There's worse. Mika once said "introduire" as a direct translation of introduce in English instead of "présenter", and he was relentlessly made fun of because of the sexual connotation the people around him ascribed to it.
None. But it's true the formulation is not the most common one.
In common speech you visit a place, like a museum, but not a person. Here it sounds like he went inside his mom and visited her. But that's only in common speech, in a more old-timey/formal style it is a totally valid construction. You can encounter "visiter quelqu'un" in books or even spoken in a formal context.
But here Mika is probably not using the expression with this intent, he's not a native speaker and even though his level is extremely close to the one of a native and is basically fluent, he sometimes doesn't know a word or uses weird formulations. In common speech, you'd say "rendre visite à quelqu'un".
That's interesting. As a native french speaker from Quebec, we say "visiter quelqu'un" at least as much as "rendre visite à quelqu'un", and the latter is the more formal form.
I genuinely had no idea what the problem was in the post.
Sure it might sound normal to some but others will inevitably (jokingly) see some kind of sexual interpretation in it. Same goes for *excité*, although it can absolutely be used in the same way English does, it's pretty common to hear people joke about it whenever they hear someone use this word in contexts such as "Elle était très excitée".
Nobody will *actually* misunderstand it though, but learners might need to think of alternatives if they want to avoid this kind of reactions.
I feel you. I have a similar experience in Hebrew since I've been told the word כוס means "cup" when pronounced kos but "pussy" when pronounced koos. Now whenever I see this word on Anki I systematically have to think for a bit about which one is the family friendly version because I keep mixing them up. I just know when I'll be in Israel I'll make that mistake at least once.
As for your cat, I can tell you that saying *chat* for female cats is perfectly fine. Alternatively, you can say *chat femelle*, a bit tedious but not so weird and gets the point across. (Edit: I just realized you might be a native speaker, in which case sorry for the useless explanation.)
No, no, definitely not a native speaker! Thanks for the explanation, appreciate any help at all. I do tend to use chat alright, just sometimes under pressure I forget which is right and wrong to use, especially when I was first speaking french. I guess a useful way to remember is that 'chatte' also sounds like a bad word in english, so dont use it, lol.
Hahaha never realized the similarity between chatte and shat/shit, that's a fun one. If that can help you, remember that feminine forms are usually longer than masculine ones: for jobs (chirurgien/chirurgienne), adjectives (long/longue) or practically anything (aventurier/aventurière, débutant/débutante...). Chat/chatte is no exception.
Apparemment ça serait plutôt une forme vieillie qu'un anglicisme.
https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/clefsfp/index-eng.html?lang=eng&lettr=indx\_catlog\_v&page=90Os2gi5Eiho.html
Reste que, normalement, on dirait plutôt
- "Je vais voir X à l'hôpital"
- "Je vais rendre visite à X à l'hôpital"
En tout cas, bien avant "Je vais visiter X." (cette dernière phrase attend clairement en lieu et place de X un lieu et pas une personne).
> Here it sounds like he went inside his mom and visited her. But that's only in common speech, in a more old-timey/formal style it is a totally valid construction.
Uh? I don't think I say it myself but it doesn't sound particularly old-fashioned to me. I wouldn't bat an eye if someone said that, it sounds perfectly normal to my ears.
I wouldn't bat an eye either, but that's what the comments were referring to. It's not extremely old, rare or distinguished, but it's less used than "rendre visite" and sounds funny to some people.
My interpretation is that she's a kid being a kid who never heard the expression before for some reason and said something random. I looked up her bio using her YouTube handle, and it says "Je m'appelle Alexandra, j'ai 15 ans et je suis Française \^\^".
Yeah indeed a kid would be more encline to laugh at that rather than an adult. But OP said many comments were talking about it, so I guess she's not the only one.
So, clearly from the thread under the comment, she thinks it sounds like it could be sexual: she thinks "visiting" his mother could be understood as penetrating her. Since when you visit something, you often go into it.
She says "ça prête à confusion", someone replies that she has "l'esprit mal placé", etc.
Some other commenters seem to find this funny, while some others are confused as this way of wording things is common to them.
It's just a veeeeery far-fetched sexual joke in a (very stupid) thread full of kids, IMO.
