A French Que vs Qui Question

I am wondering why 𝒒𝒖𝒆 is used instead of 𝒒𝒖𝒊 in this sentence.

  • Donc la prochaine fois, un gars par 𝒒𝒖𝒆 vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ© vous demande, dire qu’il ne peut pas couper la moutarde.
    (So the next time a guy you’re not interested in asks you out, say that he can’t cut the mustard.)

(from 11 Silly Old Time Phrases That You'll Love Using ...)

Isn’t the “par 𝒒𝒖𝒆” about the same as “à 𝒒𝒖𝒊” in “La fille Ă  𝒒𝒖𝒊 j’ai parlĂ© est trĂšs sympathique.”?
What is different between them?

Also if I do google search on “par 𝒒𝒖𝒆 vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ©â€ and “par 𝒒𝒖𝒊 vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ©â€, I get only two hits for either.
So it makes me wonder whether the sentence is really not a natural French expression.

Is there a entirely different and better way to say it than the above sentence?

It should be “qui”. I would also add “si” before “un gars” :

Donc la prochaine fois, si un gars par qui vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ© vous demande, dire (or better : “dĂźtes”) qu’il ne peut pas couper la moutarde.

It’s not a French expression though, nobody will understand what you mean.

“So the next time a guy you’re not interested in asks you out, say that he can’t cut the mustard.”

Traduction
La prochaine fois qu’un mec qui ne vous intĂ©resse pas vous invite Ă  sortir avec lui, dites-lui qu’il n’est pas Ă  la hauteur !

Thank you very much Jorgis and MissTake.

I was mainly interested in the que/qui issue and the “un gars par qui vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ©â€ part, not the quaint “cutting the mustard”. It is reassuring that it is “qui” just like in the other example sentence - consistency is good! It is also good to know that "allowmenstalk"t site’s French translation can’t be blindly trusted.

And between the two of you, it appears the same thiing can be said in two ways:

  • Donc la prochaine fois, si un gars
: Next time, if a guy

  • La prochaine fois qu’un mec
: The next time (that) a guy


And “n’est pas à la hauteur” is the right, current French expression for the old English “can’t cut the mustard”.

Well, thank you both again. I sure got more in answer than I bargained for :slight_smile:

Hi, you can also have a look at this page: http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/n8/cdm2.htm

Thank you. I didn’t know about the site.

I have been reading the grammar stuff from about.com but at some point you must learn French through French.

Hi,

I am sorry, but the ‘‘que’’ and ‘‘qui’’ you wrote down are not visible. I cannot see and read them.
Can you maybe send me a Facebook message
 My nickname is the same.

Thank you in advance and have a nice day !

I think you mean in my original posting because I used bold-italic for them.
I replaced them with plain text and copied it below - hopefully it comes through good .

**** Original Posting ****

I am wondering why “que” is used instead of “qui” in this sentence.

  • Donc la prochaine fois, un gars par que vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ© vous demande, dire qu’il ne peut pas couper la moutarde.
    (So the next time a guy you’re not interested in asks you out, say that he can’t cut the mustard.)

(from Allwomenstalk Funny
)

Isn’t the “par que” about the same as “à qui” in “La fille Ă  qui j’ai parlĂ© est trĂšs sympathique.”?
What is different between them?

Also if I do google search on “par que vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ©â€ and “par qui vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ©â€, I get only two hits for either.
So it makes me wonder whether the sentence is really not a natural French expression.

Is there a entirely different and better way to say it than the above sentence?

The original sentence is incorrect for the reasons given above and also because the english verb “to ask out” doesn’t mean “demander” (that would be the translation of “to ask”) but “inviter à sortir” .

I would propose this (but there are other possibilities):
“Donc la prochaine fois qu’un type qui ne vous intĂ©resse pas vous invite (Ă  sortir), dites-lui qu’il ne fait pas l’affaire.”

MissTake’s version was “dites-lui qu’il n’est pas à la hauteur !” - tell him he’s not good enough! (not meet my high standard!).
Your “il ne fait pas l’affaire” is more like “he’s not going to get (make) it”, I suppose.
So I think the two phrases are fairly in meaning.

And so it looks like you never use “demander” in French for “asking someone out” - it should be “inviter à sortir”.
Then it means the “allowmenstalk.com” site made three major mistakes in their translation. Not a site to trust for French translation :slight_smile:

Thanks for the tip.

Thank you for adding the right version !

To my point of view, this is always really delicate to have to say such thing to somebody we just met.

I will have write: ‘’ La prochaine fois, qu’un gars dont vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ© vous demande Ă  sortir avec vous, dite-lui que vous n’avez finalement pas assez de points en commun.

To me, that he can’t cut the mustard doesn’t mean anything in French, neither in English.
Does it means something for you ? Is it an expression I do not know ?

‘’Par que’’ isn’t used and isn’t the same as ‘’pour qui’’; the ‘’parce que’’ is used a lot and the ‘’pour qui’’ or ‘’envers qui’’ is also commonly used.

Examples: ‘’J’ai des sentiments envers lui.’’ Or ‘’La personne envers qui j’ai des sentiments.’’

This website will explain it to you to its best.

I believe you are right, the translation isn’t good at all. If you wish to use a good translator avoid using Google. It doesn’t respect any grammatical rules and it is all upside down.
You better use my favorite one www.reverso.net

We can say to our friends that we aren’t interested by the person we just met, ‘’par qui vous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressé’’, which is a natural French expression, but we cannot directly say such bad comments like : ‘’Tu n’es pas Ă  la hauteur.’’ ‘’Ni que nous n’ĂȘtes pas intĂ©ressĂ©.’’ Or ‘’Tu ne m’intĂ©resse pas.‘’

If you have other questions or if my English which I am here improving isn’t clear enough for you to understand, please let me know.

Have a nice day !

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The article that had the sentence was one about old expressions no longer in use now, mostly for fun. So I doubt people are familiar with “can’t cut the mustard” even in English nowadays. But on the other hand we do use “can’t cut it” (in the sense of “can’t get it done”) which might be related to “can’t cut the mustard”.

I doubt I’ll ever need to say such a thing but it’s still good to know the more polite expression “vous n’avez finalement pas assez de points en commun”. Yeah, “we don’t have much in common” is always a good strategy to get out of an unwanted engagement :slight_smile:

And thanks for the links - I already knew and liked reverso.net. It can come handy for looking up translations.

I thank you for taking the time to explain me what means ‘’can’t cut the mustard’’. Tonight, I will go to bed with more knowledge. :wink: However, I don’t think that I will say that expression too often.

I know it isn’t always easy to get out of an unwanted engagement, but we can always do it a smart and polite way, so that we can also save our personal reputation. :wink:

Have a nice week !

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