Any fluent French speakers

[swee'pea99]

more than one - I loved Izzard's skit, despite only having basic schoolbiy French. I am similar age to Izzard so remeber the ludicrous Monkey example in my school textbook. And anyway shouldn't it be "minkey"?

Any excuse...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnlIWpZSPXU

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Look no further -


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGNVU5ZjlgA

 

[User169]

Voici la famille Marsaud. Monsiuer Marsaud est un nobbeur. Madame Marsaud est tres belle. Jean-Paul est un daffodil, et Marie-Claire va en bicyclette.
.

slight correction - it was Marie-France. She seemed to spend a suspicious amount of time with M Lafayette, le facteur.

 

[Jimmy Doug]

I've been playing around with this and so far haven't found a satisfactory way of keeping the spirit of your phrase. Just to be clear, a guest who arrives at the place becomes friends with the host, is that it? Or is it that several people who don't know each other and stay at the place (your place I presume?) become friends?
There are many difficulties with translating this. For one thing, it's hard to keep French as brief as English. Also, the conjugation system creates complications that don't exist in English.

 

[gavroche]

[QUOTE 3797656, member: 259"]Steve,

it would be:

Arriver comme des étrangers, partir comme des amis (not Partier!)

But my French colleague has also just suggested:

Arriver tels des étrangers, repartir tels des amis

But everyone will understand what you mean [/QUOTE]
Comme des etrangers nous arrivons
Comme des amis nous repartons.
Make sure you put the accent on the first e of etrangers, as suggested.
This is more poetic than previous versions.

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Edit: forget Google translation or Bing. This sort of thing can only be handled by a fluent speaker of both English and French. So far, Arriver tels des étrangers, repartir tels des amis is the best translation I've seen - and I'm not sure I can do better.

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Comme des etrangers nous arrivons
Comme des amis nous repartons.
Make sure you put the accent on the first e of etrangers, as suggested.
This is more poetic than previous versions.

That's very good!

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Arrive en étranger, pars en ami

 

[Fnaar]

slight correction - it was Marie-France. She seemed to spend a suspicious amount of time with M Lafayette, le facteur.

My French teacher was gorgeous too, that helped

 

[Brandane]

My French teacher was gorgeous too, that helped

Mademoiselle Bon-Corps?

 

[Vapin' Joe]

My French teacher was gorgeous too, that helped

I saw an advert in a Soho phone box once by a lady offering French lessons. I must say her approach to tuition was rather novel, though not very effective as I still can't speak the language. I gave up after about fifty lessons.

 

[Brandane]

There's always the Yorkshire version .........

Arriver tels des amis; repartir tels des étrangers.

 

[Fnaar]

Mademoiselle Bon-Corps?

Oui, oooh, she was lovely ... I happened to be very good at languages ... it was a grammar school, where surnames were used ... once, she used my first name when I gave a particularly accurate reply to a question in French ... I think that was my first crush. I was 13 years old.

 

[Tin Pot]

My favourite schoolboy French phrase was "Les biens".

I still chuckle, decades later, at my own cleverness.

 

[srw]

Comme des etrangers nous arrivons
Comme des amis nous repartons.
Make sure you put the accent on the first e of etrangers, as suggested.
This is more poetic than previous versions.

Or perhaps "vous" instead of "nous" if the sign is supposed to welcome guests. Or "je" if it's on Steve's solo bike while he's on tour.

This is exactly why you need a native speaker for this sort of translation!