Poppette was just racing around the living room and fell over with an almightly clatter. She came running over to me clutching her elbow and we had the following exchange:
Poppette : Mal (hurt)
Me: Tu t'es fait mal à la coude?* (Did you hurt your elbow).
Poppette: Oui, mal au coude. (Yes hurt elbow).
It just shows how grammar is hardwired into a native speakers brain.
Obviously, I'm telling myself that I must have got the grammar right a million times before in order for Poppette to learn it in the first place
.Poppette the grammar teacher.
* For any of you that aren't French speakers, the word for elbow i.e. le coude is a masculine word ... I mistakenly made it feminine!
That is fantastic!! I literally laughed out loud!! What a little superstar you are Popette!! :0) and I quite agree that it was obviously a slip of the tongue on your part and correctly modelled a million times previously!! ;0)
ReplyDeleteLol !!!
DeleteIsn't it wonderful when this happens?! Wonderful and... humbling!!! My daughter is now 8 and is well aware that her French pronunciation is perfect whereas mine is somewhat shaky. She takes full advantage of this during dictation homework if she misspells a word - 'But mummy, you didn't say it right!'
ReplyDeleteha ha... brilliant! That's good thinking on Schmoo's part :-)
DeleteHumbling, isn't it? My daughter, at 30 months, is correcting my pronunciation and grammar, too. It's a mixture of pride (over her) and embarrassment (for myself) that keeps me working diligently on my French!
ReplyDeleteHi Carol thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment...I've just popped over to your blog actually and love it so will be tagging along from now on :-)
DeleteThank you! Great to "meet" you, in the blogosphere!
DeleteThat happens to us all, I guess, and I am always thrilled. My French is good, but the kids' is better - success in our quest for bilingualism! :)
ReplyDelete