french translation

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
Attention! Vos wheels rollent???

(French was the only O level I failed.)
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
In colloquial French you'd say something like: "Fais gaffe, t'as les jantes qui tournent" or "Eh, oh... ils tournent, tes jantes" or similar.

Why?
 
OP
OP
Blackandblue

Blackandblue

New Member
Location
London
Many thanks. I wanted to add it to a comment on a sponsorship page as a warning of what to listen out for when riding through France. The response of course has been that the French are much more cycle friendly than us Brits so a comment like that will be most unlikely.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
The only shouted comments I've ever heard in France (that I could understand)have been "Allez!" and "Chapeau!" - especially welcome as you struggle up a hill...
 

ronmac

New Member
Blackandblue, I don't want to hijack your thread, but it is called French translation so I need to ask my question to all you french language experts out there.
I've currently got a thread going about aggressive dogs so can someone tell me what I shout at a french dog if it's chasing me/my bicycle while cycling through rural France on my upcoming trip ?
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
ronmac said:
Blackandblue, I don't want to hijack your thread, but it is called French translation so I need to ask my question to all you french language experts out there.
I've currently got a thread going about aggressive dogs so can someone tell me what I shout at a french dog if it's chasing me/my bicycle while cycling through rural France on my upcoming trip ?

Alors, Rover! Pissez off!

(It really is a stupid language and you'd be far better off touring somewhere where they speak something sensible.)
 

yello

Guest
Mon dieu! You mean dogs in France speak French too. No wonder my two look at me strangely when I talk to them in English.

Odd as it may seem, despite the number of dog encounters I have witnessed on my club rides, nobody has ever shouted anything. They simply laugh and remark about the 'foolish dog' or some such, but nothing in anger. As a warning, you'll hear 'attention' or 'faire attention'.

As a not so interesting aside, some folk might know of the 'car up / car down' warning in the UK. I could never remember which direction was 'up' and which was 'down'... most confusing. (It's also t'other way around in the US. That is, where in the UK you'd say 'car up' they'd say 'car down' in the US... summat like that anyway). Not a problem in France, as it's 'car ahead' (voiture d'avant) or 'car behind' (voiture d'arriere). Note also that "car" in French is a bus... just in case you hear 'car d'arriere'!
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
I assume with a dog in any language, a fierce shout of any syllable would do the trick - it's mostly in the tone of voice and dominant demeanour...
 
Top Bottom