Frère Jacques

• tobot
  December 29th, 2007 at 6:06 am

  please correct me but surely Jacques is the french equivalent of jack
  and jean is john

• Pol x
  December 29th, 2007 at 7:26 am

  …what tobot said

• Miss Cellania
  December 29th, 2007 at 7:31 am

  You are correct. That’s not a translation; it’s the name of the song in English.

• ted
  December 29th, 2007 at 7:31 am

  I was taught that the English version of Frere Jacques is Brother John. Probably because it sounds nicer in English.

  If I recall correctly, I think Jack is considered a derivative of John in English.

• Pudifoot
  December 29th, 2007 at 11:04 am

  all I know is Jacques job was watching a water clock all night long… which is presumingly why he fell asleep (it wasn’t the most exciting of jobs).

• k
  December 29th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

  I found more songs in the chansons du monde section –> http://demonsaumonde.free.fr/carnet.de.chants/chants_monde.html

• tobot
  December 29th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

  actually i now remember the song being called that in my childhood.
  i retract my earlier comment

• Eric
  December 30th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

  The chinese version they have posted on there isn’t quite frere jacques.

  it translates to something like:

  two tigers, two tigers
  running fast, running fast
  one has no eyes, one has no nose
  how weird, how weird

  Oh I guess they figured that out with the translation in French they have below that.

  It’s still weird.

• aware
  December 31st, 2007 at 1:04 am

  “reggae hippie” version was total crap.

  besides, it’s not a language… and the singers tried to read the french lyrics phonetically, or so it sounds.

  the others were adorable.

Want your own avatar? Get one for free at Gravatar!