That is a very interesting observation. However, I’ve noticed my little one (and her daycare companions) using French nouns without articles, and initially this surprised me. However, it may go a long way toward explaining the dismissal of articles in Quebecois (I’m in Montreal) and why so many people get them wrong — somewhere along the line historically (perhaps by analogy with the overwhelming anglo language/culture) they decided noun and article were separate units.

If it were up to me, all the words would be feminine. I really like the extra ‘e’s, not to mention the sounded-out finals. (Twould be a veritable end to honking.)

But, seriously, “labouche” reminds me of something French – it might be universal-outside-America, for all I know – the habit of always adding “monsieur” or “madame” or a proper name to everyday greetings. Bonjour tout court? Cela ne se dit pas.

Turns out that a John Wayne movie, The Cowboys, was on at my evilinlaws and one of the boys called John Wayne a sonofabitch.

Does she walk around saying mommy, love you, daddy, or anything remotely endearing? Nope, we were all sonabenches in her eyes. :roll:

With the oldest nephew (now four), it was a fascination for lights but “latondeuse”, which would sit in the back of David’s parents’ garden when not in use. He would constantly want to go see it up close, but was also extremely afraid of it. So he would take your hand and start to walk back toward it until reaching some sort of imaginary line, then turning around and walking back to where he started.

Except then, he wasn’t close enough for it to be scary anymore, and you’d have to do it again. Multiple times.

Thankfully , the next summer he had grown out of it.

They do get confused sometimes, though, and end up saying things like “le l’avion” (having presumed that an aeroplane is “la vion”, I suppose). Hang in there – it all works itself out in the end!