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- "Faute de grives, on mange de…
162 Comments
30
i was smiling until I read your comment. That bought out the laugh. You earnt my Lingot and I will bring the wine!.
i'm a begginer in french, but I see the relation between the two words cause 'sins' or mistakes (miss take) sometimes have synonymous that means 'lack of', 'miss'. In portuguese, for example, mistakes are sometimes said as 'faltas', which means lack of, and it reminds me of 'fault' (guilt). not sure if I explained it well.
1232
You're right they taste terrible unless you cook them properly. The best recipe is to put them in a pot of boiling water together with a brick - when the brick is cooked throw away the blackbird and eat the brick.
1232
I can't ignore a challenge, can I? "Vous avez raison qu'ils goûtent mauvais, sauf si vous les faites cuire correctement. La meilleure recette est de les mettre dans une casserole d'eau bouillante avec une brique - lorsque la brique est cuit, vous jetez le merle et mangez de la brique."
1019
Hah! This is one to remember. Thanks. A first attempt to translate: Tu as raison. Les merles ont goûtent terrible, à moins que tu les cuis comme il faut. La meilleure recette est de les mettre dans une marmite d’eau bouillante avec une brique. Quand le brique est cuite, tu jetes le merle et manges la brique.
To complicate the issue, blackbirds are a species of thrush. Go figure.
Even further off the linguistic chart (sorry), I couldn't resist this Elizabethan recipe for blackbirds: "To bake Woodcocks, Black-birds Sparrows or Larks: Truss and parboil them, then season them with Pepper and Salt, and put them into a Pie with good store of Butter, and so bake them, then fill them up with Butter."
I promise to stick to language issues henceforth (but thanks for the laugh).
Pas très bien pour le régime avec toute cette beurre!
I go with your translation with these changes ... Les merles ont un goût terrible, à moins que tu ne les cuises ...
You haven't met the subjunctive and the "ne explétif" yet - it comes up later in the course - ha ha! you're in for fun. I suggest reading up the grammar rules and conjugations first http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/subjunctive.htm and http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/negation_form_2.htm.
As for the brique, I go with the feminine. As for the joke - I'll try it on our French friends and see if they like it as much as we do! And laughter does help learning :-)
1019
Many thanks for the links and the translation corrections (including the brick of confused gender—oops!). I vaguely remember the subjunctive from past teachings (including my teacher repeating endlessly "It's not a tense but a mood). I remember it as being frustrating -- and I'm sure I will again!
Encore, merci pour l'aide! (Et malheureusement, j'aime la beurre comme un élizabéthain!)
965
"de grives" is about "grives" in general... "des grives" would be about specific "grives".
578
Hi "Buddhafly" (interesting name!) thanks for the reply, I'm not sure that I fully understand but what you say does appear to make sense. I hope that things will become clearer as I progress. Have a happy Christmas and a have a lingot on me. Rob
578
Thanks for your reply, can you expand on that for me? I haven't been able to find anything along those lines. Have you seen this explained anywhere?
http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/faute_de_grives_on_mange_des_merles
Here are some very descriptive explanation. Just let google translate into Eng site
984
In Russia we would say 'за неимением гербовой, пишут на простой' which means "who doesn't have a stamped paper writes on ordinary one".
Yes, the French do eat garden birds! I asked my neighbours' kids in Normandy and they thought I was mad. So then I asked a middle-aged neighbour and she said, yes, both thrushes and blackbirds are very good and so are woodcocks (bécasses). Hunters catch them and they are still eaten even to this day.
It is one of the reasons that there are more songbirds in the Americas than in Europe. During times of famine the people could eat wild birds when there was nothing else so those easily caught became extinct (unless they were domesticated). After Europeans settled America we started getting some extinctions. But hunting hasn't gone on for millennia so hopefully we can change this. I can't believe all the hoopla about pet cats catching birds. They haven't done near the damage as people.
91
I take it you mean songbirds, since many countries eat game and poultry. The answer is yes -- though it's by no means common these days. The most famous (or notorious) is the Ortolan [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_Bunting ].
That's interesting! Though it sounds like that's now prohibited since it's a protected species.
Incidently, I found recipes for blackbirds online http://www.cuisinez-corse.com/recette-du-merle-aux-herbes-et-aux-olives/ note: le merle Corse fait partie des gibiers qui sont excellents à la dégustation
and for thrushes http://cuisine.notrefamille.com/recettes-cuisine/recette-grive-_393-ingredient.html which also mentions thrushes are espèces proches du merle noir as already pointed out by MrHazard.
So I guess people are still eating them!
91
Unfortunately, despite the legal restrictions, it's still a big problem -- see e.g. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/09/ortolan-bunting-slaughter-ignored-france . Not just in France, though: this goes on in many countries around the Mediterranean, particularly Egypt ( http://www.theguardian.com/environment/nature-up/2013/jul/19/jonathan-franzen-egypt-migratory-bird ).
They certainly do. A French hunter friend shared a number of freshly shot "perdix" (partridges) and faisans (pheasants) with us. We all, kids and adults, sat down on the kitchen floor and plucked them. Quite the messy business, but a fantastic meal! Bécasse (woodcocks) are also very popular. You also see pheasants and other wild birds hanging on hooks at markets in big cities as well as at country markets.
648
Absolutely, we were staying in rural France on the weekend of the "pigeon shoot", it was pretty unattractive!
I stared at it for a bit to make it out and put "for want of thrushes, we eat blackbirds". I thought that sounded quite pleasing and was quite proud of myself. I felt less happy when Duo marked it wrong. it really doesn't like you being poetic does it? I'll report it anyway in case anyone else is of a similar bent.
648
I would love to hear how french students learning english would translate "Beggars can't be chooses", have a feeling it wouldn't be "Faute de grives, on mange des merles"!!
648
Don't you think that if a French student learning English was given the idiom "Beggars can't be choosers" they would consider the possibility of "Les mendiants ne peuvent pas etre ceux qui choisissent" - I've probably got my French wrong but I'm hoping you've got the gist of what I am wanting to say. Meant to also say that I'm loving this exercise on idioms and the comments by so many people discussing idioms from their own languages - what a wonderful world we could live in. Je suis Charlie!
The Larousse dictionary
http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english
and the PONS dictionary can be helpful to compare different French idioms.
http://en.pons.com/translate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrush_%28bird%29 Its a type of bird. I'm assuming they are good to eat, and blackbirds are less so.
1914
Ridiculous! How does "lack of thrushes, we eat some blackbirds," equate to "beggars can't be choosers?" I'm so lost in these idiom/proverb translations!
123
Thanks for the French version of the proverb, Sitesurf, even if it doesn't speak of birds.
123
Thanks again! In the US this one, of course, includes the verb "kill" (but with a stone, not a bullet).