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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Grapefruit and pineapple
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
It emerged around our dining table today that three members of our family having difficulty telling apart grapefruit and pineapples.
I mean, we can all see they are two different fruit, but we have trouble remembering which is called which - some of us in English and some of us in French. I'm one of them - I know which is which in French but I often have to stop and think in English despite it being my native language.
Does anyone else suffer from this affliction? Can anybody explain the possible reasons? Or do you experience other, similarly inexplicable confusion between two nouns?
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
I can understand a non-native English speaker confusing the two because they both contain the name of an unrelated fruit in their names; it just seems like a mnemonic that could easily backfire. "Pamplemousse" (French for Grapefruit) is just a fun word to say, so I always remember it. I had to look up pineapple (anana), and I have to admit that I would have ended up being surprised if I ordered that at a restaurant and didn't end up with a banana. Pineapple juice has always been my favorite juice, and I have always detested grapefruit juice (even though I enjoy the fruit itself), so I am rather unlikely to confuse the two.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
Well, for remembering in English, a pineapple looks a little like a pinecone. And a grapefruit doesn't. And a grapefruit, grown on a tree, looks almost nothing like a grape being large, round, and yellow/blush.
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
And a grapefruit, grown on a tree, looks almost nothing like a grape being large, round, and yellow/blush.
Yet, they grow in clusters, like grapes do! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
But I imagine they make crap wine. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
It surprised and upset me to discover that pineapple juice has one of the nastiest, immovable stains I've ever come across. As for grapefruit it does not mix well with a whole heap of medications, including some contraceptive pilss and some blood pressure meds.
Huia - supplier of irrelevant and useless information. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
I have heard otherwise from many folks!
Scary! ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
I'll stick to making greyhounds. They are damned good when made with fresh-squeezed, pink or red grapefruit juice.
Ingredients:
2 oz Vodka
5 oz Grapefruit Juice
Directions:
Pour vodka and grapefruit juice into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Stir well, and serve. Slurp!
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
Grapefruit juice does all sorts of nasty (or helpful!) things to medications, but it does wonderful things to alcohol; I've heard at least one bartender recommend it as a way to fix any drink. It's bitter, so it blends with the alcohol, but has sweetness to cover over other mistakes, and tartness to contrast with them; it's like salt, but for booze.
As for pineapple, the only thing I've ever confused it with, linguistically speaking, is a banana; when ordering gelato, the word for "pineapple" (pineapple gelato is delicious with frutti di bosco) is very similar to the Italian word for "banana." Forget the "b" at the beginning (easy to do when your brain's in Italian Mode), and your delicious flavor combination is wrecked.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
Most illuminating.
Although it occurs in both languages in our bilingual household, it's not a language problem. It's fleeting a moment of aphasia when confronted with the fruit, thinking 'what's this one called, again?' or alternatively, when somebody says the word, wondering which of the two fruit it is. I'm pretty sure I've mistakenly ordered pineapple juice when I've meant grapefruit juice.
And yes, I've had to double-check I've got those the right way round just posting there.
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
it just seems like a mnemonic that could easily backfire. "Pamplemousse" (French for Grapefruit) is just a fun word to say, so I always remember it.
I suspect it is linguistic but inter-linguistic not French or English
Pineapple
Pamplemousse
at least to my phonetically strange hearing have similiar sounds, so the mind is linking on sound across languages wrongly.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I'll stick to making greyhounds. They are damned good when made with fresh-squeezed, pink or red grapefruit juice.
Ingredients:
2 oz Vodka
5 oz Grapefruit Juice
Directions:
Pour vodka and grapefruit juice into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Stir well, and serve. Slurp!
I prefer gin with my grapefruit juice.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
Actually I think Og might have it here: quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
they both contain the name of an unrelated fruit in their names
That would be the kind of thing to derail me, at least.
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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poileplume
Shipmate
# 16438
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Posted
The English tend to confuse bras (arm) and jambe (leg) when speaking french.
An english friend told me that his mother welcoming a French delegation in her bad french meant to say « For the French, my arms are always open », no prizes for guessing what she actually said.
The french president of the delegation replied that he had previoulsy beleived that the english were boring, he had now changed his mind.
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Please note I am quite severely dyslexic
Posts: 319 | From: Quebec | Registered: May 2011
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Aravis
Shipmate
# 13824
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Posted
I've never confused those particular words in French or English, but a few years ago I was trying to explain to a puzzled lifeguard that I thought my daughter had been stung by a "nenuphare" which I was fairly sure was the word for "jellyfish".
