# What does Frere Jacques mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-frere-jacques-mean/402869>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 5, 2007, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-frere-jacques-mean/402869 "2007-05-05T11:08:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-frere-jacques-mean/402869/41 "2019-04-07T09:59:11Z")

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I’ve heard the third line translated as “Ring the bells for breakfast! Ring the bells for breakfast!”, which has the right metre, but leaves out the religious implication.

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-frere-jacques-mean/402869/42 "2019-04-09T12:08:03Z")

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> [@Mister\_Rik](#):
>
> Hermano Juan, Hermano Juan  
> ¿Duermen? ¿Duermen?  
> Suene los matines! Suene los matines!

Google’s translation of the second line treats the Brother as a third person plural and the third line is missing a letter in _maitines_. This is how we sang it in school:

_Hermano Jaime, Hermano Jaime,  
¿duerme usted, duerme usted?  
Llaman a maitines, llaman a maitines,  
din dan don, din dan don._  
The third line is also sung as _tocan a maitines_. In either case it loses the imperative because the imperative wouldn’t fit the rhythm correctly.

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