“La grenouille mange le pamplemousse - the frog eats the grapefruit. Graprefruit is masculine (clearly!)”
Larousse says masculine or feminine. I say “la”.
Grapefruit are often called in French… grapefruit. Pronounced à la française.
So that’s what Steve Miller meant by “The Pamplamousse of Love” Now why is Maurice the Grapefruit of Love?
That’s something I didn’t know. Trésor says masculine, but points out that most dictionaries recognize the double gender, with the usage favouring the masculine but the Académie française favouring the feminine.
This is also mentioned in the Trésor entry for pamplemousse, but I for one have never heard it. Where have you heard this usage?
Do zombies like grapefruit? Brains, sure, but bitter fruit?
Switzerland, perhaps.
There seems to be some confusion between pomelo and grapefruit in both English and French. According to Wikipedia the French call the pomelo (Citrus maxima) “pamplemousse” and the grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) “pomélo” (this being the “correct” rather than the popular usage). But the Swiss (Romands) call the pomelo “pomélo” and the grapefruit “pamplemousse” or “grapefruit”.
Their version of “Mr. Sandman” was used in a commercial recently (I think it was a TV commercial for an American automaker, but I’m not sure).
Depends. I assumed the king was eating just the one ball of hats. A hat is big, a ball of hats bigger still. How would he fit several balls of hats in his mouth ?! 
In French speaking Switzerland when they were first imported but I think it’s being replaced now by pamplemousse.
It’s the name of a fancy-shmancy store in Salem, MA that sells wines, delicacies, and odd kitchen gadgets. But no grapefruit. Or, AFAICanRecall, anything for eating or preparing grapefruit.
It’s the name of a collection of Bob the Angry Flower cartoons. Stephen Notley at one point erroneously thought “pamplemousse” meant “pineapple”, hence the cover. The back cover corrects the error.
There is a successful 4-year-old racehorse named The Pamplemousse. This is the only reason I know it means ‘grapefruit’.
Has anybody mentioned yet that this is the French word for ‘grapefruit’?
As a classically-educated Francophone born in Quebec, I can help you here. Although your analysis is excellent in the context of what you heard, the Simpson’s teacher actually says : “Le roi François mangeoit moult chapons.”
[ul]
[li]“Mangeoit” is a conjugation dating back several centuries and is now mostly seen in classic poetry or verses, for example: (from La Barbe Bleue [“Bluebeard”] by Charles Perrault - when the guilty wife asks her sister if she sees their brothers coming from afar: “Et la soeur Anne répondait : " Je ne vois rien que le soleil qui poudroie, et l’herbe qui verdoie.”[/li]
[li]“Moult” is old French and means “many” or “a lot” and, when spoken with a French accent (from France, that is), sounds like two syllables - moul-te.[/li]
[li]“Chapons” are a type of poultry, specifically castrated roosters, grain and dairy fed, very fat and tender, usually served on holidays or special occasions, like turkey in the U.S.[/li][/ul]
So, the translation would be: “King Francis scoffs lotsa chickens.” 
Quebec French and French from France have substantial differences in pronunciation and rythmn, which is why your high-school French is pretty much useless when you visit Quebec…
Thanks for this, hibernicus. I believe I’d seen this Wikipedia article before, but it had slipped out of my mind. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the pomelo (Citrus maxima) in a grocery store around here, so calling Citrus x paradisi “pamplemousse” doesn’t cause too much confusion.
Quite possible; I’d have to listen to the clip again to check but at least that would mean something. Thanks for that.
I don’t know if you’re talking to mnemosyne here, but in any case she lives in Quebec (and so do I), so she won’t have this problem. And while there definitely are differences between France French and Quebec French, both are very much mutually comprehensible. Someone who learned French in high school (with, I suppose, emphasis on France French) would find it useful in Quebec.
But the main reason why I was responding to this post is this: AngelFelina, might I ask, are you FallenAngel’s wife? Your profile says that you live in Montreal so it seems unlikely, but the name similarity really struck me.
:: spit take ::
Hmm. I wonder… could you make a pamplemousse mousse?
Then of course there is the rare Pample Mouse, which subsists entirely on a diet of …
… wait for it …
… wait for it …
… Ananas! :smack:
I’ll never be able to hear that song again without giggling.
Just to note: “poudroie” and “verdoie” in your example aren’t the same verb tense as “mangeoit.” “Mangeoit” is the archaic form of the imperfect (in this case of “manger”): the modern form would be “mangeait” – it’s the same sound change that converted the adjectives “françois” or “anglois” into their modern forms “français” or “anglais”.
“poudroie” and “verdoie” are both in the present indicative (of the verbs “poudroyer” and “verdoyer”). These forms are still the correct modern present indicative of those verbs.
Here’s a poem that does in fact use the archaic form of the imperfect, by Clément Marot (16th century):
Plus ne suis ce que j’ay esté
Et ne le sçaurois jamais estre,
Mon beau printemps et mon esté
Ont fait le saut par la fenestre.
Amour! tu as esté mon maistre
Je t’ai servi sur tous les Dieux,
O si je pouvois deux fois naistre,
Comment je te servirois mieux!
The modern forms of these would be saurais, pouvais, and servirais (this last is the conditional, not the imperfect, but the principle is the same.)
/applaud
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned this yet, but it may be a clue to what was going on in astro’s brain on that fateful morning 4 years, 7 months, and 9 days ago…
We sometimes buy La Croix brand sparkling water, and it comes in various citrus flavors:
Lemon, Lime, Orange, and… Pamplemousse. No idea why they decided to use Frech for just that one flavor, but now every time I see the word I think of La Croix.