Sick car
My parents went on honeymoon to the south of France. While they were there, their car broke down in the middle of the countryside, so my parents and their friends, who were travelling with them, walked two miles to the nearest garage to get help. No-one in the group actually spoke much French and the person who spoke the most was my mum, who received an E grade at GCE level. She tried her best to explain what was wrong in English, but after several vain attempts they still couldn't understand her. She then came up with Ma voiture est malade as she couldn't remember what broken was. The mechanics burst out laughing, but came to their aid. Even now she hasn't lived it down!
Editor's note: Anthony's mum wasn't far off the mark though - she told them that the car was ill malade. To say 'I've broken down' use je suis en panne.
Sent by: Anthony
Comments
This may be apocryphal, but I heard of a man who trudged into a French garage and explained Ma voiture est pannée instead of Ma voiture est en panne. He'd actually said "My car is covered in breadcrumbs." instead of "My car is broken".
You could just as easily say Ma voiture ne marche pas, my car is out of order. Marcher can mean "to work" as well as the primary "to walk", so you can say, when something is broken, that it doesn't work that way.
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