| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: Languages of love: 10 unusual terms of endearment Thread poster: RominaZ
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Germaine 
Canada
Local time: 14:18
English to French
+ ...
I have welcome:
mon ange
mon coeur
ma soie
but am totally allergic to:
ma belle
chérie
I would suggest (with every women I know) that men banish from their vocabulary: minou
bébé
poupée
unless they're talking to a cat or a (real) baby. For the effort, women might stop calling them
minou (baby cat) and
pitou (baby dog).
In French, endearment is also expressed by ending your name with the ... See more I have welcome:
mon ange
mon coeur
ma soie
but am totally allergic to:
ma belle
chérie
I would suggest (with every women I know) that men banish from their vocabulary: minou
bébé
poupée
unless they're talking to a cat or a (real) baby. For the effort, women might stop calling them
minou (baby cat) and
pitou (baby dog).
In French, endearment is also expressed by ending your name with the sound "ou" (as in... "pooh-pooh"), or repeating the first or last syllable of your name:
Gilles = gilou, Guylaine = guylou, louise = lou or loulou, catherine = catou, etc.
Josée = jojo, Dominique = domdom, André = dédé, michel/michèle = mimi, etc. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | unusual terms of endearment | Jun 1, 2013 |
dearie, angel too, angle for children(even when naughty), but especially those in need
| | | | | With an ironic twist in Danish these days... | Jun 1, 2013 |
Jan Willem van Dormolen wrote:
If you call a girl or woman 'baby' in Dutch, she'll smack you in the face - I AM NOT AN INFANT!
OTOH, you do well to call her 'schatje' (little treasure).
Ditto the allergy to Babe and similar.
In Denmark it was/is quite acceptable to call loved ones skat or lille skat = (little) treasure. (We have a couple in the family known as Skatterne, because when they first met they never addressed each other as anything else... Lille Skat was the big one!)
But Skat is also the word for tax, and the Danish tax authority is simply called SKAT in all languages... In charge of the national finances or treasury, of course.
They have run some sickening publicity campaigns over the years, and as Denmark is one of the most highly taxed nations of the world, I am somtimes a little wary of calling anyone Skat these days.
Maybe none of the children are small enough - I used it a lot when our son was little. And like all close relationships, our dear ones can be very taxing at times!
| | | | | Nottinghamshire | Jun 2, 2013 |
In Mansfield, England you may be called 'duck'.
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Ty Kendall wrote:
I've seen "kocham cię (I love you) misiu" before, I seem to remember being told that it meant "teddy bear/little bear" or something like that.
Yup. And the little dove also works, but only to females, not both ways like in Russian.
Gazelles are used in comparisons. Does also, or descriptively. Neither really in direct address.
Then there's 'słoneczko', a doubly diminuted sun (more diminuted than 'słonko'). Kinda like 'sunshine'.
No cutiepants or anything like that, though.
Oh wait. 'Froggie'. And 'fishie'. 'Little mouse' also. I like calling my cats the latter two, personally.
'Darling, is it true that amphibians have no brains?'
'Yes, my froggie.'
[Edited at 2013-08-26 01:41 GMT]
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