EDIT: typo + added more info
The comment had 275 likes and wasn’t the only one so I assumed it was a mistake, but your explanation makes sense. He probably has a generally younger audience
https://youtu.be/Ufn3_sLd1jQ?si=-f0BYBUWWEY2mitF
This is the video it’s taken from
> In common speech you visit a place, like a museum, but not a person.
Pourtant, voici la première définition du mot *visiter* dans le dictionnaire de l’Académie française :
>Aller voir quelqu’un chez lui. *Visiter son ami.*
https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A8V0633
And 3 lines lower it says "on dit plutôt faire, rendre visite" haha. Another person said that from Quebec "visiter quelqu'un" is really the default way to say it, so it has to depend on the country
>And 3 lines lower it says "on dit plutôt faire, rendre visite" haha
Ça ne veut pas dire que c’est une erreur, mais seulement que dans un registre plus soutenu il est préférable de dire *rendre visite à quelqu’un*.
*Visiter quelqu’un* est encore courant au Québec et au Canada. Probablement ailleurs aussi mais peut-être moins en France.
>Q/C Se rendre auprès de qqn, rester un certain temps en sa compagnie, par affection, politesse, etc.
>
>*Visiter un ami, sa famille.*
>
>*« nous avions trois oncles et un cousin, tous cultivateurs, et nous allions les visiter assez régulièrement »* (G.-É. Lapalme, 1969).
>
>REM. Cet emploi est vieilli en France.
https://usito.usherbrooke.ca/d%C3%A9finitions/visiter
I’ve literally never heard that “visiter quelqu’un” meant “he went inside her and visited her”. That’s the first time I’ve heard it interpreted like that.
> But here Mika is probably not using the expression with this intent, he's not a native speaker and even though his level is extremely close to the one of a native and is basically fluent, he sometimes doesn't know a word or uses weird formulations. In common speech, you'd say "rendre visite à quelqu'un".
It looks like he's translating from English -- like 'So I'm in the hospital while I'm visiting my mum...'
It’s very French for someone in the comments to find such a minor error (barely even an error) hilarious. It just dissuades people from learning the language.
C'mon, it's not even an error, it's a common way of phrasing things. OP just happened to find a random comment from a kid that didn't make much sense (if you look up their YouTube handle, it's a 15 year old girl). Drawing conclusions about 65+ million French people from this is ridiculous.
I was actually just watching a video the other day where a popular French teacher pointed this ‘error’ out as one that annoys her the most ([02:25](https://youtu.be/-gD1k2AG8_U?si=UFg5a_wISOw9mJk7))
I’ve worked in France. It’s a very common experience for learners to have minute mistakes mocked. It’s the thing I like least about the country. It’s also why people find learning English much more cooperative as it is seen as very rude in the UK (probably other anglophone countries too) to make fun of someone who is trying their best.
I should note that the problem, at least in my experience, is that Parisians think Parisian French is the only form of French. Elsewhere people are not like this so frequently.
In Québec people don’t do this and are very pleased to hear someone who can communicate in the language even if it isn’t absolutely perfect.
Everyone will have their own experience but I'm a beginner and luckily haven't found many irritated locals mock me here in Lyon. Once attempts are made, they're quite encouraging. That been said, I was treated like royalty in Quebec. They were extra complimentary of my french attempts, and we could totally understand each other more compared to France.
I feel like English-speakers would be more snobby to English-speakers than to learners - so many pedantic teachers inventing rules that have never applied to any form of English etc.
I'm surprised and somewhat relieved to see so many native speakers find that wording normal. The distinction attracts quite a bit of attention in learner materials and I still find myself tripping up over it sometimes.
"Visiter quelqu'un" is a less-common double entendre, there's no real error, the comment is just about someone that thought about the sex-related meaning
I remember being told a million years ago in middle school French to not use “visiter” because of this connotation. Had completely forgotten about it until now.
I'm surprised that many native speakers (from France, like I am) don't think this is a mistake. Sure I understand what he means, but it definitely sounds wrong to me, I would never say "visiter quelqu'un", it's "rendre visite à quelqu'un" as others mentioned. Could it be a regional difference?
I don’t think it’s an anglicisme, It’s just common language. We always skip words and especially when speaking them out loud. It’s just immaturity/ a kid playing around with the language. It’s like saying “I went on a train with my friend” or “I went for a ride” and some comment insinuating they were gangbanged.
