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Friday's Five - 5 Swiss French Words (Related to Food) You Should Know

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Friday's Five - 5 Swiss French Words (Related to Food) You Should Know

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100MILES HIGHWAY: Friday's Five - 5 Swiss French Words (Related to Food) You Should Know

Friday, April 8, 2011

Friday's Five - 5 Swiss French Words (Related to Food) You Should Know

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Some years ago, when I was working in Zürich, I was overwhelmed with swiss german. Although I considered by german relatively fluent, I didn't understand a word of swiss german. After 3 months, I could know when my work colleagues were talking about the weather, some recent news or the upcoming weekend. But as you can see, I spent most of my time there guessing the lunch topic of the day. I usually had a poor soul sitting next to me who's job was it to translate whenever I had a clueless look on my face. 

Before moving to the french part, I thought that at least this time, the french would be the same as in France. At least some of the (very few) words I had learned in University would find their use. I was right, kind of. French in Switzerland isn't that different from the french from France, but there are, in fact, some words that will be confusing for other french speakers
  1. Cornet. You go to the supermarket to buy some fruits and the cashier asks you if you want a cornet. Why would the cashier want you to take a music instrument similar to the trumpet after buying some fruits? Turns out, cornet is the swiss french word for sac de plastique (plastic bag). 
  2. Services. Whenever I buy a quick take away salad, the kind waitress asks if I want service. The first time I thought: better decline any service, whatever it is, it will probably have an extra cost.  I then took a plastic fork and knife and went back to work. Soon afterwards I found out that service is the swiss french word for couverts (cutlery). I can picture the cashiers' puzzled look when I kindly declined and then took it anyway!
  3. Déjeuner. Yes, you know this one. But, as confusing as it may be, déjeuner in Switzerland is not having lunch, but having breakfast - what in France is called petit déjeuner. 
  4. Dîner. 1:30pm on a saturday. I went to have lunch on a terrace. The waiter comes to take my order by asking "Quest-ce que vous voulez pour dînez?". "Dinner?" I thought "who wants to have dinner at 1:30pm?". What school had taught me to be dinner in french seems to be lunch in Switzerland. 
  5. Souper. So, if breakfast is lunch and lunch is dinner... what the heck is dinner? Souper, as in supper!

All these words are related to ordering food and going food shopping, which is as far as I can get with my limited french. 


Do you know about any words that are used differently in another country? 


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PS: Just a quick note on my april blog cleaning challenge - I'm probably going to make the move to Wordpress this sunday! I realized that many design options can't really be seen correctly unless you've already got posts in it, so... wish me luck! 

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6 Comments:

At April 8, 2011 at 11:59 AM , Blogger Meri said...

Well, the words for "to hang" in Latin American Spanish and the "f word" in Spanish Spanish (one of them) are the same. Yikes!
Fun list!

 
At April 8, 2011 at 12:06 PM , Blogger TexaGermaFinlaNadian said...

GOod to know if we ever venture down to Switzerland again. And my South Texas family, no Swiss involved, calls lunch dinner and dinner supper. Weird! :)

 
At April 8, 2011 at 2:19 PM , Anonymous Eurotrip Tips said...

It's really interesting to see these differences between France and Switzerland. I wouldn't have thought of them!

In Quebec, we only use déjeuner (morning), dîner (lunch) and souper (dinner). No petit-déjeuner here! I'm glad to know I'll be at ease in Switzerland. :)

 
At April 8, 2011 at 3:42 PM , Anonymous Brenna [fabuleuxdestin] said...

THat's crazy! I would be very confused in Switzerland. I once said, "on va souper" here in France and the Frenchies had a good laugh. They said it was middle age talk!

 
At April 10, 2011 at 11:13 AM , Blogger TravelRoach said...

"Why would the cashier want you to take a music instrument similar to the trumpet after buying some fruits?"
Bahaha! Now that's some good upselling.

 
At July 19, 2019 at 10:13 AM , Anonymous Hanna said...

The services made me smile. Helpful.

 

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