History Main / HowDoYouSay

-->'''Berlioz:''' My human’s name is Jacques, and he's a jazz pianist. Plays in the house quintet at Chez Chaume Jazz Club. He's a sweetheart, too -- really nice to me, treats me great. Only problem is, he's not allowed to have pets where he lives, so I have to stay at the jazz club. And I'm lucky to be there -- they bent the rules to let me do so, kind of -- how would you say it in English? -- grandfathered me into the place.

Pretty much a StockPhrase for any FunnyForeigner. Commonly used either to [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade]] on how he [[EloquentInMyNativeTongue doesn't speak English too well]] or with swearing to create a SophisticatedAsHell effect.

Ironically, it is usually used to show that the character isn't very fluent in English, but after the "How you say..." line, the character often uses an overly sophisticated sentence[[note]]Originally it probably has to do with the fact that to a French speaker (and to some extent to speakers of other Romance languges) the words that will be most familiar in English are the ones that came from Norman and Latin, and that Anglophones consider more fancy[[/note]].

If the speaker is a Naive Newcomer or a Funny Foreigner, sometimes he or she will forego the "How do you say" part and just [[BluntMetaphorsTrauma incorrectly use a stock phrase]] ("Time to let the butt be kicked!").

%%* ''Film/CarryOnBehind''
%%-->'''Prof. Anna Vrooshka:''' You see, I am keeping a -- how you say -- dirrrty caravan.

%%[[folder:Film]]

%%[[folder:Literature]]
%%* Literature/HerculePoirot is, of course, very fond of this phrase as part of his FunnyForeigner [[ObfuscatingStupidity routine]].
%%[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** From "All That Glitters"
---> I would not dare touch such slop as this...how you say...Krabby Patty.

[[/folder]]

->'''Saison Marguerite''': ''[In a thick French accent]'' Eh, Brittany, do you have an extra, eh, how do you say, eh, hair tie?\\

->'''Saison-Marguerite''': ''[In a thick French accent]'' Eh, Brittany, do you have an extra, eh, how do you say, eh, hair tie?\\

-->'''Berlioz''': My human’s name is Jacques, and he's a jazz pianist. Plays in the house quintet at Chez Chaume Jazz Club. He's a sweetheart, too -- really nice to me, treats me great. Only problem is, he's not allowed to have pets where he lives, so I have to stay at the jazz club. And I'm lucky to be there -- they bent the rules to let me do so, kind of -- how would you say it in English? -- grandfathered me into the place.

%%[[folder:Fanfiction]]

%%[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

%%[[folder:Literature]]
%%* Literature/HerculePoirot is, of course, very fond of this phrase as part of his FunnyForeigner [[ObfuscatingStupidity routine]].

%%* Antoine from ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM''.
%%-->'''Antoine:''' Princess, I hate to be a, how you say, worryworm...

%%* Ariel has this in ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' about surface things she's not very sure about. "Walking around on those--what do you call them--oh! Feet!"

[[folder:Documentaries]]
* ''Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe''
-->'''Francesco:''' To travel through Sicily is to travel through time. I feel like your British Time Lord - how do you say? Doctor... what?

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8069358/3/Catch-Me-In-Midair Catch Me in Midair]]'' Fleur describes Draco as "One 'oo 'olds 'is cards, how do you say? Close to ze vest?"
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6990881/3/Harry-Potter-and-the-Alternative-Tournament Harry Potter and the Alternative Tournament]]'':
-->'''Harry:''' Hmm...Gabrielle Delacour versus the Ministry...can I put a dozen galleons on Gabby now?\\
'''Fleur:''' Non. It would be, how do you say, a 'sucker bet'.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11618554/5/The-World-is-Our-Oyster The World is Our Oyster]]'':
-->'''Fleur:''' Beell, you parents 'ave been in a difficult time. You cannot ah - attendre - what is ze word? Attendre? Expect! You cannot expect zem to eegnore that which Dumbledore is saying, peux-tu?
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12813458/12/The-Lonely-Letters The Lonely Letters]]'':
-->'''Fleur:''' I zought I 'ad lost you forever mon amour.\\
'''Harry:''' Never, Fleur. The grave itself could not stop me from being at your side.\\
'''Fleur:''' Zat was... 'ow you say? Cheesy?
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5074951/30/Return-to-Prince-Manor Return to Prince Manor]]'':
-->'''Harry:''' Watch your back. I don't trust Krum. He Might try something.\\
'''Cedric:''' I don't trust him either. Thanks for the heads up, Harry.\\
'''Fleur:''' E is a . . .how do you say . . .snake in the grass?