A lot already said, but this article is interesting https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/expressions-francaises/dites-vous-visiter-ou-rendre-visite-a-une-personne-20210604
TL;DR it is correct but should be avoided (according to Académie Française) for a normal visit to someone, and reserved for some specific situation (required by the function, for charity, to demonstrate respect, ...) and should usually be limited to places or monuments.
I hate when people hear you make a grammatical mistake in a language and never bother to correct you, so you think you’re saying it the right way. And then they randomly bring it up one day 😅 it’s annoying
I always feel a bit bad when people are making fun of him. Although it might not sound perfect in French. It sort of feels misplaced that he is being mocked for his French while he is a rare example of trying to speak French.
I speak French, and I suppose I do it a bit in the same way as Mika, because I never really lived in France. And although people are mostly nice and impressed by a foreigner speaking French they do tend to make fun of the sentences I make, because I am not aware of several meanings etc. I always find this, I don't know, offending? ( I do aprpeciate feedback opf course, but it's the way it's been said) I mean we could also do the whole conversation in English right? Bet you won't be laughing anymore...
Thanks for your efforts Mika.
There's worse. Mika once said "introduire" as a direct translation of introduce in English instead of "présenter", and he was relentlessly made fun of because of the sexual connotation the people around him ascribed to it.
What is the sexual connotation of “introduire”?
The same meaning as “insert (something)”. I’ll let you conclude lol
Ah ok 😅 I get it now
Oh no 😭😭😭
None. But it's true the formulation is not the most common one. In common speech you visit a place, like a museum, but not a person. Here it sounds like he went inside his mom and visited her. But that's only in common speech, in a more old-timey/formal style it is a totally valid construction. You can encounter "visiter quelqu'un" in books or even spoken in a formal context. But here Mika is probably not using the expression with this intent, he's not a native speaker and even though his level is extremely close to the one of a native and is basically fluent, he sometimes doesn't know a word or uses weird formulations. In common speech, you'd say "rendre visite à quelqu'un".
That's interesting. As a native french speaker from Quebec, we say "visiter quelqu'un" at least as much as "rendre visite à quelqu'un", and the latter is the more formal form. I genuinely had no idea what the problem was in the post.
I'm from France and it sounds perfectly normal to me too.
Sure it might sound normal to some but others will inevitably (jokingly) see some kind of sexual interpretation in it. Same goes for *excité*, although it can absolutely be used in the same way English does, it's pretty common to hear people joke about it whenever they hear someone use this word in contexts such as "Elle était très excitée". Nobody will *actually* misunderstand it though, but learners might need to think of alternatives if they want to avoid this kind of reactions.
It's so annoying - I never get to talk about my cat, in fear of using the wrong word!
I feel you. I have a similar experience in Hebrew since I've been told the word כוס means "cup" when pronounced kos but "pussy" when pronounced koos. Now whenever I see this word on Anki I systematically have to think for a bit about which one is the family friendly version because I keep mixing them up. I just know when I'll be in Israel I'll make that mistake at least once. As for your cat, I can tell you that saying *chat* for female cats is perfectly fine. Alternatively, you can say *chat femelle*, a bit tedious but not so weird and gets the point across. (Edit: I just realized you might be a native speaker, in which case sorry for the useless explanation.)
No, no, definitely not a native speaker! Thanks for the explanation, appreciate any help at all. I do tend to use chat alright, just sometimes under pressure I forget which is right and wrong to use, especially when I was first speaking french. I guess a useful way to remember is that 'chatte' also sounds like a bad word in english, so dont use it, lol.
Hahaha never realized the similarity between chatte and shat/shit, that's a fun one. If that can help you, remember that feminine forms are usually longer than masculine ones: for jobs (chirurgien/chirurgienne), adjectives (long/longue) or practically anything (aventurier/aventurière, débutant/débutante...). Chat/chatte is no exception.
Ca reste un anglicisme. Comme "faire du sens".
Apparemment ça serait plutôt une forme vieillie qu'un anglicisme. https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/clefsfp/index-eng.html?lang=eng&lettr=indx\_catlog\_v&page=90Os2gi5Eiho.html
Tu peux dire "visiter quelqu'un", surtout dans le cas où tu vas lui rendre visite à l'hôpital par exemple.
