Well I'm sure if you had a heavy foreign accent he or she knew you didn't really want an apple of shit.

Except it wasn't the accent that gave it away, it was the fact that OP clearly said the wrong word because he/she was flustered.

My anus is bleeding...

Wait does that mean that potato in French translates into dirt apple or apple from dirt?

#68, terre is French for ground, not dirt. It's literally "apple from ground"

Apple of ground not from #71

I think this is one of the more educational FMLs. I just learned two new words in french. :)

@71 Terre is French for earth. The literal translation is apple's of the earth. Not that it really matters, but ground is another word entirely.

#77, I said "from" because in French what we mean is that it comes from the ground. But it's true that "of" is more appropriate if we want a literal translation :) #88, sorry but I insist, it is definitely not Earth, in French Earth is Terre with the T capitalized. And that's not how it's written in "pomme de terre". Also, I've looked it up the dictionary, and apparently dirt can actually apply, so my bad, I didn't think dirt could have that meaning. However, the word used in agriculture is soil apparently. So it would be "apple of soil" :)

Yeah well next time just say 'patates' and you'll be good !

#88 "ground" has several translations in french : "le sol" or "la terre" as in "the ground under our feet". So the word "la terre" can be translated into "the Earth" when we talk about the planet (in this case, there is a capital T at the begining => "la Terre") or "ground" (under our feet) or "soil" (more agronomic vision. literally the thing we can pick with our own hand) In the word "pomme de terre", it's obviously not the planet sense. It's wether ground or soil. refering to the place it grows.

90,99, earth does not have to mean a planet. the translation of earth in this phrase refers to land. you are right, though. if Terre was capitalized, it would refer to the planet.

yes....I can see that from your profile pic

Hopefully he has a sense of humour

Or isn't that fluent in French.

Yes, #20, because a French seller at a French market in France isn't expected to be fluent in French.

Well duh, he obviously speaks Japanese.

It's kind of like English being your first language and you still can't speak it. So in a relative theory it can happen. Although I do appreciate the sarcasm.

Hopefully the seller wasn't a jerk and asked for clarification.

If the seller did ask for clarification how is that being a jerk

#19 you don't get it. You just took it the wrong way. Think positive and read it again and you'll get it.

My bad the way i read it was wrong

Maybe, but he's also French. They can be very condescending towards people with improper French.

Your life isn't fucked, OP. Worst that happened is he glared and asked for clarification. Btw, I noticed you live in Italy. Which probably means you speak Italian, as well as French and English. Impressive.

#72 "hey can be very condescending towards people with improper Frenc" I'm French and I think that condescending peoples are cheeky ! our english level ( yes, my english level too) isn't not exactly great either.

Hey, don't knock it until you try it!

Dont feel bad. Happens to the best of us.

"That's Life" is what she said if you are to lazy to translate it.

And "say la vee" is how you pronounce it in case you were too lazy to look it up.

You aren't the only one

Yum.

"omelette au fromage"

Hey, gotta love French!

I guess there's a reason I failed french. That, and poor studying.

It doesn't matter how well you speak their language they respect you for the effort.

Unless they're in Quebec City. In that case they don't care about how hard you try. If there's any hint of lack of fluency or non-quebecois accent, they'll mess with you.

Not just Quebec City, trust me. This happens everywhere in Québec except for Montreal, because the city is half anglophone so the inhabitants don't really care all that much.

yep ! tu as raison! (you are right) ps: in quebec city they can't speak english at all, well poorly. i know i lived there for 6 years and im french.

Actually they'd rather you speak English than botch their native toung

In QC if you speak English you get treated worse than if you're an abo.

In French, potato directly translates to apple of ground or apple of the ground. And if shit means a similar thing as shit, it's easy to see how he could get confused