Megabyte error can cause mega embarrassment in France

During your time in France, have you ever needed to talk about email attachments (pièces jointes), photos and file sizes?

If not, then you have hopefully avoided this particular faux pas, which concerns the size of attached files.

“I used to work in London, but had a lot of French suppliers and clients,” said Catherine Dekker, who is now based in Montpellier.

“I’d never understood why the French referred to digital file sizes as mégaoctets (Mo) rather than just saying megabyte (MB) with a French accent.

“I must have been saying it for several months before someone finally corrected me!”

At first glance, this may not seem like much of a problem, but if you pronounce ‘byte’ the French way (‘beet’) it unfortunately becomes a very different word, bite, which is a vulgar slang term for male genitalia.

No wonder Catherine’s colleagues felt the need to correct her, and she is not alone.

This writer made exactly the same mistake when editing a magazine in France, as I regularly had to contact photo contributors to ask for much bigger files for print.

I thought I was explaining that I needed higher-resolution photographs with larger file sizes. It was about six months before anyone revealed that I was actually demanding bigger male members.

To help you avoid making the same mistake, most French speakers refer to a 10MB file as dix méga. Do not try to add on the ending or you, too, will end up in a comically embarrassing situation worthy of a Carry On film.

Have you made a similar faux pas that you are happy to share? Email feedback@connexionfrance.com.