Reste que, normalement, on dirait plutôt - "Je vais voir X à l'hôpital" - "Je vais rendre visite à X à l'hôpital" En tout cas, bien avant "Je vais visiter X." (cette dernière phrase attend clairement en lieu et place de X un lieu et pas une personne).
I hear "visiter quelqu'un" about as often as "rendre visite à quelqu'un".
> Here it sounds like he went inside his mom and visited her. But that's only in common speech, in a more old-timey/formal style it is a totally valid construction. Uh? I don't think I say it myself but it doesn't sound particularly old-fashioned to me. I wouldn't bat an eye if someone said that, it sounds perfectly normal to my ears.
I wouldn't bat an eye either, but that's what the comments were referring to. It's not extremely old, rare or distinguished, but it's less used than "rendre visite" and sounds funny to some people.
My interpretation is that she's a kid being a kid who never heard the expression before for some reason and said something random. I looked up her bio using her YouTube handle, and it says "Je m'appelle Alexandra, j'ai 15 ans et je suis Française \^\^".
Yeah indeed a kid would be more encline to laugh at that rather than an adult. But OP said many comments were talking about it, so I guess she's not the only one.
Does anyone have a link to the comment thread? I'm curious.
https://youtu.be/Ufn3_sLd1jQ?si=dgSzK22oiPPH0Ayu
So, clearly from the thread under the comment, she thinks it sounds like it could be sexual: she thinks "visiting" his mother could be understood as penetrating her. Since when you visit something, you often go into it. She says "ça prête à confusion", someone replies that she has "l'esprit mal placé", etc. Some other commenters seem to find this funny, while some others are confused as this way of wording things is common to them. It's just a veeeeery far-fetched sexual joke in a (very stupid) thread full of kids, IMO. EDIT: typo + added more info
I see ! Thanks
The comment had 275 likes and wasn’t the only one so I assumed it was a mistake, but your explanation makes sense. He probably has a generally younger audience https://youtu.be/Ufn3_sLd1jQ?si=-f0BYBUWWEY2mitF This is the video it’s taken from
YouTube comments are always incredibly stupid.
Thank you for the detailed reply
> In common speech you visit a place, like a museum, but not a person. Pourtant, voici la première définition du mot *visiter* dans le dictionnaire de l’Académie française : >Aller voir quelqu’un chez lui. *Visiter son ami.* https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A8V0633
And 3 lines lower it says "on dit plutôt faire, rendre visite" haha. Another person said that from Quebec "visiter quelqu'un" is really the default way to say it, so it has to depend on the country
>And 3 lines lower it says "on dit plutôt faire, rendre visite" haha Ça ne veut pas dire que c’est une erreur, mais seulement que dans un registre plus soutenu il est préférable de dire *rendre visite à quelqu’un*. *Visiter quelqu’un* est encore courant au Québec et au Canada. Probablement ailleurs aussi mais peut-être moins en France. >Q/C Se rendre auprès de qqn, rester un certain temps en sa compagnie, par affection, politesse, etc. > >*Visiter un ami, sa famille.* > >*« nous avions trois oncles et un cousin, tous cultivateurs, et nous allions les visiter assez régulièrement »* (G.-É. Lapalme, 1969). > >REM. Cet emploi est vieilli en France. https://usito.usherbrooke.ca/d%C3%A9finitions/visiter
That's odd because in Spanish, a fellow romance language, "visitar a mi madre" it's a completely normal phrase.
I’ve literally never heard that “visiter quelqu’un” meant “he went inside her and visited her”. That’s the first time I’ve heard it interpreted like that.
> But here Mika is probably not using the expression with this intent, he's not a native speaker and even though his level is extremely close to the one of a native and is basically fluent, he sometimes doesn't know a word or uses weird formulations. In common speech, you'd say "rendre visite à quelqu'un". It looks like he's translating from English -- like 'So I'm in the hospital while I'm visiting my mum...'
It’s very French for someone in the comments to find such a minor error (barely even an error) hilarious. It just dissuades people from learning the language.
C'mon, it's not even an error, it's a common way of phrasing things. OP just happened to find a random comment from a kid that didn't make much sense (if you look up their YouTube handle, it's a 15 year old girl). Drawing conclusions about 65+ million French people from this is ridiculous.
