Compulsory French

I'm writing a story set in the Napoleonic Wars. A British naval officer has to speak French to someone, which he does rather badly over 20-25 words. When I started writing this bit, in a Word document, I got spellcheck's usual reaction to any foreign words - all red-lined unless they happened to be English words too. Suddenly this stopped. I only really noticed when I closed the inverted commas and got something like a corporal's stripes instead. As I continued with the English text after the French quote, I found most words red-lined. Mystified, I checked to see what the system thought I might have meant. It was all in French. The system had identified the quote as French and had switched to French as the chosen language, so all my subsequent English was being queried.

Yet when I check the language set for spellcheck, it still says English (British). I've re-entered that with no result. Frustrating, but also rather funny.

Interesting technical problem which I'm sure would have multiplied if you used Latin instead of French but I'm sure you will work it out. Napoleon and female PC's,( there is always PC's involved) sounds fascinating. Maybe that's where the disappeared in the last couple of centuries have gone. Viva la France!

Well, while I agree a confrontation between Napoleon and a female PC would be interesting, as it would be if Wellington was substituted for Napoleon (a high-class French prostitute who had experience of Napoleon as a client said the Duke was "much more vigorous"), actually the story does not include any PCs. I'm quite strict about historical accuracy, even if I have invented the location. There are lots of sailors and marines, though, and various ladies.

Once I've finished the story and posted it, if the French Effect is still happening (and I've written far more English since the quote than there was French in the quote without the system cottoning on that this is English again), I might try inserting quotes in other languages into the word file to see what happens. The effect is only happening in this one word file, by the way.

Maybe you could take an Officer Crabtree approach to the French. Probably wouldn't fit the story, but it would be amusing.

Excuse my ignorance. "Officer Crabtree" sounds familiar but I can't place it.

Malahide wrote several stories with Aurthur Crabtree as the main character. All of which are worth a read as I recall.

Thanks. I'll investigate.

He was a character in the classic British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo. It was set in and around a small French village during WW 2. All the various characters spoke with exaggerated accents depending on their origins. Officer Crabtree was a British agent who was sent to France to keep an eye on 2 captured British airmen, who were hiding out in the village. He masqueraded as a gendarme and spoke awful French. His regular entrance into the show was announced by him saying 'Good moaning!' (he pronounced morning as moaning). It's a lot funnier to see it, rather than write it out.