I had some trouble with my French homework the other day. In one column was a list of the beginnings of French Proverbs, on the opposite side were the finishing words for each phrase. For the life of me, I could not match them up. Uh....."At night all the cats....uh...have taste and color?".....or...."Impossible....uh...you have to run?"
After FB came in and helped me finish the phrases, I realized why not one of them made any sense to me. Because none of them actually make any sense.
#1. Impossible n'est pas français. (Impossible is not French)
Really.
Given the amount of times I hear "ahhhhh, pas possible" on a daily basis, I'd say the word "impossible" is actually pretty frickin' French to me. Like, it could be the national anthem and should be right up there with Egalité, Fraternité, Liberté et Impossibilité. No offense but, come on....vraiment?
#2. On ne discute pas des goûts et des couleurs. (loosely, as in, we don't discuss things that are a matter of tastes and colors...)
OK, there about about 400 French talk shows dedicated to discussing exactly that and in a country where I have had to end countless discussions with "WHAT ARE WE EVEN ARGUING ABOUT????!!!"......my question would be: huh???
#3. Rien ne sert de courir il faut partir à point. (loosely, nothing serves to run, you should start on time....better to start on time than to run)
I don't even need to comment here, except to say that maybe this is some German proverb that snuck over the border. Or maybe "on time" is just relative and the point is more to never run? Ever? In your life?
#4. La nuit, tous les chats sont gris. (At night, all the cats are grey)
Please, someone explain to me what this means. My best guess which brought laughter from FB was: At night, it doesn't matter if a black cat crosses in front of you because it is grey so you won't actually have any bad luck.
?????
