# Nonsense French poems that sound like English nursery rhymes when read aloud **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999 "2007-07-24T20:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@bett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bett)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/1 "2007-07-24T20:13:43Z")
I remember reading some French “poetry” in my French class that sounded like English nursery rhymes when read aloud. It was all French words and the sentences basically made sense, but when read aloud it would sound like “Little Jack Horner sat in a corner…” The “poem” might look like this: L’ettle Jacque orner cet en ay courner (Imagine that’s valid French. I can’t remember enough high school French to come up with valid words) It’s not a translation of “Little Jack Horner.” Rather, it’s French words which when pronounced sound like “Little Jack Horner”. Does anyone have a link to something like that? I tried searching for those types of poems, but I didn’t have any luck. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/2 "2007-07-24T20:40:13Z")
Was it nonsense French phrases strung together to sound like Little Jack Horner? I have a book of english “poems” called _Les Oeuvres complètes de Lord Charles_ (I found some samples online here: [Les Oeuvres complètes de Lord Charles](http://pybertra.free.fr/bazar/lordch.htm) ) In my book, the english poems are just words strung together so that when you read them out loud they sound like old French popular songs. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/3 "2007-07-24T20:43:11Z")
And I just noticed that at the bottom of that page there is a link to Mother Goose Rhymes written in nonsense French: [http://pybertra.free.fr/bazar/mother.htm](http://pybertra.free.fr/bazar/mother.htm) This book must have what you’re looking for: Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames discovered, edited, and annotated by Luis D’Antin Van Rooten, (London, Angus and Robertson, 1967.) Foud it at [amazon UK](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mots-DHeures-Gousses-DAntin-Manuscripts/dp/0140057307/ref=sr_1_1/203-9400930-6463125?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185309744&sr=1-1) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/4 "2007-07-24T20:45:51Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] Was it nonsense French phrases strung together to sound like Little Jack Horner? [/QUOTE] I need to learn to read thread titles better :smack: ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/5 "2007-07-24T20:57:07Z")
A few more here: [Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames](http://www.aescon.com/aesconsulting/french/num4.htm) ---
**Author:** ![bett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@bett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bett)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/6 "2007-07-24T21:02:25Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] And I just noticed that at the bottom of that page there is a link to Mother Goose Rhymes written in nonsense French: > **[Mother Goose Rhymes](http://pybertra.free.fr/bazar/mother.htm)** This book must have what you’re looking for: Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames discovered, edited, and annotated by Luis D’Antin Van Rooten, (London, Angus and Robertson, 1967.) Foud it at [amazon UK](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mots-DHeures-Gousses-DAntin-Manuscripts/dp/0140057307/ref=sr_1_1/203-9400930-6463125?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185309744&sr=1-1) [/QUOTE] Yes! That’s exactly it. Thanks for finding that. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/7 "2007-07-25T01:22:18Z")
[An Almanac of Words at Play](http://www.amazon.com/ALMANAC-WORDS-AT-PLAY-P/dp/B000HMRG1M/ref=sr_1_5/103-3235345-6763032?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185326427&sr=1-5) by Willard Espy has a chapter on the same thing, but using German instead of French. And it’s not just nursery rhymes, IIRC (it’s been 30 years since I read that book!). ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonsense-french-poems-that-sound-like-english-nursery-rhymes-when-read-aloud/412999/8 "2007-07-25T06:15:35Z")
_Un peu thé d’un peu thé c’est t’on a oualle Un peu thé d’un peu thé Un deux gréfalle_