sam and the city

There should be warnings!

Good day faithful readers. As of today I’ve become strongly of the opinion that all mediums via which people learn French (eg. text books) should come complete with a warning… USE WITH EXTREME CARE! Now before you start wondering where I’m heading with this, I’ll tell you right now that it’s not because it causes it all women that you speak to go all weak at the knees. Rather, because it’s likely to get you slapped!

I wrote an email to one of my French friends the other day, in French, saying that I would take her a particular restaurant. To convey this message I used the verb “prendre”, which means “to take”. In response to this message she explained that this wasn’t the usual way to ask someone to a restaurant, but didn’t elaborate further.

Being the inquisitive sort of person that I am I asked what the correct way to ask was, and why the form that I had used was incorrect.

Apparently, in case you ever want to know, the correct way to tell someone that you will take them to a restaurant is “je passe te prendre au restaurant”. If, like me, you say “je te prend au restaurant” it’s probably not going to end well, because what you’re suggesting is that you would like to have sex with the person at the restaurant. Even if she likes the idea, I doubt your local restaurateur is going to appreciate your antics!

posted by sam @ 3:35 pm