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/AGoodYear''
-->'''Ludivine Duflot:''' Almost all French aristocrat have, how you say... liaison with their cousins, yes?
* ''Film/BlameItOnRio''
-->'''Eduardo Marques:''' You are, how you say, the queer couple?
* ''Film/CarryOnBehind''
-->'''Prof. Anna Vrooshka:''' You see, I am keeping a -- how you say -- dirrrty caravan.
* ''Film/IntolerableCruelty''
-->'''Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy:''' She spe-cif-i-cated a man with a wandering pee-pee. How you say? A philanderer whose affairs would be transparent to the world.
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheMonsterOfMexico''
-->'''Doña Dolores:''' I don't trust him, never did. He is a... how you say in America?\\
'''Fred:''' Crook?\\
'''Daphne:''' Liar?\\
'''Velma:''' Con man?\\
'''Doña Dolores:''' ''[waits a beat]'' Jerk!
* ''Series/TheLikelyLads''
-->'''Christina:''' I learn much this weekend Terry, it has been, how you say in English, an eyesore.
* ''Film/{{Transporter 2}}''
-->'''Gianni:''' Perhaps I can help you! What part are you a little... how you say, "thick" on?
* ''Film/JamesAndTheGiantPeach''
-->'''Spider:''' We are in the middle of the, how do you say, the big puddle.\\
'''Centipede:''' Biggest puddle of 'em all, angel fangs ? the Atlantic Ocean.
* ''The Book of Stars'', talking about a hypothetical date:
-->'''Penny:''' What makes you wanna talk to her?\\
'''Kristjan:''' Oh, I would come to her because she's lovely and how do you say, um, mysterious.
* Parodied in ''Film/TopSecret'':
-->'''Ducoit:''' Well, Monsieur Rivers, it seems that you have become, how do you say, ''indispensable''?\\
'''Nick:''' "Indispensable."\\
'''Ducoit:''' That's what I thought.
* Ariel has this in ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' about surface things she's not very sure about. "Walking around on those--what do you call them--oh! Feet!"

[[folder:Literature]]
* Literature/HerculePoirot is, of course, very fond of this phrase as part of his FunnyForeigner [[ObfuscatingStupidity routine]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion'' (1955) episode "Rodeo":
-->'''Payroll Sgt. Zach Zachariades:''' A legionnaire in love is, how you say, like a starving man looking in the window of a delicatessen store. He cannot touch what he's crazy to have.
* ''Series/TheATeam'' episode "The A-Team Is Coming, the A-Team Is Coming":
-->'''Katrina Karpov:''' How you say? Take off all your clothing?
* ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' episode "Barcelona, May 1917":
-->'''Marcello:''' And the count is, how you say in Englese? Eh, a semi-psychotic paranoid introvert.
* ''Whoops Apocalypse'':
-->'''Premier Dubienkin:''' We like, how you say, kick them in the balls.
* The ''[[Series/SaturdayNightLive "How Do You Say? Ah, Yes." Show with Antonio Banderas]]''.
* Parodied in ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' where Michael thought it was necessary to say "How you say?" to a perfectly English-fluent and non-French Canadian woman under the basis of her being "foreign".
* In ''Series/GetSmart'', a staple of Hawaiian detective Harry Hou's dialogue. As Max is providing the desired word, it's of course never the correct one.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* "Come Play Wiz Me" from ''Theatre/AnyoneCanWhistle'':
-->You like my hair, yes? My lips, yes?\\
Ze sway of my, how you say, of my hips, yes?...\\
I like your, how you say, imperturbable perspicacity.\\
It isn't how you say, it's what you see!

