Le quatorze juillet is approaching. Many towns in America really go all-out for Bastille Day, which is heartwarming. Lately I've seen many ads touting some all-French event, with a heartfelt "Viva la France!" tacked at the end. Folks, please humor me; I applaud your francophilia! But please -- s'il vous plait -- if you're celebrating France, the proper phrase is "Vive la France," not "Viva la France." Viva is a brand of paper towels. (Maybe it's also Italian or Spanish. Not my bailiwick.)
Don't worry. I understand the confusion. It's pronounced veev-uh, almost. But it's the subjunctive ("Long live France!"); and, apparently no one understands the subjunctive in any language any more except a handful of us die-hards. Happily, I am not going to bore you with a lengthy French verb conjugaison lesson right now. So unless you're a grammar junkie you'll just have to believe me.
It's Vive la France!
Merci.
13 comments:
"clap clap clap clap!"
- a diehard grammar junkie, in both English and French
Vive la France et les pommes de terre frites !
I so completely love you for posting this :) That's one of my BIGGEST pet peeves (and yes, I guess that makes me a grammar nut!).
And vive la compagnie.
I just did a Google search. "Viva la France" had a depressing 128,000 hits! Fortunately the correct "Vive la France" scored 618,000 hits, so all's not lost.
And Vive les Vacances!
I say Vive Polly for being such a francophile :)
While I think they might have done a teensy-weensy bit of French language investigation, at least, they're trying and I must give them points for that.
Thanks, Isabelle -- you're so sweet!
As a friend pointed out, of course, there is "Viva Las Vegas," which is Spanish. And although there's an Eiffel Tower in Vegas, it's not France!
I have an aunt who has lived in France since the 1950's. We've kept up a correspondence for decades and I used to wish her a happy Bastille Day until I visited her in France a couple of years ago and she informed me that Bastille Day is not nearly the important holiday that Independence Day is in the States.
But, I have been seeing more about it here over the years, so I still hold out hope that it is celebrated *somewhere*!
@Dymphna I think it's mostly tourists and ex-pats who celebrate Bastille Day.
Thank you for the correction. I took two semesters of French and it never took. I just wrote about Bastille day and almost made the tragic mistake of putting "Viva La France."
For many years, a house of ill repute in Austin, Texas advertised itself with a large sign over the freeway that read, "Le Femme." Annoyed l'enfer out of me!
Murky buckets for pointing this out :-) My French is pretty limited, so I couldn't remember which was correct.
As noted, viva is Spanish, the command form of the verb vivir, to live.
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