swiss french words!!!

Language Corner
41
Ca va ou bien?

42
In Neuch more likely to be 'ça va, ou quoi?' - meaning something like, are you crazy or what?

43
I was told the swiss-germans say the same after each sentence, oder?

44
Why? I speak French Québécois and French French and I never heard most of those expressions and words, or if I did, didn't know the exact meaning.

45
Here in the Neuchatel Jura you are more likely to hear

'une p'tite bleue s'iou plait' = an absinthe please

or just over the border

'un Pont s'iou plait' = an absinthe please (from Pontarlier)

46
I say that all the time, as well as the Italain equivalent "se mai".

In any case, "si jamais" is true French, as that's where I learned it (as a 16 year old in Vaucluse).

Tom

47
I didn't even know I'd been speaking slang, I just pick it up from those around me

"T'es royé?!" My little one's first phrase...

48
Haven't come across this here, but remember the signs in Brussels trams which read "ne parle pas au wattman". (Always seemed rude to me and would have expected "ne parlez pas au wattman").

49
Old ladies still say 'le trolley' for the Lausanne buses that are connected to the electric lines.

Le 24heures, the local Vaud newspaper, is still commonly called 'La Feuille' and it's 'La Tribune' for 'Le Matin' (other local newspaper).

For coffee, in vaud we can have:

- un ristret'

- un express

- un café

- un renversé

50
My son doesn't know the word "oui" everytime it comes out as "ouip", which my mother in law has to say everytime "c'est bien un petit vaudois"

http://desencyclopedie.wikia.com/wiki/Vaud This site has a lot of good stuff on Vaud in general

51
T'a pas une tun?

...."nickel!" ie, that's cool.

52
Actually for Natel you can blame the Swiss-Djermanz. It is a contraction of N ationales A uto tel efon which designated the first autonomous mobile telephones ca 1978.

53
I love this thread!

I was (and still am) really surprised that my whole Lausanne family says 'adieu' to say 'hello'. What's that all about? I thought it meant 'good-bye'. And something funny- in school I learned 'dégueulasse' as the correct word for 'disgusting', but sent the dinner table into shocked silence when I used it (not in relation to the food, ha ha). I was informed that at the table we use 'dégoûtant' which has a lot more class I must admit.

54
You really learned 'dégueulasse' at school?!? Note, 'dègue' (short for dégeulasse) is more politically-correct, but still more vulgar than 'dégoûtant'

Well, at my English classes they taught us to use rubber for eraser.

55
Then we have Le Classeur Fédéral to describe a two ring binder.

It has its origins in binders that were branded as such ( http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classeur_f%C3%A9d%C3%A9ral )

And a few more from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_French

56
Around these parts, renversé rules.

57
A bit 60s that one for the Lausannois 'c'est bonnard' = c'est cool. Bonnard was the 'big' store in Lausanne, does it still exist?

'De bleu' makes me laugh always. Comes from 'Nom de Dieu' then shortened to 'de Dieu' and then to 'de bleu' to avoid blasphemy. Or 'de Dzou'.

De bleu - t'es royé ou quoi? I wish I could put the sound on for the accent in Neuchatelois, Vaudois and Fribourgeois, ahaha.

Yes Sapin, I know just what you mean. Like you I never went to school to learn English, but did so by total immersion 'sur le tas' (on the heap, as we say here)- and it takes a long time to get the right 'register' and know what is slang and semi/formal. I got caught out many a time

Like when using 'I am knackered' for 'I am very tired' in very formal company on a very formal occasion in the 70s. I got some dirty looks I can tell you, until somebody said quiety 'Odile is Swiss by the way' and everybody smiled.

The 'renversé' term has replaced the 'café au lait' because most of the waiters'waitresses are French these days.

58
Unless Geneva, Vaud and Valais are not part of Romandie that is

59
Don't forget Delémont ...

60
Since it is the springtime we are ready for a nice salade de rampon or salade de doucette .

The French use the term "la mâche" and our Swiss German friends use "nüsslisalat". It is a great salad with a boiled egg (yum).

Speaking of stores in Lausanne, all the women "of a certain age" still call the Manor store "la Placette".