"In Japan, people eat with chopsticks."
Translation:Au Japon, les gens mangent avec des baguettes.
8 Comments
I find it really funny that chopsticks translates to the same word that would mean baguettes xD
Actually, the long skinny loaves of bread got that name because they resemble sticks! And if that wasn't enough, "baguette" is also the stick that a conductor uses to lead his orchestra ("Orquestre de la Suisse Romande sous la baguette d'Ernest Ansermet")
A conductor brandishes a baton in English! SOOO much scope for confusion :-)
Oh! Thank you for the information! It's kind of funny still, but now I'm wiser :)
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Since this is a generalization, wouldn't it be correct to say "avec les baguettes"?
Well that would suggest that the whole population uses a specific set of chopsticks. It's best to use the partitive article here.
That's an interesting point. French--no less than English--doesn't hesitate to borrow from numerous other languages whenever it likes in search of a better word: English (leader), Arabic (macabre), Italian (grosso modo), Hindi/Urdu (k[h]aki), and even Hebrew (shoah). However, this student doesn't expect "chopsticks" to enter Larousse anytime soon (let alone a better word for salad dressing than "sauce"! :-( ).
French also has borrowed from Japanese (kamikaze = "suicide bomber"); perhaps someday Le Monde might be persuaded to substitute "hashi" or "hachi" as a classier substitute for "baguette."
