COMIC: Pardon My French
Autobio comic about practicing French with my Mother-in-Law. I continue to find new ways to ruin this beautiful language. 1 page.
Continuing from my previous comic about my weekly French conversation practice sessions...
Ok, so I looked up "cul" in a French dictionary and it said it just means "ass" or "sex"-- but maybe "cunt" is too vulgar a word to include? I know I've got some francophones in here: does "cul" actually mean "cunt"?? I wonder if it's a regional definition? Like how on the West Coast of the US we say "soda" and in the Midwest they say "pop"?
EDIT: The word was "con", not "cul"! I've edited the comic with the correct vulgarism U_U
Here's the original way I designed this comic:
Comments (12)
"How Soon Is Pussy?" The new cover of The Smiths. Actually, is the French word used to refer to someone's anatomy or is it a derogatory insult towards someone? Or is it like in English where it depends on context and the tone of voice? Inquiring minds want to know! Fun fact: This quote apparently became popular thanks to an advertising slogan from the National Enquirer back in the 70's or 80's!!
Came in from email notification to say I only have Canadian high school 2nd Lang. French but 'cul' means ass! I did not know the French word for cunt, but 'con' makes a lot more sense phonetically, too! LMF(cul)O
Con to mean cunt is not used a lot these days, un con is an asshole, abbreviation of connard.
She would have been pronouncing « quand » as /kɑ̃/ (which is a little like the English word "con" but with a nasal vowel and no consonant at the end) but given your "Kohn" transcription you were probably pronouncing it as /kɔ̃/ which would be the French word « con » which does in fact mean cunt. The French word « con » comes from the Latin ‘cunnus’ from which we get "cunnilingus" (literally "cunt-lick") (/ / indicates IPA phonetic pronunciation, words in « » are French, words in “ ” are English, and I've chosen to use ‘ ’ for Latin because Latin predates the concept of quote marks so has no typographical convention but I had to choose something.) Play the French audio clip here to hear what it should sound like: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quand#French (Note that they have a separate Quebecois clip, as some Canadian speakers pronounce « quand » closer to English "can" than to English "con" but I'd assume your belle-mère uses the more typically French pronunciation.) And play the audio clip here to hear what it should _not_ sound like: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/con#French (note that the speaker in this clip is saying « un con »
Oh, there's so many meaning to the word "con" in French. As people have pointed, it was originally a vulgar word for a vulva, but nobody has used it that way since at least the 1950s, I think.
(wait, Patreon posts your comment every time you hit "enter?) Anyway, "un con" or "une conne" can be, depending on the context, someone stupid, or someone mean, or both, but it's always a vulgar word. So an idiot, a jerk, an asshole. Then there's "un connard" or "une connasse" if you want to emphasisze the meanness of someone.
I was coming here to explain! LOL The Quebec accent has a lot more difference between the "an" and "on" sounds, which would probably make it easier to catch the difference; and we do use the word "con" to mean a stupid person here (conne for female). It took years for me to learn this word's etymology!
Haha, it's funny, cos in England they use "cunt" to mean a stupid person too. Veeeerry different connotation (cunt-otation?) in the US!
From French Wikipedia: Con est un mot polysémique et un substantif trivial[1] qui désigne à l'origine la vulve humaine. Au sens figuré, le mot con est aussi un mot vulgaire[1] en général employé comme insulte dans les pays francophones (ex : « gueule de con »), mais dans un sens très atténué, voire amical, dans le Midi de la France[2].
oh shit, CON. Not cul. Damnit!
Hahahahaha. I love the colours on this!
Thank you! They kinda happened by accident