Manege not menage

cptrayes

cptrayes

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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.
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[ QUOTE ]
Menage means household.

Manege means arena for riding horses.


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Well it does, if you're in France. We nicked it and pronounced it wrong. Now if you say manege, people think you're a nutter - language change. Just accept it. Here, rightly or wrongly, its menage if you want anyone to understand you!
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But everyone understands "arena" and "school" just as well, so what's the point in having the whole of France in hysterics over the stupid Brits who can't be bothered to learn any language but English?

We didn't pronounce it wrong - we used the wrong word! We learnt menage in school and forgot it means household, and now we go around talking about riding in a household. If you want everyone but under-educated Brits to continue to laugh at you, carry on.

I wonder what a menage-a-trois is in Britain? A pas de deux and a half maybe?
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After many embarrassing pronunciations, I vote for 'arena' or 'sand school'.

Although I was always taught to say 'manege'

But don't try to correct on spelling and punctuation too much, people get arsey.....
 
oooo this has been one of my pet hates for sooooo long!!! Drives me mad! Estate agents always getting it wrong! Glad others are irritated by this too!
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Fraid you're all wrong. "Menage" is Franch for riding arena x

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LOL,
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It is one that drives me mad though, to the point of biting the furniture!!!

So a menage a trois is:

a) Three people in a riding arena
b) Three riding arenas
c) Three people indulging in an interesting relationship?

You can't just change the meaning of words because you can't remember the correct one.
 
Oh dear PTP - you obviously didn't follow the humungus thread a couple of months ago about buying horses from France that would otherwise go to the meat market. The OP couldn't spell her way out of a wet paper bag and constantly referred to France as Franch. This hilarious howler then spawned a zillion posts as Forum members had a little fun, maybe to forget for a while the reality of the problem. Of course it's MANEGE! Lighten up hun and if you want a laugh, look up the original thread x
 
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Fraid you're all wrong. "Menage" is Franch for riding arena x

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LOL,
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It is one that drives me mad though, to the point of biting the furniture!!!

So a menage a trois is:

a) Three people in a riding arena
b) Three riding arenas
c) Three people indulging in an interesting relationship?

You can't just change the meaning of words because you can't remember the correct one.

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Thank you, you both made me lol on a wet and windy day
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Just don't get my mother started on "jodhpurs" - she grew up there and gets very upset with the English pronunciation
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Well it's something like "jode paw" said with an Asian accent (not a posh English one like my Mother's
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)
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She used to embarrass me so much as a child by insisting I said jodepaw when everyone else said jodper
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I now call them breeches (pron. britches
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) just to be safe
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[ QUOTE ]
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.
blush.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Laffing at us, thats a joke.
 
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Of course you could go all Mediterranean and refer to it as a maneggio...
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From this day forth I am going to refer to it as a maneggio
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[ QUOTE ]
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.
blush.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

But it's funny seeing the French running round in circles. Ou wee wee.

Parlez vous Anglais
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I sort of get it. I've heard people call them jodfers and seen it spelt "ph". Mothers can be so embarassing, can't they? At least she didn't spit on her hanky and wash your face at the same time. Or maybe she did!
 
To all of you who say "who cares" about using the wrong French word for a riding arena, that it is a typically British attitude not to be prepared to learn how to speak anyone else's language. It shames us around the world.

And about that, I care, because you tar me with your brush.
 
Hey you, sono inglese e parlo italiano
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Et je parle un peu de francais but I can't spell it and to be honest it tends to morph into Italian halfway through a sentence anyway
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So there
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In Northern Ireland I was completely confused when my instructor told me we would be riding in the paddock - and we went into the school/arena/manege!
 
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