French song Dites-moi pourquoi?
'Lyrix' McCubbin
pourquoi_ i think it's a French folk song or something, but I know it was
in the musical South Pacific, so it may have come from there too. Thanks
in advance!
--
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| Chris McCubbin | cmc...@umbc.edu |
| aka Lyrix | (410)-xxx-xxxx |
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| "My head's on loose but my shoes are on tight" |
| -Offspring, "Gotta Get Away" |
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Pat Turenne
('Lyrix' McCubbin) wrote (écrivait) :
> Hi...I'm just wondering if anyone knows the lyrics to the song _Dites-moi
> pourquoi_ i think it's a French folk song or something, but I know it was
> in the musical South Pacific, so it may have come from there too. Thanks
> in advance!
Here are the words as I remember them but I don't think it's a folk song.
Dites-moi pourquoi (tell me why)
La vie est belle (life is great)
Dites-moi pourquoi
La vie est gaie (life is gay--This song was written a long time ago...)
Dites-moi pourquoi
Mademoiselle (Miss)
Est-ce que (Is it)
Parce que (Because)
Vous m'aimez (You love me?)
Kathryn Ford
: Hi...I'm just wondering if anyone knows the lyrics to the song _Dites-moi
Okay - dredging up ancient memories of high school musicals, hear's what
I remember of this song:
Ditez-moi, pourquoi
La vie est belle
Ditez-moi, pourquoi
La vie est gaie
Ditez-moi, pourquoi
Chere madesmoiselle
Est-ce que parce-ce que
Vous m'aimez?
(I have changed the dites to ditez, because otherwise you end up with two
forms of the second person verb, and that doesn't make a lot of sense!)
Cheers
Kathy
--
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
fo...@unix.infoserve.net It's not that life is so short...
it's just that you're dead for so long...
Ray Brizzi / muraythek@aol.com
In <4k9grj$2...@news.infoserve.net> fo...@unix.infoserve.net (Kathryn
Anne MacPhee
> (I have changed the dites to ditez, because otherwise you end up with two
> forms of the second person verb, and that doesn't make a lot of sense!)
Nope, dites-moi is okay. I dont understand your reasoning for
changing it. Anyway, Mitsou did a song called Dis-Moi. I guess
that's not what you were looking for.
Pat Turenne
fo...@unix.infoserve.net (Kathryn Ford) wrote (écrivait) :
> Ditez-moi, pourquoi
> La vie est belle
>
> (I have changed the dites to ditez, because otherwise you end up with two
> forms of the second person verb, and that doesn't make a lot of sense!)
>
Kathy,
Dites-moi IS second person plural (or formal address) form of the verb
dire. 2nd person singular is dis-moi. Although most 2nd person plurals in
French end in -ez for the imperative, 2 few verbs don't: dire (dites) and
faire (faites). There is no such thing as ditez in French!
Pat
cWen
wrote:
>'Lyrix' McCubbin (cmc...@umbc.edu) wrote:
>: Hi...I'm just wondering if anyone knows the lyrics to the song _Dites-moi
>: pourquoi_ i think it's a French folk song or something, but I know it was
>
>
>Okay - dredging up ancient memories of high school musicals, hear's what
>I remember of this song:
>
>Ditez-moi, pourquoi
>La vie est belle
>Ditez-moi, pourquoi
>La vie est gaie
>Ditez-moi, pourquoi
>Chere madesmoiselle
>Est-ce que parce-ce que
>Vous m'aimez?
>
>(I have changed the dites to ditez, because otherwise you end up with two
>forms of the second person verb, and that doesn't make a lot of sense!)
>
>Cheers
>Kathy
Sorry Kathy, but what YOU wrote in french makes no sense...
If the lyrics are correct, it should be:
>Dites-moi, pourquoi
>La vie est belle?
>Dites-moi, pourquoi
>La vie est gaie?
>Dites-moi, pourquoi
>Chère mademoiselle
>Est-ce parce que
>Vous m'aimez?
Yves (Geneva)
Kathryn Ford
: Dites-moi IS second person plural (or formal address) form of the verb
: dire. 2nd person singular is dis-moi. Although most 2nd person plurals in
: French end in -ez for the imperative, 2 few verbs don't: dire (dites) and
: faire (faites). There is no such thing as ditez in French!
Boy, and I live in a bilingual country, too - serious blush!!!!! (I once
did know that, I believe - I DID look for my French grammar text, but
it's packed away somewhere.) Anyway, thanks for the correction - and for
being polite about it!
Kathryn Ford
: Nope, dites-moi is okay. I dont understand your reasoning for
: changing it. Anyway, Mitsou did a song called Dis-Moi. I guess
: that's not what you were looking for.
My "reasoning" was based on the usual ending for French verbs when using
the second person formal or plural ("-ez") as compared to the second
person singular or intimate ("-es"). Since the "narrator" in the
song goes on to refer to the person to whom he is singing as "vous"
(second person plural/formal), I thought "dites" was the wrong ending.
So you can see, my reasoning made sense, just I had forgotten that for
that particular verb, the standard endings did NOT apply.
That's what happens when you don't speak a language very often!
The Mitsou song isn't the right one - I wasn't the one looking for it, by
the way. The correct song (sans my grammatical mistake) is Dites-Moi and
appeared as part of the musical SOuth Pacific. Would you like the words?
Kathryn Ford
: On 7 Apr 1996 22:50:27 GMT, fo...@unix.infoserve.net (Kathryn Ford)
: wrote:
: >(I have changed the dites to ditez, because otherwise you end up with two
: >forms of the second person verb, and that doesn't make a lot of sense!)
: Sorry Kathy, but what YOU wrote in french makes no sense...
: If the lyrics are correct, it should be:
:
: >Dites-moi, pourquoi
I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW!!!!!!!
Sheesh - how many more people are going to correct my grammar from a post
I did more than a week ago?????!!!!!
ndlq...@gmail.com
Noel de Leon from tje original cast.