”.
“Sa personnalité, malgré qu’il en ait, transparaît dans son œuvre.”
Meaning : “His personality, bad thing he has, shows in his writings/work.
2 - “Malgré” (alone) and “Bien que” having the same meaning, people reproduced the same structure for both > “x + que + subjonctif”. Though, their “correct” structure is totally different.
Malgré le mauvais temps, nous sommes quand même allés à la montagne.
Bien qu'il ait fait mauvais temps, nous sommes quand même allés à la montagne.
Even though the weather was bad, we still went to the mountains.
However, the confusion happened long ago and it’s generally admitted that the mistake is “okay” since lots of great authors used it in their own work (Apollinaire, Proust…). It’s considered as an evolution of informal speech, just the way “t'es” is the informal form for “tu es”.
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“Autant pour moi ” instead of “Au temps pour moi”
= My fault! (Lit. “Same (amount) for me” vs “A time for me”)
Supposedly, this idiom is originally military speech. It comes from soldiers missing the tempo while practicing a military march and hence, forcing the whole group to rehearse again. The idiom meaning there “My fault that we’re doing it again.”
Another theory is that “autant pour moi” would mean something along the lines of “I’m not better than anybody else, I have the same “amount” of mistakes than anybody else, hence > Same for me”. This theory is encouraged by the idiom “autant pour le brodeur” (“same for the embroiderer” - old French - Not used anymore) which has been found in a 1640 dictionary, and which has been described as a mockery for people who don’t want to admit something.
It’s up to you to choose which one you’d rather use. I personally use “au temps pour moi” because I’m more convinced by the Military theory.
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“Réaliser” instead of “Se rendre compte”
= To realize, to understand.
Anglicism. More and more people use “réaliser” as in “J'ai réalisé que j'étais en retard” (I realized I was late), mimicking the English structure.
In “original” French, réaliser means to do, to create.
“J'ai réalisé un gateau au chocolat”
“I made a chocolate cake.”
“Je réalise une étude sur les taux d'avortement dans le monde.”
I’m making a study on worldwide abortion rates.“
Anglicisms are sometimes frowned upon, especially in Québec where the institutions try to preserve French from the English influence, made very easily because of geographical reasons. In France, we’re slightly more “open-minded” about anglicisms. Indeed, if English provides a new word that has no equivalent in French, we’d rather use the original English word than create a new one, unlike Québec. For example, French only “spam” for spams, while some people in Québec (if not all, I don’t know), use “pourriel”, a mix of “poubelle” (garbage) and “courriel” (e-mail, even though we also use “e-mail”, “email”).
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“La même” instead of “Pareil” (Slang)
= Same/Me too, as in: “J'ai froid !” “Pareil.” / “I’m cold!” “Me too.”
“La même” is a shortened version of “La même chose” (“the same thing”). This slang idiom sometimes irritates people, because our “consecrated” slang word for that is “pareil”. The detractors say that “la même” doesn’t mean anything at all in this context, and often show their disapprouval by adding “La même quoi ?” (The same what?“), pointing that the “thing” they’re refering to is nonexistent.
My personal feelings are quite mixed about this idiom. On one hand, I don’t like it either because the fact it refers to a “silent” object annoys me since we use “pareil” mostly to refer to a state or a condition; and also because it’s a feminine form and my “ear” doesn’t like when it can’t identify what it’s agreeing with. On the other hand, I cannot deny the fact that “pareil” and “la même chose” strictly mean the same. Languages evoluate, and maybe it’s an evolution of slang. Also, “pareil” and “la même” are slang, sheer slang. And exactly because it’s slang and not formal speech, people are free to do whatever they want. If we now start applying rules to slang, I honestly feel we’re like… doomed or some shit like that x)
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“Chocolatine” instead of “Pain au chocolat” to refer to a pastry made of bread and two slices of chocolate.
More than a fight between purists and open-minded grammarians, it’s a fight between Northern and Southern France. Indeed, this pastry is traditionally called “chocolatine”’ in Southern France and this part of France is mocked about it. The other part of France say that “chocolatine” doesn’t make any sense since “Pain au chocolat” (Lit. bread with chocolate) is… bread with Chocolate.
Being born in Toulouse (third region in the blue part), I can say that the French calling it “Pain au chocolat” have absolutely no imagination neither creativity since “Chocolatine” is like the sweetest word to hear, a word full of poetry and childhood memories. And they can go fuck themselves.
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