Regarde, maman, je fais le poirier! (Boum.)

Regarde, maman, je fais le poirier! (Boum.)

ruh-gaard, maa-mah, zhuh fail pwah-reeYAY! (boom.) Click below to hear this.*

Look, Mom, I’m standing on my head! (Boom.)

If you tried to translate the English literally, you would get something like this: Je suis debout sur ma tête. It’s perfectly good French–grammatical, and all that–but you’d be describing something that only a contortionist could do. Where’s an artist when you need one? And which direction would the toes be pointing?

The right way to say to stand on one’s head is faire le poirier. That’s right: to make/do the pear tree.

This photo may help to explain why. I found it at http://loeilenmarche.blogspot.com/2010/03/faire-le-poirier-et-manger-une-vague.html

As for me, I’m keeping my feet planted on terra firma. The boum part is motivation enough for me.

*Some mobile phones, such as Blackberries, won’t display the audio player. If no player appears, here’s an alternative link to the audio file:

je_fais_le_poirier.mp3