Friday, August 10, 2007

Go cook yourself an egg!


It always amazed me the way some French expression formed. I learnt from Samantha's blog about this expression:

qu'ils aillent se faire cuire un oeuf = that they go cook themselves an egg = go to hell

It's used when someone keep annoying you and at the end you just ask him/her to go to hell. What does it have to do with cooking an egg? I love egg very much and I really don't mind to cook myself an egg. hahaha

11 comments:

  1. BeeEan,
    It's probably a polite way to the French to say "Go to Hell"... But nevertheless, I like the phase and would use it if the american here know what it means. ;D

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  2. Bee Ean
    Glad to find you again. There are a lot of slang words in US which I don't understand. We are learning something new every day.

    Have a great weekend.

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  3. catcat,

    Don't try this on your coworkers, it's a gross way to say it according to Fabien.

    jesie,
    Hey thanks for comingby. You are in Nice? How do you like it?

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  4. Bee Ean ... I love eggs too, especially steamed. Yummy!

    Correct me if I am wrong but we Chinese also use the egg in a negative way when we fail to achieve something, right? I remember "chi-tan" (Mandarin) or "kai-tan" (Cantonese). ??

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  5. bee, how to pronounce it?

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  6. Yes Rita, when you get zero in school it's bad. We say "eat egg" for getting zero score, but I have never heard anybody saying "go cook an egg for yourself".

    zewt,
    If you want to tell someone directly to go to hell, say this:
    va te faire cuire un oeuf
    Pronunciation:
    va (va in Malay)
    te ("te" like in terima kasih)
    faire (like in fun "fair")
    cuire (cuir in Malay)
    un ("a" like abang)
    oeuf (nef in Malay)

    If you want to use it for third party:
    qu'ils aillent se faire cuire un oeuf (ask him to go cook himself an egg)
    Pronunciation:
    qu'ils (kil in Malay)
    aillent (zail in Malay)
    se (se like in sekolah)
    faire (fair like in fun fair)
    cuire (kuir like in Malay)
    un (a like in abang)
    oeuf (nef in Malay)

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  7. Anonymous5:49 PM

    gosh...i can never learn french. it's so difficult.

    scold ppl 'ji dan' is easier. hahahaa.

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  8. It's like telling somebody, Go jump in the lake! or Go fly a kite! Same meaning different metaphors.

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  9. Gosh! I think someone French should really explain the source of this. I can foresee this translated to "Pigi masak telok lah!" (with arm thrusting in the air).

    I think it probably came from the notion that cooking an egg is about the easiest thing one can do back in the old days (nowadays, buying a cooked egg is easier). So, by telling that person that its more useful if he/she go cook an egg, it should tantamount to "you're wasting my time. So, go do something easy for your pea-brain and ultimately more useful... like cooking an egg. Can you handle that?" So much more impact in french, I'm sure.

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  10. Alvin,

    You are right French is a difficult language.

    puteri,
    True, true, why go fly a kite ah, just can't give rational explanation.

    cirnelle,
    Wow your explanation is quite impressive. I didn't think about that. Don't ask French to explain bcos they won't able to tell you. There are so many expressions out there who don't make any sense. The French will just say:"It's like that (C'est comme ça)". In fact I was the one make them discovered their own language. :-)

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  11. This is funny! Too bad, my french level is not as good yet to even say the whole sentence!

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