6 ms·

What a sad day if it's acted, as a native french I always got a little chuckle that there is a slight comeuppance for the fact that 'bit' (and also 'byte' in a

What a sad day if it's acted, as a native french I always got a little chuckle that there is a slight comeuppance for the fact that 'bit' (and also 'byte' in a lesser measure) is pronounced exactly like 'bite', which is french for 'cock'. It's harmless fun, and also a taste of the cultural hegemony the non-anglosaxon world get (I realize the irony of saying that as a french).

gwervc 3y ago
Speaking of string (tong) was another funny thing in class when learning the craft. I share your sadness, the difference in orthography makes it already very clear it's a different word.
- mablopoule 3y ago
  For 'string', it's funny how desensitized you get the the word until you talk to a colleague and ask him "Mais du coup t'as un string ?", and realized you asked him in public if he had a tong. Or when you try to debug something while a little tired, and mindlessly google 'string' without any other search term, only to be surprised at only having underwear-related results.
  - ttoinou 3y ago
    Weird, in french I always used feminine for character string ("T'as une string ?")
    - jiehong 3y ago
      Yep, same: masculine for the underwear and feminine for the "chaine de caractères". Source: https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/string https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/string
      - mablopoule 3y ago
        Well I didn't knew that, thanks for the info! It's a bit like "espace" which is feminine when talking about typography. Or "covid", but only because I'm too stubborn to accept to say "La covid".
        makapuf 3y ago
        OK but definitely, always LE wifi. Not la wifi. Please. https://www.lawifi.fr/ https://www.lawifi.fr/
    - 082349872349872 3y ago
      I thought it would be une chaine but string, as franglais, would be le string ?
  - 082349872349872 3y ago
    on the other hand, having misread your nick as « ma belle poule » I was inspired to google « belle poule » only to be surprised by a bunch of images of a sailing ship...
    - mablopoule 3y ago
      You should try to google "Poule Soie", they are gorgeous beast :) The nickname is a play on my family name ("Monchablon"), that was wrongly written on the first draft of my work contract (as "Mablochon"), which only needed a bit of a chicken-obsessed CTO to become "Mablopoule". One handy habit I got from that CTO is to keep a folder of images of poultry to use as test images when coding/debugging an image-related form.
      - 082349872349872 3y ago
        Looks tempting: « La Poule Soie, avec sa silhouette toute ronde, est une excellent poule de compagnie. » Unfortunately I imagine they're difficult to keep in urban environments; maybe some HN entrepreneurial type ought to start a "Chickens As A Service" site so those who don't have the facilities to keep poultry at home could rent them by the hour? *en frappant à la porte d'une fête à 3h00* — « Bonsoir, c'est la police ; vos voisins nous ont appelés ... » — « Eh bien, allez à eux alors. Ici, on a commandé des poules, pas des flics »
  - WirelessGigabit 3y ago
    I've had weird looks from people when I was talking about a dongle. I meant the Logitech Unify one. They were thinking of something else.
mablopoule 3y ago
Anyway, I need to go to the store and ask the clerk for a 32 giga-cock USB drive.
doormatt 3y ago
As an young anglophone enrolled in French immersion, I (nearly ~30 years later now) distinctly remember the day my teacher taught us about seals (phoques). And yes, it's pronounced exactly like you think. That was a glorious month or two until we moved on to the next module.
- Yoric 3y ago
  If I recall correctly, there is an etymological reason for this. I seem to remember that the foc (it's a sail) is named after the phoque (the seal). And the foc is the sail that takes the wind from behind. I'll let you fill in the details.
sshine 3y ago
Years ago I read somewhere a response by some of the Coq authors that, upon learning that some female students (outside of France) would get discouraged from working with the tool because the name had dirty connotations, they thought this was a naming mistake. I’m pretty allergic to woke culture, and I still thought this is just better marketing. People will keep calling it Coq, and newcomers will call it Rocq. There’s no deadnaming or stigma involved.
graemep 3y ago
[dead]

gwervc 3y ago

Speaking of string (tong) was another funny thing in class when learning the craft. I share your sadness, the difference in orthography makes it already very clear it's a different word.

mablopoule 3y ago
For 'string', it's funny how desensitized you get the the word until you talk to a colleague and ask him "Mais du coup t'as un string ?", and realized you asked him in public if he had a tong. Or when you try to debug something while a little tired, and mindlessly google 'string' without any other search term, only to be surprised at only having underwear-related results.
- ttoinou 3y ago
  Weird, in french I always used feminine for character string ("T'as une string ?")
  - jiehong 3y ago
    Yep, same: masculine for the underwear and feminine for the "chaine de caractères". Source: https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/string https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/string
    - mablopoule 3y ago
      Well I didn't knew that, thanks for the info! It's a bit like "espace" which is feminine when talking about typography. Or "covid", but only because I'm too stubborn to accept to say "La covid".
      - makapuf 3y ago
        OK but definitely, always LE wifi. Not la wifi. Please. https://www.lawifi.fr/ https://www.lawifi.fr/
  - 082349872349872 3y ago
    I thought it would be une chaine but string, as franglais, would be le string ?
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  on the other hand, having misread your nick as « ma belle poule » I was inspired to google « belle poule » only to be surprised by a bunch of images of a sailing ship...
  - mablopoule 3y ago
    You should try to google "Poule Soie", they are gorgeous beast :) The nickname is a play on my family name ("Monchablon"), that was wrongly written on the first draft of my work contract (as "Mablochon"), which only needed a bit of a chicken-obsessed CTO to become "Mablopoule". One handy habit I got from that CTO is to keep a folder of images of poultry to use as test images when coding/debugging an image-related form.
    - 082349872349872 3y ago
      Looks tempting: « La Poule Soie, avec sa silhouette toute ronde, est une excellent poule de compagnie. » Unfortunately I imagine they're difficult to keep in urban environments; maybe some HN entrepreneurial type ought to start a "Chickens As A Service" site so those who don't have the facilities to keep poultry at home could rent them by the hour? *en frappant à la porte d'une fête à 3h00* — « Bonsoir, c'est la police ; vos voisins nous ont appelés ... » — « Eh bien, allez à eux alors. Ici, on a commandé des poules, pas des flics »
- WirelessGigabit 3y ago
  I've had weird looks from people when I was talking about a dongle. I meant the Logitech Unify one. They were thinking of something else.

mablopoule 3y ago

Anyway, I need to go to the store and ask the clerk for a 32 giga-cock USB drive.

doormatt 3y ago

As an young anglophone enrolled in French immersion, I (nearly ~30 years later now) distinctly remember the day my teacher taught us about seals (phoques). And yes, it's pronounced exactly like you think. That was a glorious month or two until we moved on to the next module.

Yoric 3y ago
If I recall correctly, there is an etymological reason for this. I seem to remember that the foc (it's a sail) is named after the phoque (the seal). And the foc is the sail that takes the wind from behind. I'll let you fill in the details.

sshine 3y ago

Years ago I read somewhere a response by some of the Coq authors that, upon learning that some female students (outside of France) would get discouraged from working with the tool because the name had dirty connotations, they thought this was a naming mistake. I’m pretty allergic to woke culture, and I still thought this is just better marketing. People will keep calling it Coq, and newcomers will call it Rocq. There’s no deadnaming or stigma involved.

graemep 3y ago

[dead]