* "Hamilton"
Lafayette, who later gets "the fastest rap in the show":
--> How you say, how you sa- ah anarchy!\\
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Videogames]]
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories'':
-->'''Fernando:''' And you realize this is, how you say, a metaphor for the first sexual experience.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', Fenix asserts that despite his age (and robotic body) he can still, "How do you Terrans say, 'throw down with the best of them'!" Which is goddamn hilarious coming from a [[WarriorPoet Protoss]].
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': L'cirufe falls into this one once, combining it with his usual BluntMetaphorsTrauma: "No, no, it's those Prone, sons of bastards! They are all, how do you say, asscaves!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Originals]]
* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' has the ''Film/{{Borat}}'' {{Expy}} use the SophisticatedAsHell version to say that he is "How do you say, kind of a dick."
* Poked fun at with Amir in ''WebVideo/HardlyWorking'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB-cAoBCU8E&list=FLXn2SIdD2vmc&index=295 Airplane]]:
-->'''Amir:''' Don't be a, how you say, hero!\\
'''Dan:''' YOU KNOW HOW TO SAY IT!
* ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'' has Saison Marguerite, who says this fairly frequently. Sometimes before words that actually are French. Brittnay lampshades this fairly often and uses it to accuse Saison of being from Montreal instead of France.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Burns Verkauft der Kraftwerk":
-->'''Horst:''' I must have phrased that bad. My English is, how you say, inelegant.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' episode "Isle of Solar Energy":
-->'''Linka:''' See? We found the correct cave ? how do you say ? right off the bat?

** Also used by the villain, Scorpio, in a later episode:
--->'''Lana:''' "You knew this whole time?"\\
'''Scorpio:''' "How you say... [[BrickJoke wahh wahh]]."
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' uses this for Le Quack, a French criminal duck.
-->"Go... how do you say it... away."
* Antoine from ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM''.
-->'''Antoine:''' Princess, I hate to be a, how you say, worryworm...

* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', Fenix asserts that despite his age (and robotic body) he can still, "How do you Terrans say, 'throw down with the best of them'!" Which is goddamn [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments hilarious]] coming from a [[WarriorPoet Protoss]].
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': L'cirufe falls into this one once, combining it with his usual BluntMetaphorsTrauma: "No, no, it's those Prone, sons of bastards! They are all, how do you say, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments asscaves!]]"

Ironically, it is usually used to show that the character isn't very fluent in English, but after the "How you say..." line, the character often uses an overly sophisticated sentence[[note]]Probably has to do with the fact that to a French speaker (and to some extent to speakers of other Romance languges) the words that will be most familiar in English are the ones that came from Norman and Latin, and that Anglophones consider more fancy[[/note]].

Ironically, it is usually used to show that the character isn't very fluent in English, but after the "How you say..." line, the character often uses an overly sophisticated sentence[[note]]]]Probably has to do with the fact that to a French speaker (and to some extent to speakers of other Romance languges) the words that will be most familiar in English are the ones that came from Norman and Latin, and that Anglophones consider more fancy[[/note]]]].

Ironically, it is usually used to show that the character isn't very fluent in English, but after the "How you say..." line, the character often uses an overly sophisticated sentence.

->'''Saison-Marguerite''': ''*thick French accent*'' Eh, Brittany, do you have an extra, eh, how do you say, eh, hair tie?\\
'''Brittany''': [[LampshadeHanging Why do you say "how do you say"]] before words you CLEARLY know how to say?!