# Mopty Jew: foreign words you misheard and didn't find out what they meant till later **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 26, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781 "2000-08-26T00:54:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/1 "2000-08-26T00:54:34Z")
Some time ago I was watching a movie and heard someone address another character affectionately as “mopty Jew” (I’m not sure but I think it was Maurice Chevalier in _Gigi.)_ It wasn’t until much later that I realized that what he’d said was, “Ma petite chou”, an endearment meaning, I think, “my little cabbage”. Yes? Anyway, what other foreign words and phrases have you heard (or mis-heard) that puzzled you at first, but finally you figured out what it was they were saying? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/2 "2000-08-26T01:19:13Z")
hors d’oevres. I swear, I thought it was spelled “orderves” for years. When I first saw it in print, I had no idea what a “whore’s dweevers” was. Then again, I thought “annihilate” was spelled “iniolate,” too. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/3 "2000-08-26T02:34:36Z")
I thought in the theme song for Speed racer they were singing Dopey Race, Dopey Racer, Dopey Racer, Go!! ---
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/4 "2000-08-26T17:53:25Z")
Peter Gabriel’s “Games without Frontiers” Part of the refrain is _jeux sans frontieres_, which is french for “games without borders” but for years I couldn’t figure out what they were singing. “She’s so funky, yeah” ? That never made sense. I kept trying to figure it out, in my american english-centric way never thinking that it might be a different language (and I’ve even lived in France!). Finally, I bought the CD and read the lyrics. Ahaa! (Not to mention “D’oh!”) Later I was talking with this rather pompous guy I knew and he sang it as, exactly, “she’s so funky, yeah.” I wanted so to make fun of him for this, but of course I couldn’t possibly justify that to myself, so I politely told him the correct lyrics and the translation. My own small contribution to fighting ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/5 "2000-08-26T22:07:14Z")
I sang “She’s so funky yeah” too! Also in Beck-LOSER: Correct: soy un perdedor, I’m a Loser baby" Wrong: “Oh, in Benidorm, I’m a Loser baby” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ChrisCTP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@ChrisCTP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisCTP)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/6 "2000-08-26T22:52:29Z")
I always sung the “soy un perdedor” part as “so I’m a Labrador” ---
**Author:** ![UrbanShocker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/eb9ed0/32.png) [@UrbanShocker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanShocker)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2000, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/7 "2000-08-27T01:00:44Z")
I always heard “jeux sans frontieres” as “she’s so popular”. I had no idea what the real words were until I saw them in a misheard lyrics thread on some newsgroup. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2000, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/8 "2000-08-27T01:18:52Z")
This is kind of the same thing. Due to a multiple year brain fart it took me the longest time as a kid to realize that the actor I had always seen in credits as Lawrence Olivier(which I thought was pronounced like Oliver in Oliver Twist ) was really the same guy as the Sir Lawrence Olivier(Oliv-e-a) that everybody always talked about. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/9 "2000-08-28T01:23:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*It wasn’t until much later that I realized that what he’d said was, “Ma petite chou”, an endearment meaning, I think, “my little cabbage”. Yes? > \*\* Are you sure it wasn’t “ma petite bijou”? (Meaning “my little jewel”, with connotations of being small, pretty, decorative, etc., without being particularly valuable). ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mopty-jew-foreign-words-you-misheard-and-didnt-find-out-what-they-meant-till-later/30781/10 "2000-08-28T13:28:56Z")
“Ma petite choux” does mean “my little cabbage,” which is a term of endearment in French, much like “honey pie” or “sweetkins” is in English.