In the Net of Grans

gracesmum.

Now, some work is needing done around here. (Scottish usage)

Love all this!

Modal verbs. Is that not a cover all?

Bags Beowulf?

Loved Anglo Saxon but it clashed in Y2 with Greek Drama, which fitted better with Eng. Lit.

This the woman who will read almost anything, if pushed!

Ariadne.......'Cette sauce de haute qualite.....' I bet you have read that frequently! I now carry a small book of sudoku in my handbag so I am never without something to amuse me if I have to wait somewhere.

I would say, "la poupee est chez Maman". Is that incorrect?

bags don't you 'run mrssages' have an 'ashet' and a 'gigot'of lamb?

I think (and please correct me if I am wrong French speakers) that "chez Maman" would imply in Mummy's house, which might or might not be my house. Chez moi, even if I wasn't there at the time, would be more likely, I think. My grandaughter was translating in her head from Spanish, though. I found it interesting, because the conventional wisdom is that bilingual children speak one language or the other without translation, but she was clearly thinking in Spanish - but then it was her first visit to England.

There is no word for 'home' in French , or at least I have not been able to find one. My google translation site just gives 'maison'. Funny that, when the French are so home-oriented.

Well I think that chez moi or chez nous or whatever would be the phrase used. However, I have read (Bill Bryson?) that there is no distinction between house / home or mind / brain in French.
I think my GD was translating "en la casa de mamá y papá".

Ariadne In my day Old English, including the first half of Beowulf, was compulsory, as were the Scottish Chaucerians. Neither features in a London University BA now.

Funny really when Europeans keep referring to us as "Anglo-Saxons". You would think we would need to keep up with our chronicles, especially in the Anglo-Saxon media...

I am surprised the French still regard us as Anglo-Saxons, given what happened in 1066!

Greatnan That was Normans not the French.

And they were Northmen!

Yes, I keep trying to explain that we are not just Anglo-Saxon any more, but you still hear it all the time - Anglo-Saxon media, banks, attitudes, morality... Seems bizarre to me..

Well, there were some French in the Norman army....

Interestingly among our Norman neighbours there are still some folk with red hair and beards (the chaps that is...).

mamie

The French I know seem to think they are a pure breed, but if you look at the fragmentation of the country in the Middle Ages into several small kingdoms it seems they are just as much mongrels as the Brits. And of course the Basques, Catalans and Corsicans still do not regard themselves as French.