Dawn French Fan Club 2

"Money talks" means that when you are rich people will listen to you. Never heard of that expression !

Howdy.

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First of all, I have to make my apologies to Muriel for this message.
A few days ago, I published a picture with this expression "I kid you not"; I should have posted these words in the same thread but I can't find it
(this post should be merged in the other thread -or the initial post merged here)
~~~

I'd like to go back to it.

> I kid you not -> (Fr) je ne charrie¡ pas
Again, this is a perfectly correct and common expres​sion(an expression is a phrase that has to be used as is, without changing a word).
Another expression with a similar meaning (tho' informal) is: "I shit you not".

Surprisingly these expressions, apparently grammatically incorrect, are in fact poshy.
It uses an old grammatical form and people wanting to look poshy like to use old grammar, or intentionally make grammar mistakes, just to draw attention on themselves... funny as in French making a language mistake looks lower class; in English, making a grammar mistake (intentionally) or using old grammar looks poshy.

This weird negative form without any auxiliary (I'm not kidding you) can be found with perception verbs; similarly, we can sometimes meet: "I hear you not", "I see you not", etc.

gerardM a écrit:Howdy.

~~~
First of all, I have to make my apologies to Muriel for this message.
A few days ago, I published a picture with this expression "I kid you not"; I should have posted these words in the same thread but I can't find it
(this post should be merged in the other thread -or the initial post merged here)
~~~

I'd like to go back to it.

> I kid you not -> (Fr) je ne charrie¡ pas
Again, this is a perfectly correct and common expres​sion(an expression is a phrase that has to be used as is, without changing a word).
Another expression with a similar meaning (tho' informal) is: "I shit you not".

Surprisingly these expressions, apparently grammatically incorrect, are in fact poshy.
It uses an old grammatical form and people wanting to look poshy like to use old grammar, or intentionally make grammar mistakes, just to draw attention on themselves... funny as in French making a language mistake looks lower class; in English, making a grammar mistake (intentionally) or using old grammar looks poshy.

This weird negative form without any auxiliary (I'm not kidding you) can be found with perception verbs; similarly, we can sometimes meet: "I hear you not", "I see you not", etc.

 Gérard your post is now merged with the right thread because you are explaining this :

Thanks Muriel.

You have good eyes

I'd like to add "I kid you not" is in my Hachette-Oxford dictionary so you may use it in a conversation with the Queen next time

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The second lady mishears "windy"=>wednesday
The third lady mishears "thursday"=>thirsty

Yes it is right. Il often like to say

 "Happiness is always wanting what we already have."

Yes it is better to say=>I try my best not to lie because lies spoil  true communication and confidence between people !

gerardM a écrit:

Yes I will definitely buy the shoes !