I was actually just watching a video the other day where a popular French teacher pointed this ‘error’ out as one that annoys her the most ([02:25](https://youtu.be/-gD1k2AG8_U?si=UFg5a_wISOw9mJk7)) I’ve worked in France. It’s a very common experience for learners to have minute mistakes mocked. It’s the thing I like least about the country. It’s also why people find learning English much more cooperative as it is seen as very rude in the UK (probably other anglophone countries too) to make fun of someone who is trying their best. I should note that the problem, at least in my experience, is that Parisians think Parisian French is the only form of French. Elsewhere people are not like this so frequently. In Québec people don’t do this and are very pleased to hear someone who can communicate in the language even if it isn’t absolutely perfect.
Everyone will have their own experience but I'm a beginner and luckily haven't found many irritated locals mock me here in Lyon. Once attempts are made, they're quite encouraging. That been said, I was treated like royalty in Quebec. They were extra complimentary of my french attempts, and we could totally understand each other more compared to France.
I feel like English-speakers would be more snobby to English-speakers than to learners - so many pedantic teachers inventing rules that have never applied to any form of English etc.
When I was a kid maybe, but now I’m not sure children are even taught grammar in the UK anymore.
I'm surprised and somewhat relieved to see so many native speakers find that wording normal. The distinction attracts quite a bit of attention in learner materials and I still find myself tripping up over it sometimes.
None. There is no error here. Maybe not a formulation commonly used in France, but still no error here.
C’est le sous entendu
"Visiter quelqu'un" is a less-common double entendre, there's no real error, the comment is just about someone that thought about the sex-related meaning
I remember being told a million years ago in middle school French to not use “visiter” because of this connotation. Had completely forgotten about it until now.
I'm surprised that many native speakers (from France, like I am) don't think this is a mistake. Sure I understand what he means, but it definitely sounds wrong to me, I would never say "visiter quelqu'un", it's "rendre visite à quelqu'un" as others mentioned. Could it be a regional difference?
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I don’t think it’s an anglicisme, It’s just common language. We always skip words and especially when speaking them out loud. It’s just immaturity/ a kid playing around with the language. It’s like saying “I went on a train with my friend” or “I went for a ride” and some comment insinuating they were gangbanged.
They don't think it is a mistake because it is not a mistake. It's totally valid and you'll encounter this form quite a lot in older books.
In Canada, « visiter quelqu’un(e) » is used very often!
There’s nothing wrong with that sentence
A lot already said, but this article is interesting https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/expressions-francaises/dites-vous-visiter-ou-rendre-visite-a-une-personne-20210604 TL;DR it is correct but should be avoided (according to Académie Française) for a normal visit to someone, and reserved for some specific situation (required by the function, for charity, to demonstrate respect, ...) and should usually be limited to places or monuments.
My co-workers let me say things like "J'ai visité ma belle-mère le weekend dernier" for years until they said something.
I hate when people hear you make a grammatical mistake in a language and never bother to correct you, so you think you’re saying it the right way. And then they randomly bring it up one day 😅 it’s annoying
Exactly. Either say something immediately or keep letting me say I've been fucking my mother in law.
Wait, “visiter quelqu’un” can mean that you’re sleeping with said person?
That's right.
How would it be in past sentence? J'ai rendu visite? Je suis rendu visite?
First one.
It’s correct in Quebec. No one would bat an eye
I always feel a bit bad when people are making fun of him. Although it might not sound perfect in French. It sort of feels misplaced that he is being mocked for his French while he is a rare example of trying to speak French. I speak French, and I suppose I do it a bit in the same way as Mika, because I never really lived in France. And although people are mostly nice and impressed by a foreigner speaking French they do tend to make fun of the sentences I make, because I am not aware of several meanings etc. I always find this, I don't know, offending? ( I do aprpeciate feedback opf course, but it's the way it's been said) I mean we could also do the whole conversation in English right? Bet you won't be laughing anymore... Thanks for your efforts Mika.
Rendre visite à qqn, not visiter qqn.
Si je dis "j'ai visité mon frère" qu'est-ce que les natifs pensent que j'ai dit? Quelle est la traduction en l'anglais?
Just asking. Shouldn’t it be …en train de rendre visite à ma mère?
Il ne visite pas sa mère (on visite un appartement, un musée ou une cathédrale), il rend visite à sa mère.
Lui, il est Mika ??
i think he should have said "lui RENDRE visite"
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