Ça marche? Oui, ça marche! Oh là là! C'est ne marche pas... maintenant.

www.illustrations-bd.com

(Revised 4/18/2016)
I first noticed the expression "Ça march?" in French class at L'Alliance Française de Paris  three years ago.

My French has advanced greatly since then as I continue to keep up my almost daily study of French and live my other side life as well. It's one of those expressions, that once you are aware of it, you wonder why no one made a point of teaching it to you.

My teacher, Lucie, would use a word that sounded like "maa-ch" to me and I would become totally confused. Being a word-for-word "literalist" (a disease that seems to be incurable), I got hung up on the tiniest things people say in French. (Still do.) I was a real "newbie" having only begun to learn French just 6 months before I was in that class and it was overwhelming as to what I didn't know... yet.

For instance, there was a vending machine outside our A.F. classroom door that didn't work. A sign had been hung on it with the words "en panne". Since the machine didn't work, I deduced that "en panne" meant the machine was out of order. Later on, I realized I’d been introduced to that expression before in an earlier class. From early on in my French studies French cars seemed always to be "en panne" in every lesson!

During classes, "C'est ne marche pas!" was said when something didn’t go well. One time, the Smartboard kept losing connection with the Internet and our teacher had to call in the mec who provided computer support. Thank goodness for computer systems support! Or, sometimes the door or furniture would be arranged in an undesirable configuration. “C’est ne marche pas!”

cheezburger.com

Marcher doesn’t always just mean to walk or step. Marcher in this context is the word we’d use for “work”. As in, “That doesn’t work!” Why couldn’t I guess that on my own?  I am too literal.


Notez, s'il vous plait: Un mec qui est un type qui est un homme.