Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. ![]() It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. For example, you might hear something like, “You’d think my brother would let me borrow his car, but no! I had to rent one!” We just use it less.Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. This is why so many stereotypical French characters in English-language TV shows and movies use the phrase “But of course!”Īnd if you think about it, the same rule applies to “but” in English. Another meaning of maisĪll of this leads us to a fact that isn’t often taught to us when we first learn French: In addition to being the most common French word for “but”, mais can also be used as a way to emphasize a statement. This WordReference entry includes more emphatic phrases with mais. There are some other emphatic phrases with mais, including the commonly used Mais oui, which roughly translates to “Certainly!”, “Absolutely”, or “But of course!” For instance: Non mais, tu as vu comment il m’a regardé ? You could translate this as “I mean, seriously, did you see the way he looked at me?” Or I could add an extra note of emphasis like so: Est-ce qu’il aime les chats ? Mais non, pas du tout !In English, these would be like saying “Does he like cats? Not at all.” vs “Does he like cats? Absolutely not!”Īnother common way Mais non and Non mais can be used for emphasis is as a sort of emotional placeholder. That is, these phrases may not have the literal meaning of the words that make them up, but are instead used to show strong emotion or to emphasize a point.įor example, I could say Est-ce qu’il aime les chats ? Pas du tout. Mais non and Non mais could be called “emphatic phrases”. Emphatic phrases with maisĮst-ce qu’il aime les chats? Mais non, pas du tout! Keep in mind that these are general rules, so it’s not impossible to, say, see Non mais in writing, or to hear a French person exclaim Mais non ! to show an extremely strong sense of surprise and disbelief. Non mais tends to be used mostly in oral language, while Mais non is commonly used in both spoken and written French.Mais non is more formal or standard French than Non mais.Mais non tends to be a little less strong than Non mais.There are three basic differences between Mais non and Non mais: What’s the difference between Mais non and Non mais ? Again, it’s best to do this search when not in public, in case you come upon anything that’s NSFW. But interestingly, despite its popularity with the youth, the phrase has been in use since at least 1911.Īs I suggested for Mais non, it could be a good idea to do a YouTube search for Non mais to hear how the intonation of the phrase changes in different contexts. You’ll often hear it used by French teenagers and reality TV stars. ![]() She might brush him off with an outraged Non mais ! (No way!/Get lost!/Are you kidding?) ![]() Non mais il exagère. (No way! He’s gone too far.)įor instance, say a man who’s been rebuffed tries to take a woman’s hand even so. It sounds like something a person would say when not really thinking about word order, and that’s fitting, because it essentially means “No way!” That said, it’s probably best not to do this search in public, in case you come upon anything that’s NSFW. You’ll probably get results like Henri Salvador’s famous eponymous song (more on that further on), but you’ll also find lots of videos of people using this phrase to react in different ways. If you want to get a sense of these different intonations, type “Mais non” into the YouTube search bar. It can express everything from exasperation, to reassurance, to a light brushing off, to disbelief. With Mais non, intonation is very important, and the more you listen to French, the more ways you’ll hear this expression said in different ways. Although grammatically incorrect, this phrase would often be heard as: Mais non, c’est pas possible ! ) (Note that in informal spoken French, the n sound in this expression is often dropped. Mais non, ce n’est pas possible ! (I can’t believe it/Oh no! This can’t be happening!)
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