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Swenglishfrench

7th July 2009 by Helena 4 Comments  

Yesterday Bea came out with a sentence that combined three languages, and one I have not heard of yet. I asked her to repeat something I had told her because I wanted to make sure she had understood. I had told her that her friend’s driver (yes, people have such things her, we don’t, but lots of others do) was going to come to the house, collect all three of them and take them to their friend’s house.

“What did I say?” I asked

“Han ska bringa nous,” she replied.

bea.jpg
The first two words are Swedish, meaning he will, the third word is the English word ‘bring’ with a Swedish flavour and nous is French.

She sounded charming, and I was thrilled to hear that these languages are sinking in. But what happens when she meets someone who doesn’t speak Swenglishfrench?

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: swenglishfrench

4 thoughts on Swenglishfrench

  • mihnas says:
    7th July 2009 at 4:56 pm

    The same as when my friends and I meet someone who doesn’t speak germenglish with additionnal polishfrench, they understand 3/4 of what we say 😉

    but I hope Bea will manage to separate the 3 languages 😉

  • amber lee says:
    7th July 2009 at 7:08 pm

    They will probably pretend they know what she said, to look smart.

    From my friends whith polyglot children, it seems to only be a problem in the beginning – with childcare and baby sitters. Later on, they do it to just be annoying 🙂

  • mimi says:
    9th July 2009 at 12:16 am

    How very clever of her! I often wish that I could speak a few different languages in the way that a lot of Europeans do, but think I’d become very confused. Sometimes find it hard to think of the right word in my one language!

  • Miller says:
    9th July 2009 at 1:38 pm

    Hopefully one should be able to get buy with a smatteriong of Norwegian.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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