(A Guest Post by Harvey of Bad Example)
Eskimos have 26 different words for “snow” because so much of their culture revolves around it.
How many words do you suppose the French have for “surrender”?
(A Guest Post by Harvey of Bad Example)
Eskimos have 26 different words for “snow” because so much of their culture revolves around it.
How many words do you suppose the French have for “surrender”?
Thirty three.
Actually they only have three.
“I surrender.”
“We surrender.”
“The French surrender.”
They cannot even imagine someone surrendering without them, since they’re always the first to surrender anyways. It’s one of those linguistic anamolies.
As many as their enemy tells them to have.
Sixteen, which is coincidentally the same number of words Ebonics has for ‘welfare’.
They have one word for each language of every country that’s ever invaded, defeated and quite possibly liberated them. Thats far too many words for one man to count on his own.
They may have upwards of 25,000 word for surrender. Additionally, studies have shown that they only have five concepts in their whole entire language
1. Surrender
2. Cheese
3. Whine
4. Collaborate
5. Condescend
Aren’t the French all German legally?
The number is estimated at between 40-70, depending on whether you count “we concede” or “we forfeit” and such thnigs
Back in the day when I studied french, I never came upon the word for surrender. This leads me to believe that there is no french word for surrender, as they cannot see themselves surrendering to other frenchmen. From a young age they learn other languages so that they may surender fluently when the time comes.
Depends on who it is they’re surrendering to…
To the Germans: “Welcome home.”
To the Russians: “Chernobyl? That almost sounds French.”
To the Spanish: “Yes, your Majesty.”
To the Italians: “Uh, we’ve got our own knee pads, thank you.”
To the British: “Go away or I will taunt you a second time.”
To the Veitnamese: “Hey guys, I’d like to introduce you to America.”
To the Morocans: “We don’t know what the hell you just said, but we give up.”
To the Ivory Coast Rebels: “Surrender? Are you kidding?! No one’s paying attention. If we surrender now, we’ll never get credit for it.”
To Saddam’s Iraq: “Your nuke plans, Monsieur.”
To the Canadians: “You guys are WAY too gay for us.”
To the U.S.: “Dang. Now how are you going to get our a**es outta THIS one?”
Depends on who it is they’re surrendering to…
To the Germans: “Welcome home.”
To the Russians: “Chernobyl? That almost sounds French.”
To the Spanish: “Yes, your Majesty.”
To the Italians: “Uh, we’ve got our own knee pads, thank you.”
To the British: “Go away or I will taunt you a second time.”
To the Veitnamese: “Hey guys, I’d like to introduce you to America.”
To the Morocans: “We don’t know what the hell you just said, but we give up.”
To the Ivory Coast Rebels: “Surrender? Are you kidding?! No one’s paying attention. If we surrender now, we’ll never get credit for it.”
To Saddam’s Iraq: “Your nuke plans, Monsieur.”
To the Canadians: “You guys are WAY too gay for us.”
To the U.S.: “Dang. Now how are you going to get our a**es outta THIS one?”
Look, I’m not going to apologize for the double post… the server sucks!
They have eight. Incidentally, the German language has eight different was to say the phrase “put up your hands”. Hmm…
I’d surmise only one, since they’re typically too busy soiling their pantaloons whilst running away…
My theory (since I dont know a word of French) is that every word of their language means surrender. If their language is as diverse as ours, they’d have upwards of 300,000 ways of saying surrender in various contexts. Maybe we could get them overrun by Hindus, then they could have 300 million gods, each named something like: Threatlessha – God of surrendering to someone who is not even attacking you.
Everything is inferred in french, implied by the sense of the sentence and depending on to whom and to how many you are talking to.
Therefore there are no ‘words’ for surrender in french as they have no verbs or nouns. Instead, there are variations on a sound, which is spelled: ^
In English, this would sound vaguely like “ik”
“How many words do you suppose the French have for ‘surrender’?”
I give up.
(Get it?)
Actually it is taught through the education system (they have a class for this) they are taught surrender in thirty-seven languages. All the major ones of course.
They have as many words for surrender, as there are french people. their names translate into “i surrender.” i wonder if they fight over who gets to surrender first?
The French words for “peace,” “treaty,” “exit-strategy,” “negotiate,” “sanctions,” “resolution,” and “honor” are among the synonymns for se rendre.
Who are the French again?
Are they ohe of those cultures that high school students are forced to learn about?
I guess that I’m one of those that sees the world as “the US” and “everyone else”…
Dude, you forgot Poland.
I made this joke to a french guy in a chat room at about noon… are you that guy?? huh? are you???
FRENCH, SURENDER? That’s an oxymoron!
The french can make any word into “surrender”, depending on the nuance the put on the word.
George Guy,
Being half Polish i’ll just point out that the Poles did fight the invading Germans, it was just that their cavalry were no match for the German tanks and planes. Polish people may be dumb (as the jokes imply) but they are not cowards. The French on the other hand simply give up. That is why we French-bash and not Polish-bash.
Sorry, Tyler: “French, surrender is an oxymoron.”
It’s actually, REDUNDANT!
And just to add to what human overlord said, all the women in Europe (and maybe here) would be wearing burkas if it wasn’t for the Poles. That route in 1939 was a fluke…
I have nothing more to add to this thread right now, but I would like to say that Libsareb Raindead has an outstanding name.
I was being sarcastic!
en français :capituler, se rendre, abandonner, céder, reculer, abdiquer, déporter, expulser, délivrer, libérer, relâcher, réformer, capituler, se rendre, abandonner, céder, reculer, abdiquer, abandon . . .
Oh wait, you were joking.
Yeah, I agree with whats-his-name…the French are too busy shrieking like wounded faggots running away to actually say, “I surrender” in any language.
It would be as dumb as King Arthur and his men coming upon a cave wall that said, “…the Castle Aaaaaaaaaaarrgh!” Except, unlike the cave wall scribe (or Brother Maynard of course), the French lived to surrender another day.
Tyler, I know you were. 🙂
I was being sarcastic also…no hard feelings!
Okay ;}
Another question is, what is the french phrase for victory?
“The Americans have arrived”