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Ok, so im off to france tomorrow as a school trip with the choir. We are off to paris, and I thought what better to do than translate a little of my trick based patter into french - so i spent (more like wasted) my entire french lesson today translating word for word the patter for This, That and the Other (more commonly known as this and that for reasons relating to the climax)

I was wondering if anyone had done anything similar with tricks of their own.

They say magic is like a universal language, which is true, as long as you dont intend to be funny.

Im not too sure if Cette Que & L'Autre is the correct translation of This, That & Other. Im going by google translate for those ones.

Can anyone suggest anything better.

Thanks in advance. I'm off at 6am, so make it quick!

Comme si, comme ça is possibly a more natural translation. It means like this, like that and is used colloquially to mean 'something is OK or not bad.' For example:

"Whats that beer like?"
"Comme si, comme ça"

A non-commital sign of basic approval.

'Comme si, comme ça et l'autre' would probably sound more natural to French ears than 'Cette Que et L'Autre'

Actually, comme ci, comme ca, as far as I am aware is used to mean, its not bad.

crozboz wrote:Actually, comme ci, comme ca, as far as I am aware is used to mean, its not bad.

Yeah thats why I said: and is used colloquially to mean 'something is OK or not bad.'

French people know it means 'its not bad' but it will make sense as a pun, because of the literal translation, if used with the trick. Cette and Que will not. Even if they dont get the pun, its not a bad name for an effect, cette, que, et l'autre wont make any sense to them.

How about, "Ce, ca, et l'autre"?

The thing is if you say 'comme si, comme ça' to a Frenchman it is such a well known saying, and easy to pronounce (Kom-sea Kom-sah), that he will know exactly what you are saying. Hold out the left hand for Comme si and the right for Comme ça - and he will understand what you mean.

Anything slightly confusing or not what they are used to hearing and there are immediate problems of understanding. I dont know why it is but in English, if something is mispronounced or said in an unusual context it is usually quite easy to understand what the speaker is trying to say. But in French, which is a very similar language to English sharing many similar words, theres a communication problem.

I am not a language expert - this is just the way Id go about it

I can do the svengali deck in Dutch. When I went to sell them in Holland I had the whole demonstration translated and learned it off by heart. A complete waste of time since when I got there everyone spoke fluent English.

Mind you, their faces were a picture when I startled to garble in Dutch to them. They nearly died of shock and thought I could actually speak their language. The facts were that I hadn't the slightest idea what I was talking about.

Dutchsh issh easysh yoush jussh putsh ash sh aftersh everysh thingsh yoush saysh.

Thatsh ash loverlysh windmillsh.

Thosesh aresh splendidsh tulipsh.

Ish likesh yoursh clogsh.

Whatsh wash insh thosesh cakesh?

etcsh

That is odd. I don't remember a single "sh" in Dutch. Not one.

Maybe they couldnt get a word in edgeways

Silly George ... http://mercury.ccil.org/~cowan/essential.html

Old English is essentially mispronounced Modern English spoken while wearing armor and carrying a roundshield and sword.
--Dan Seriff

I guess you use card so the best translation would be;" Celle-ci, Celle-la et l'autre."

Wich retranslated in english would looks like;" this one, that one and the other."

P.S.:"Comme-ci, Comme-ca will be interpreted as "Like this, like that." The expression is also used to answer at "How are you? It's ok, not much." It does have a negative value as its not going better then that.