When I checked in the dictionary back at the gite, I discovered "nenuphare" means "waterlily". ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
(It was a weaverfish actually - nasty little things, common in Brittany; they lurk in damp sand and stick spines in your feet. Beware any beaches that the locals inexplicably avoid as that may be the reason!)
Posts: 689 | From: S Wales | Registered: Jun 2008
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I'll stick to making greyhounds. They are damned good when made with fresh-squeezed, pink or red grapefruit juice.
Ingredients:
2 oz Vodka
5 oz Grapefruit Juice
Directions:
Pour vodka and grapefruit juice into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Stir well, and serve. Slurp!
I prefer gin with my grapefruit juice.
Moo
If g-fruit juice & vodka is a greyhound, what is gin & g-fruit juice called?
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
I'm not much of a gin drinker, but gin and fresh grapefruit juice actually sounds appealing.
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
I don't do this with pinapple and grapefruit, but I do get words mixed up all the time.
My brain often does it with certain names, for instance Pauline and Barbara, I often call people Pauline when their name is Barbara and vice versa!
.
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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WhateverTheySay
Shipmate
# 16598
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Posted
I've never been confused by pineapple and grapefruit, though why grapefruit doesn't taste like grapes is annoying. Basically I like pineapple (even if I hate preparing it ![[brick wall]](graemlins/brick_wall.gif) ) and don't like grapefruit (or any citrus for that matter, plus I'm on one of those meds that interacts with grapefruit - WTF is that about?).
I don't so much have an issue with confusing words as I have with forgetting words all together. That is very annoying when trying to have a conversation.
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I'm not lost, I just don't know where I am going
Posts: 872 | From: Lost in Space, without a map | Registered: Aug 2011
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
My brain often does it with certain names, for instance Pauline and Barbara, I often call people Pauline when their name is Barbara and vice versa!
Ah now that I recognise too, I have trouble with a particular Françoise and a particular Dominique, although they are quite unlike each other.
<pedant/nationalistic alert>
quote:
Originally posted by Aravis:
(It was a weaverfish actually - nasty little things, common in Brittany...)
The actal English name is weever fish (see here), vive in French, and they appear to be as common on your home patch as here. The same link quotes a South Wales Evening Post article about the number of stings around Swansea and Gower .
</pedant/nationalistic alert>
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Squirrel
Shipmate
# 3040
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I'll stick to making greyhounds. They are damned good when made with fresh-squeezed, pink or red grapefruit juice.
Ingredients:
2 oz Vodka
5 oz Grapefruit Juice
Directions:
Pour vodka and grapefruit juice into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Stir well, and serve. Slurp!
I prefer gin with my grapefruit juice.
Moo
If g-fruit juice & vodka is a greyhound, what is gin & g-fruit juice called?
I've seen a delicious drink called a Salty Dog made with either gin or vodka and grapefruit juice, mixed with ice and served in a glass with a salted rim- like a margarita. Mmmm.
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"The moral is to the physical as three is to one."
- Napoleon
"Five to one."
- George S. Patton
Posts: 1014 | From: Gotham City - Brain of the Great Satan | Registered: Jul 2002
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I'll stick to making greyhounds. They are damned good when made with fresh-squeezed, pink or red grapefruit juice.
Ingredients:
2 oz Vodka
5 oz Grapefruit Juice
Directions:
Pour vodka and grapefruit juice into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Stir well, and serve. Slurp!
Pour into a glass with a salted rim (margarita style) for a Salty Dog. Mmm.
[2 typos in 13 words. A new record]
[ 22. April 2012, 22:31: Message edited by: Balaam ]
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Pulsator Organorum Ineptus
Shipmate
# 2515
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Posted
A friend of mine, having confused "poisson" with "poulet", once brought a large delicatessen in Nice to a standstill by trying to purchase a chicken leg.
His attempts to make make himself clear by making the "leg bye" signal (whilst saying "jambe") alternatim with doing chicken impressions (whilst saying "de poisson") were, apparently, unsuccessful.
Posts: 695 | From: Bronteland | Registered: Mar 2002
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif) The levels on which that would be incomprehensible to the average Niçois tend to the infinite.
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
It soumds like me that would make me ill,
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
The Reader's Digest has - or had - a page for people like you
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Carex
Shipmate
# 9643
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Posted
But they also go together: one of the staples in our household when I was growing up was pineapple-grapefruit juice. (From a large can, of course.) The sweetness of the pineapple cuts the bitterness of the grapefruit.
