At 20:31 -0500 02/03/9, James Frysinger wrote:
>A friend of ours is gradually shifting from her practice of living in the US
>and visiting France, to living in France and visiting the US. Despite her
>immersion in the French language and her improved skills in French, she still
>thinks in English for measurements. So of course I am trying to help her.
>
>Her first written assignment was to translate -- in poetic form -- the
>temperature ditty into French. Realizing that the French would say something
>along the lines of "it makes warm" instead of "it is warm", nonetheless,
>since numbers were involved she elected to use "etre" as the verb. Here is
>what she came up with.
>
>Trente est chaud;
> Vingte est beau.
>Dix est tr�s fraus;
> Zero est froid!
>
>I invite comments and suggestions from speakers of French on this. Louis, are
>you there?
Of course, I am here, even if I keep silent for the moment -- too busy !
Your friend -- I suspect she is Marsha ? -- is perfectly right.
Just to put it in good spelling :
Trente est chaud.
Vingt est beau.
Dix est tr�s frais.
Z�ro est froid !
which, in colloquial language, would come as :
A trente, il fait chaud.
A vingt, il fait beau.
A dix, tr�s frais.
A z�ro, froid !
I am not aware of any song or old ditties on this theme, but it may
well exist (in degrees Celsius, of course !). If I happen to find
one, I will certainly post it.
Cheers
Louis
