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- Hello everyone! Welcome to Brussels!
Today I am with my friend, Conor,
a blessed Irishman!
And we are going to speak a little
about
belgicisms
about expressions
and words
that in Belgium, one would not find
in Switzerland or in French-speaking North Africa
or in Quebec
or in France itself.
And so now ... - We are going to start with the numbers, right?
The first thing that a foreigner notices here in Belgium
is that unlike in France
we don't use figures like 'quatre-vingts, quatre-vingt-dix' ... Sorry! Excuse me!
I made a mistake ...
we don't use figures like 'soixante-dix et quatre-vingt-dix'.
- We don't do calculations in Belgium.No math, no calculations!
we leave everything logical except 'quatre-vingts'. The 'quatre-vingts' is not very logical. It's four
times twenty. Ok!
- What do you say instead of 'quatre-vingt-dix' for example?
- Instead of 'quatre-vingt-dix' we follow logic, we say 'nonante'.
This comes from 'nine' 'ninety' therefore it's pretty logical, we say 'nonante', 'nonante et un', 'nonante-cinq'.
You will often hear Belgian prices like 'quatre euros nonante-neuf'.
and never 'quatre euros quatre-vingt-dix-neuf'
- Seventy becomes? - Septante!
This comes from 'seven' and is 'septante'. 'Nonante' this comes from 'nine'.
So we will have
'septante-cinq' cents and not 'soixante-quinze' cents. We find the French bizarre here.
- Ok! So
for a foreigner in order to learn French the number are a lot
more logical here in Belgium.
Less calculations ... - More logic ...
- Ok! Great!
And something I noticed straight away when I came to live in
Belgium is that
the Belgians have sometimes the habit of saying ...
of using 'savoir' ('to know') and not 'pouvoir' ('to be able'). Even if they want to say 'to be able'.
They have a habit of saying ...
it's
do not 'know' how to do something.
- It's not clear. In my case
I don't really understand what he wants to say so he is going to illustrate this with an example
when he was in a cafe. - Yes, so ...
once I went to a cafe and wanted a cappuccino.
but not a Viennese cappuccino but a cappuccino
with milk so I asked
if he could make
an Italian cappuccino.
He replied to me: "Sorry, Sir, but
I don't know how to make it." ('savoir')
I saw that there was
a coffee machine behind him ... behind the counter ...
and ok, I said ... he doesn't know how to make it ...
I have to show him ...
how to make a good cappuccino.
I offered my 'services'
and in fact, he replied "Sir, it is not possible!" ('ne pas possible!')
It wasn't clear for me because he
used 'to know' ('savoir') instead of 'to be able' ('pouvoir').
I found that
a strange thing
and typically Belgian! - Ok!
And there are lots of other example which
for example could be funny ...
- Very funny!
- If you go to a swimming pool
in Belgium you must be careful!
- Very careful!
If you are wet, you mustn't ask for a 'towel' ('serviette')!
- Can you explain the problem? - The concept ...
if you are wet and you want to dry yourself in Belgium ... or
you are speaking to Belgians, you must not, absolutely not, ask for a 'towel' ('serviette')
because it will be very hard to dry yourself with a 'towel' ('serviette').
They are going to bring you
a type of napkin that one uses at dinner and therefore
drying yourself with that has its limitations.
You must use the word 'essuie' in Belgium. There you go! - Right on!
So a 'towel' ('serviette') in France becomes a 'essuie' in Belgium. If not, you are not going to dry yourself ...
For sure!
Great! And in a fast food restaurant in Brussels, for example,
we often hear
the expression "Sir, I'd like a 'mitraillette' ('machine gun')!".
But they don't want to order a firearm ...
- No! He doesn't kill anyone. All that he wants
is a 'pain français' ('French bread').
That's a baguette but we say a 'pain français' ('French bread'). This is not logical to a Frenchman
but for a Belgian, it's logical to say 'un pain français'.
It's a baguette.
It's a baguette which inside one can put some meat ...
hamburger
I don't know ...
chicken
veal et cetera.
There are fries and sauce ...
we call that a 'mitraillette' ('machine gun'). It doesn't look like a real firearm but it's like this.
- It's dangerous in any case
for your health! - For sure! - I word that I
found really interesting as I also speak
Portuguese, here in Belgium you can order a 'chope'. True?
- Yeah! You can order a 'chope' and even several of them! - And where can you order a 'chope'?
What is it exactly? - In every bar you can order a 'chope'.
A 'chope' is a beer and in Brazilian Portuguese it's the same thing: 'um chope' or 'um chopinho' ('a small draft beer').
You can order a 'chopinho' in a bar or
in a cafe. - So there! Exactly!
- And moreover, in Belgium, there's the influence of the Dutch language
because Belgium is a trilingual country
with French, Dutch and German
so a good example is if you were to call someone a 'dikke nekke'.
A 'dikke nekke'
who has really a 'big neck'.
It's a way of referring to someone from France - 'un dikke nekke' ('thick neck').
It's someone who is arrogant
who is a little ...
who thinks he is better than everyone
he sees everything from above ... he looks down at everybody.
- Arrogance that is? - Arrogance ... lack of concern.
That's a 'dikke nekke' ('thick neck'), for sure!
Those were the belgicisms. Thank you!