While French President Emmanuel Macron charmed media in the U.S. by speaking “nearly flawless” English before Congress last week, Australian news outlets enjoyed a slip-up by Macron in a reference to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s wife.
“I want to thank you for your welcome, thank you and your delicious wife for your warm welcome,” Macron said Wednesday.
What did Emmanuel Macron just call the Australian prime minister's wife? https://t.co/duW7oE8NSq pic.twitter.com/iSfpTdC6KF
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 2, 2018
Many felt that Macron slipped up because he was using the French word for delicious — delicieux — which also translates as “delightful.”
The gaffe comes after many in the U.S. media praised Macron’s English during his visit last week.
At joint session, #Macron rejected #Trumpism from top to bottom. As a speaker — in good English no less — he was a breath of fresh air in Washington, no matter how ground down he is back home in France by political forces to his left and right.
— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) April 26, 2018
Macron is more articulate in his very clearly non-native English than Trump is
— David Pakman (@dpakman) April 24, 2018
Macron is infinitely more articulate and succinct in his broken English than Trump is in his unique language. Sad!
— Dan Nathan (@RiskReversal) April 24, 2018
“Macron's decision to address Congress in accented but fluent English and the policies he was advocating, the compelling political moment looked for all the world like a State of the Union address by a Democratic president,” CNN commented at the time.
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