Reply to comment about "8 French words I miss in English: Untranslatable words chez les Anglais"

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Submitted by Moira on November 16, 2020, at 11:11

Ah, a trip down memory lane from time I spent in France! In my late teens, I was desperate to blend in. I honed in on the most common sounds or exclamations the locals made—"bof" was one of those! Along with "ben" (“bien” with an elongated “e”), a tsk followed by guttural sounds, like "Tu-huuuuh," "ooh, la," "et alors-uh," "oh-OHHHH," and "m'enfin." I would use the sounds to delay while searching for words or to join in on a conversation that I couldn't keep up with. I never heard "spleen," but I'd hear people respond to "comment vas-tu?" with "j'ai un peu mal au foie ce matin." Being "sick in the liver" seemed mostly to mean "hung over." :)