The overwhelming majority of Brits have ended up butchering the local language and sounding a bit like Only Fools icon Del Boy, famous for his barmy French phrases
Most Brits sound like Del Boy on holiday by murdering the local lingo and talking gibberish.
Nine in 10 well-meaning holidaymakers have bamboozed waiters and hotel staff with their attempts to talk in a foreign language, just like the Only Fools and Horses icon. Wheeler and dealer Del is renowned for his barmy French phrases.
His best known Franglais is “mange tout, mange tout, as the French say” – by which he means “no problem”.
He also exclaims ‘potpourri!” for “I don’t believe it!”, when it actually refers to a dried perfumed plan. Now a survey has found we also stumble over our words an average of 50 times during a week-long break.
The top faux pas was saying ‘grassy arse’ when attempting to pronounce ‘gracias’ for thank you in Spain, the research by airline Vueling found.
Also ranking highly was saying ‘messy buckets’ for thanks in French, actually pronounced ‘merci beaucoup’.
Other struggling linguists have been known to ask for directions to ‘el beacho’ when we should be asking Spaniards for ‘la playa’.
Eight in ten of us admit to cringing when we hear a fellow Brit garble a word or phrase abroad, with many secretly judging folk who can’t ask basic questions in the local tongue.
Sandra Hors, of Vueling, said: “We all know that nailing the pronunciation of some words and phrases in foreign languages can be tricky.
“But it’s clear that our love of travel outweighs the fear of a few mispronunciations.”
A YouGov poll found more than half of folk who can’t have a conversation in a foreign language regret not learning one.