On the linguistic theme, one of my French papers using comparative phrases was "Mon Chat n'est pas un Pamplemousse" (my cat is not a grapefruit). [There were, indeed, several differences to note: the cat had more legs and was more furry, while the grapefruit had fewer stripes and tasted better. I don't remember my conclusion on the level of activity - that was a close call.]
Posts: 1425 | Registered: Jun 2005
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by poileplume:
The English tend to confuse bras (arm) and jambe (leg) when speaking french.
The easy way to remember is that a bracelet goes round a bras like a necklace goes round a neck.
quote:
Originally posted by WhateverTheySay:
... one of those meds that interacts with grapefruit - WTF is that about?
I know its probably a rhetorical question, but my inner pedant wants me to say that there are things in grapefruit that inhibit the effect of the enzyme Cytochrome P450. And that is one of those enzymes, or rather families of enzymes, that is involved in all sorts of metabolic processes, not just one. And it exists in many variants inside each person, as well as in different people. Variation in the way it works is one of the mechanisms that causes different people (and other animals) to react differently to drugs and other chemicals.
In fact the amazing thing is not that grapefruit juice can cause problems if you are som some kinds of drug, but that so many other people can drink it without getting poisoned!
[ 23. April 2012, 17:16: Message edited by: ken ]
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Aravis
Shipmate
# 13824
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Posted
Thanks for the info on weever fish, Eutychus! I'll take care if we go to the Gower.
Posts: 689 | From: S Wales | Registered: Jun 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I can never remember whether "framboise" is a strawberry or raspberry. "Fraise" doesn't help if you want fresh ones, either.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
In fact the amazing thing is not that grapefruit juice can cause problems if you are som some kinds of drug, but that so many other people can drink it without getting poisoned!
That probably explains why it makes me yack.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
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Posted
I always confused Pamplemousse and Pompier in French… not that they're related at all!
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
We were just learning kitchen French back in the day, and I was quite amused by pamplemousse and kept repeating it. My grand'mamman who was a native speaker, and trying to encourage my French asked me
"What's pamplemousse in French?"
I stared at her, my Dad stared at her, and we both giggled as a look of horror spread across her face.
Disgusting fruit. Fresh pineapple sold by the roadside is much more palatable. Especially when a small machete is use to slice it into pineapple on a stick.
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
My hovercraft is full of eels.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
A couple of howlers from my PhD fieldwork in Romania: firstly I caused my hosts to do a bit of a double take when I asked for 'onion yoghurt' (I wanted strawberry yoghurt, the words really aren't that similar in Romanian either). More embarrassingly, I had arranged to meet a contact one day to pick up an article she had written (and was vaguely hoping she might consent to being interviewed), and turned up a whole day early as I had completely confused 'Tuesday' and 'Wednesday' in my head. Luckily I did it that way round I suppose - I still have to stop and think about that one when days of the week crop up.
TME would probably point out that my main language confusion these days are 'left' and 'right'.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
The confusion really sets in when you have a bunch of international friends and you ask them all to come round at "half seven".
You need to be prepared to welcome people from about 6.15 onwards if you do this.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
TME would probably point out that my main language confusion these days are 'left' and 'right'.
Ah. That's my problem, too. Just last week I was meeting friends at a concert. They told me they were on the left aisle. You guessed it. I was looking for them down the right side.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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doubtingthomas
Shipmate
# 14498
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Posted
I have a problem in Welsh with chwech "6" and saith "7". Or really mostly with saith which just looks like it (also) ought to mean "6"...
[ 24. April 2012, 22:58: Message edited by: doubtingthomas ]
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'We are star-stuff. We are the Universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out'
Delenn (Babylon 5)
Posts: 266 | From: A Small Island | Registered: Jan 2009
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birdie
fowl
# 2173
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by doubtingthomas:
I have a problem in Welsh with chwech "6" and saith "7". Or really mostly with saith which just looks like it (also) ought to mean "6"...
Yes!!! I always assumed that was just me.
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"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness."
Captain Jack Sparrow
Posts: 1290 | From: the edge | Registered: Jan 2002
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by WhateverTheySay:
I don't so much have an issue with confusing words as I have with forgetting words all together. That is very annoying when trying to have a conversation.
This happens to me a lot too, and on reading your post I just remembered it happened to me in a DREAM I had last night! I remember getting frustrated and saying, "What's that word I want?"
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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