anybody know how to spell the word?

menage a trois

Kevin

This is French, and it means "Dinner for three".

-Weasel

Weasel ([email]) wrote:

WRONG Look it up in Webster's. If it is translated literally it means Household or housekeeping of three.

I took French in Jr High (and don't remember most of it except for more
important phrases like "nous bouvons de la bierre ce soir")...
I thought it meant "party of three" ???
	Kerry Jane
	[email]

On 25 Jan 1995 [email] wrote:

the 'a' in menage a trois is a little confusing. it can mean a variety of things, the most relevent to this phrase are 'with', or 'of'.if my memory serves (four years of high school french), menage a trois means either: eat with three, eat *of* three, dinner/meal with three, or dinner/meal *of* three. i do believe any of these translations could apply.

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Menage doesn't mean "eat"; mange does.

[email] writes:

Menage, same root as menagerie, a place where animals are kept, according to my dictionary. The phrase must mean something like "a place of three animals," which pretty much fits the Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary's definition of manage a trois: "Three persons sharing sexual relations, esp. while living together."

Bob Ssmith

Yes that's it! it's spelled Me'nage a` trois. Menage a trois means litteraly: 3 people living together.....

-Stephan

That's not right! nage means "to swim"...

In article , [email] says...

I'm a francophone so I can tell you what "menage a trois" means.

It simply means living 3 in the same appartment, but implies more that just living together.

Well, I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but I believe that it is:

Menage a` trois (that little ` is an accent mark...)

Menage = household a = in, to, or at (definitely NOT "with", or "of") trois = three

the translation, within this figure of speech, is indeed "household of three" but the "a" by itself does not translate to "of" or "with" ever.

Menage doesn't have anything to do with eating. That's MANGER, I think.

the 'a' in menage a trois is a little confusing. it can mean a variety

Think of "menage" as being part of the word menagerie, which is like a collection of animals. So you can see how menage means Household, not Dinner/Meal.

alright so menage doesn't mean eat. but i am sticking by my statement that it *can* mean meal. i swear we talked about this in class. my teacher was a native frenchwoman. i do believe a lot of you are right in saying it literally means 'household'. and yes 'a' with an accent aigue can mean with or of. (i know that 'avec' usually means with, but in rare instances so does 'a'.) it hasn't been that long since i spoke this language every day. which is not to say there is no chance of my being wrong, it's just that i believe i have some experience to back up my claims here.

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I personally have heard enough about the subject to last a lifetime. What I am wondering, however, is why do you insist on wasting eight lines of space for your signature which everyone then seems to include in their response?

In smock smock smock writes:

in

I don't think it has the accent in that meaning...with the accent aigue it means 'at'.

In article , [email] (smock smock smock) writes: I Msg-ID: References: Posted: Fri, 3 Feb 1995 16:39:51 -0800

Org. : University of Washington

alright so menage doesn't mean eat. but i am sticking by my statement that it *can* mean meal. i swear we talked about this in class. my teacher was a native frenchwoman. i do believe a lot of you are right in saying it literally means 'household'. and yes 'a' with an accent aigue can mean with or of. (i know that 'avec' usually means with, but in rare instances so does 'a'.) it hasn't been that long since i spoke this language every day. which is not to say there is no chance of my being

Absoulument pas! Du tout! It does NOT mean meal, never has and never will. Your frenchwoman must have been a native of Sweeden or something (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Furthermore a is NOT with an accent aigue...but and accent "grave" meaning - to, at, from, in by , for, to

On devrait inviter nos collegues de la conferance Usenet.soc.culture.french a cce debat.