How extremely close minded Dry Rot.
If you can't use the correct term, use an English one - call it a school, arena, whatever. No need to ignorantly use the wrong French term. A good portion of the English language has French roots, but I don't think they have arisen from the transposition of two letters.
We would generally use manège for an indoor school and carrière for an outdoor.
Who is "we" and when do "we" go back to "Olde Englische" for the sake of correctness?
So long as the meaning is clear, it really isn't that important. The important this is to communicate. Has nobody on here read teenagers' text speak? Whether we like it or not, that is probably the shape of things to come!
Menage means household.
Manege means arena for riding horses.
If you can't manage manege, pleeeeease say arena, if only to stop the French from wetting themselves laughing at us.
This is the funniest thread I've seen in a long time. Tho I put a post on here yonks ago asking why Northerners call it a sand paddock (especially when it's not sand) and not one person knew what I was in about. I looked a right plonker. But I know they are called sand paddocks up t'North as I'm a northerner from sunny lancs, now living in wilts. No one here ever calls them sand paddocks.
Or just call it a school !!
Dry Rot: Bonjour!!. English as we know it today does contains MANY Norman French and French words: BISCUIT, bouquet(,not Bucket) Souffle, repartee, coup,crepe etc etc.All good French words used frequently by us ENGLISH. Whereas 'Cookies' are usually those things we are told we may get whilst googling, the Americans EAT them it seems!! We normally do not,but eat Biscuits instead!! The French take us for idiots for the liberties we take with their lingo and try their best to speak as we do, politely asking. "How do you say in English"? So lets be a little more amenable and call a spade a spade and a special 'yard' for training one's horse. A Manege which it is., and a menage a domestic/household?)arrangement of whatever sort. Horses do not live or exercise in one's domestic quarters!! Both those words Manege and Menage are French as all those above I have mentioned, It is not only the French who do not like it but all of us English who know what a Menage is and have done even if we did not study Francais!!We are British and contacting each other in English I know but notice those words above ?They are used commonly by us all , is this not so? Comprenez vous ? Merci Beaucoup .
Lol, I have been known to take a red pen and correct the spelling when viewing property brochures with a friend. The estate agent raised an eyebrow and I had to red-facedly explain that as a teacher, I just couldn't stand not to correct it.
Don't know if I can manage a menage or manage menege, or is it mangege a menage.....I normally say Menaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggge in a very posh tone, failing that I'm going in't School, which my pony views as the torture paddock, or is it paddeck, depends on how posh I pronounce it......
Miaou! :wink3:If the Franch are really that bothered by our mispronunciations of Franch words that have entered into the English vernacular then perhaps they should have stayed at home in 1066...!
Completely agree. The Welsh and French languages (and probably many more) take English words that they have no equivalent to and adjust them so they more "fit" their own languages. Why can't we do the same?
There are plenty of words in English that came from other languages that have been anglicised.
Or things go the other way. We say Connoisseur which is actually archaic French and they now say Conoitteur as the verb "to know" changed to Connaître. The circumflex accent acknowledging the missing "s" that came before the "T" in old French.
If we start listing how many French words we're saying wrong we'd be here forever!
Lol, Dryrot, if it means so much to you, I vote you keep your manage! (I am french by the way!)
Criso: I do agree. It is really galling when I hear folk who are bilingual and whose first language is NOT English, from the former British Empire, and all parts of the world and in Britain, now exclaiming ,"The English/British now do not know how to write and spell their own language"!! Those of WW2 vintage including some of us were really TAUGHT our language. How to write in special ' ruled writing books', how to spell and grammar too. // If one looks at old manuscripts and Deeds one cannot but help notice that they are indeed,".Works of Art" of our Clerics of old. Those who were taught before the War, for the most part, could also write so well. I have their letters. //Now, we often find that the English written word is illegible and seems to be in a very strange script indeed as Old English once was.. I spent and entire day while in our County EDUCATION Dept. trying to explain to a younger English colleague that: Lose & Loose had TWO different meanings.. Finally, in exasperation, I told her to consult her Dictionary, perhaps the Oxford one as we were working in that TOWN with the world famous University!!// My sister was nearly SACKED while a secretary, by her English boss for bringing to his notice that his letter could NOT be understood.// I feel so ashamed especially when I repeat what historians know, that English is a gift to the world, the language of science, technology and medicine. A lingua franca as Latin once was//To have the benefit of FREE schooling as we do while millions do not and not appreciate it seems really 'difficult to understand' especially by those from countries that do NOT have this benefit.
The Gautama Buddha taught that to remain KNOWINGLY IGNORANT is a SIN and have an icon of a little clay lamp with a wick to denote WISDOM and learning. The lamp gives us the LIGHT of knowledge as IGNORANCE can cause so much chaos. Far better to stand corrected and accept one's errors than to brag about one's ignorance. i.e "Did you loose your purse," Yes, so I have no lose change now.?? My panties are sooo lose, I may loose ithem all together. NOTICE at swimming pool with a tiny bridge over the water leading to a cafe. " PLEASE DO NOT JUMP OFF OF THE BRIDGE"!! Also the following "I could OF done it" should OF, and would OF. First heard spoken and now seen so often spelled that way too on Internet. I wondered if I COULD HAVE misread it the first time but the writer repeated it more than once. "THEIR ,, THEIR! I got the gist. It's just THERE way of being Modairne!! SOOO NOT COOL to be a clever clogs who can spell these days when even Uni. dons tell us it's fine to be able to get the gist even if the spelling is weird. Gt i ?, f u dnt., hrd chs. I cn meneg t rd ths . cn u?? Better jump off of my chair and have a cuppa. WHEW!
Oh my god, this thread... really brings out the nerd in people don't tit??
//= Is commonly accepted by those of us who want to save space. OK?
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