great thread!

mr otter (a thurgauer) calls a mille-feuille a springroll (don't ask me why)
pretty sure it's not a swiss thing, just too lazy to pronounce mille-feuille!

And in many part of Northern UK, borrow is also used for both borrow and lend.

We had a Swiss Romande Au-Pair in the UK, and the first week she told my OH 'I've raped all the carrots, what can I do now' he replied 'I never knew you were educated in a Convent'. She is now a Professor of linguistics near the Great Lakes in the US - still a good friend. lol.

I told my very formal British future FIL that to win in downhill skiing, a very important factor was 'farting'. He was a bit surprised- although he did make sense, somehow.

Doesn't he call it a creme Schnitt?

One thing I've noticed about the general American's understanding of English is that they in general only know of one word or phrase for something, and anything else is like Greek to them, e.g. in the 'Rent / hire' situation.

My favourite is "i can't be asked" as a replacement for "i can't be arsed". I've heard this a lot and never corrected it, somehow i like it, its maybe more meaningful than the original.

Yep - i concur on this. My best example is when i told an American we'd do something "during the adverts". Blank. Total incomprehension. I still don't understand how the profession of advertising wasn't a hint as to what the adverts might be..

I know Americans who also say, "I can borrow you some money." Just doesn't sound impressively ... educated, shall we say?

I guess it's a military thing. The generals I have come across were the same.

this is very true, and as an american it's rather painful to be made aware of how limited our vocabulary is. the only words we seem to have for anything we like is "cool" or "awesome".

I'm envious that all the colorful expressions have been already claimed by the British, Irish, Australian, South African English speakers. but I'd probably sound like a bit of a tool trying to use any of them in my nasal american accent

Some more I hear often from French speaking friends:

- It makes long time.
- We see us at 8 o'clock.
- I sleep to my mother tonight.
- I wait you here.
- I feel boring.

always laugh when i hear that one.

Yes - told a class of 15 year olds that I couldn't be ASKED to go and fetch another (working) tape-recorder. They soon told me I'd made a mistake - same when I called one of them a twit with a vowel change - I thought the 2 were inter-changeable. it made for a happy classroom atmosphere. So if a kid made a mistake, I could honestly say, don't worry, we ALL make mistakes. LOL.

in French : farter = to apply wax to your skis to make them slide faster.

Swiss romande who say "I'm very deceived" instead of disappointed (déception = dissappointed)

in this case, i was too scared to make a slip up

i just remembered the bf also has trouble with the words "may/could/should/would"

"i might can go to the store"

"would you may call me later?"

really has a hard time grasping that might/may are helping verbs and can't be combined with the conjugated form of "to be able"

"Make attention!"
"I must avoid" used instead of "I must confess" (fr. avouer = confess)
"Remember me" is just classic
I love it when they miss the "h" in words. A friend told me that "I ate that girl" instead of hate...quite funny for me

I did a fun mistake once. I knew from primary school that "baiser" means to kiss. But apparently it has gotten a way worse connotation in nowadays French. So it was actually fun when in the middle of a party I asked who were the couple "en train de baiser" in the corner of the room. Oh well

i see my thread's been joined with an even better thread on language gaffes. brilliant! (or should i just stick to awesome!)

Oh, can you explain me that? I am only a 16 years old girl...... and my dad earns 2 millions swiss francs! And the peoples here are really nice.

Forgot to mention: Call me if you need advices...