English Idioms2

Muriel,

That book was our bedside book... "méthode JE".

The book "Parents efficaces" is still behind me, at less than 1 meter, on a shelf.
-> L'atelier Gordon
-> MagicMaman

It's the type of books I was thinking of when I wrote, a couple days agao, that American books were exciting, clear and easy to read.

MurielB a écrit:Gérard, it's very very interesting and we all need time to integrate all those good advices !

Merci de me faire part des grosses fautes dans mes messages en langue étrangère. Grâce à vos remarques, je pourrai m'améliorer 

> all those good advices
Muriel, I can't help frowning!
Would you like to consider "advice" carefully. It's an uncountable word. It means it doesn't have a plural; would you need a plural, you'd have to use "pieces of advice".

This said, I would comment: these pieces of advice are designed for professional writers or similar high level language users.
As you know (through my posts), I do like good English but I prefer John Doe's language as it is the kind of language we hear when we want to truly communicate.

~~ edit
Muriel,
I must add John Doe is the guy who represents the average man in the street in the US; the equivalent in the UK is Joe Bloggs.

~~~~ edit
LOL
However, I have to correct what I wrote:

"John Doe" is rather used in the US legal system to designate an unknown defendant against whom a plaintiff is filing. The term "John Doe" is not really used to mean "man in the street". For that purpose, the American writers use "Joe Q. Public", "Joe Blow" (from Bloggs probably), or the derogatory "Joe Six-Pack".

(syskoll -> http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/monsieur-et-madame-tout-le-monde.129196/#post-835782 )

I don't think we have a Miss or Mrs Bloggs in the UK!!! However, we do say "the average woman in the street". Sorry, but I can't think of anything better than that.

(Tresley -> http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/monsieur-et-madame-tout-le-monde.129196/#post-835777 )

Muriel, as you know I like WordReference and I entirely read the thread Monsieur (et Madame) Tout-le-monde: very exciting.

You're very welcome Muriel.