Tuesday, August 03, 2010

The other post about feet

Putting your foot in your mouth, it would seem, is not an expression that is directly translatable into French. As with most expressions, there is usually something similar or at least something that means more or less the same. And I know this.

But sometimes I forget or get lazy or start speaking too quickly or whatever.

The French equivalent of putting your foot in your mouth is mettre les pieds dans le plat. To put your feet in the dish, although originally plat referred to low still waters and not food.

So at a dinner party recently, when I mentioned that I had a habit of putting my foot in my mouth, the guy sitting next to me looked at me with the oddest expression on his face. Clearly trying to gauge how flexible I would have to be in order to have such a habit or how clean I would have to keep my feet in order to have such a habit. He looked a little disappointed when he realized that I only put my feet in dishes and/or low still waters.

2 comments:

JMH said...

Total perv, that guy. Although if a Frenchwoman said that she always put her feet in the dish I would probably stop eating. No, who am I kidding, I would continue eating. Maybe she doesn't have a food processor or a mortar and pestle.

To where are you moving? That's not how I speak. Where are you moving to? If it's a secret, that's fine, but secretly I hope it's also a palindrome.

Nicole said...

Not a palindrome, although it is located in a department (kind of like a big county) called la Drome, how odd is that? Anyway, the city itself is Montelimar.