You know why I hate French?

[Squatch]

(not *the French*, but "French" (aka Freedom), the language)

It's all the extra, superfluous letters.

Let's take the numbers, for instance.

Number - French Spelling - How it should be spelled
1 - un - OK...this one's not too bad.
2 - deux - You can drop the "eux" and replace them all with an "o"..."do"
3 - trois - Same thing, drop the "rois" and replace with "wa"..."twa"
4 - quatre - Pronounced "kwat", so why the extra "re"? Just spell it "quat"
5 - cinq - Not extra letters in this one, but the it's confusing. I suggest spelling it "sink"
6 - six - You see? Perfect, concise, no extra letters. No wonder we took it as our own.

skipping ahead...

72 - soixante-douze - What the f**k? "Soy-Zanadu"? Is that Olivia Newton John retooled for the vegan-revolution?

[mainegreen]

1. :rofl: Based on that you must sound like John Wayne when you speak french!

Ja purl come John Wayne.

:rofl:

[unpossibles]

3. hahaha... I originally learned French from a woman from Kentucky...

Wee, zhe parrl frahnn-say tray bee-in, muh-sewer!

[unpossibles]

2. I laugh because English has phonetic tough spots too though....

French is pretty damn difficult, but I know non-native English speakers who think the same thing about our language.

[kay1864]

4. Well yeah, sorta...

But with "quatre" you do pronounce the "re" a bit. Kind of like the "le" at the end of "ensemble"

And at least French is consistent, in that "eaux" or "ois" at the end of a word are always pronounced the same. English is the WORST. For example, "ough" in tough, through, though, cough, bough, hiccough. Criminently!

[Squatch]

5. Hey...you leave American out of this.

This thread is a 100% Freedom-hating discussion.

[kay1864]

8. Pardonnez-moi

:P

[rockymountaindem]

6. French is misunderstood

It really does sound rather like it's spelled, but you just have to put yourself into the French-speaking mode. For instance: "quatre" is not pronounced "kwat". It is pronounced "cut-re", with the "re" sound being the infamous French back-of-the-throat noise. Once you get the hang of it, French pronunciation is rather logical, although spelling words is somewhat harder. "Allons-y" is pronounced "allow-zee" for example. After 8 years of studying French, though, you start to figure things out.

[Lowell]

7. Learned French from my grandfather

I never had much problems with it because I learned at an early age. But honestly, the numbers thing always seemed a little weird to me.

[MissHoneychurch]

9. I love the number 99 in writing

quatre vingt dix neuf

4 x 20 + 10 + 9

It is so simple :D