The French are very precise.
What is it about toilets? You’ll see how important they became for me after my Bucket List trip around the world, particularly in underdeveloped countries.
Now here I was at my french class and an englishman had just joined the class. He was struggling a bit to find the french translation for “loo.” The french teachers were baffled too. Try as they might, they just didn’t know what he was talking about.
The french word for toilet is “les toilettes”. Yes, plural. Singular, it means sort of the equivalent of you are off to powder your nose. Important to use the plural form if you are intending to describe your, well, loo trip. Said in french, it’s much prettier than in english.
I came in halfway through the conversation. The english guy explained to me that he was trying to explain the slang “loo” as opposed to toilet which was considered too correct in english, along with lavatory which is just a bit too posh.
Turns out there isn’t a french translation for loo. Or dunny, bog, porcelain truck, lavatory. This is one occasion where the English outdo the French in the number of words available to describe the same thing. There are approximately two words in french to describe a toilet.
I know this because I proudly exclaimed “Oh yes, there is a translation, les chiottes!”
Les chiottes, I found out, is the equivalent of “the shitter.”
The Parisienne head teacher just about fell off her chair. “Ah, that word is extremely vulgar.”
Stick with les toilettes. It’s safer.
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