Nicolas Sarkozy ridiculed for massacring the French language

Presidents of the French Republic do not start speeches by saying, "To everyone who's important here, bonjour." They also conjugate their verbs and use pronouns correctly u00e2u0080u0094 or at least they did before President Nicholas Sarkozy.

As Paris marks the annual Week of the French Language, the straight-talking president has upset teachers and purists with his fondness for sounding like a matey, ordinary bloke, reported the Times.

Sarkozy's habit of playing fast and loose with the French language helped him win the election in 2007, but it is now feeding his image as a Philistine. The trouble began early last year when he told a heckler to "p''' off, poor sod" and it has not been eased by implausible attempts by Carla Bruni to portray her husband as a closet lover of belles lettres.

"Moliu00c3u00a8re must be turning in his grave," said le Parisien newspaper, reporting on the latest Sarkozysmes, as his syntactical abuses are called.

Fanny Capel, the head of a campaign group called Sauvez les Lettres (Save Letters), told The Times, "We have un beauf at the head of the state." Un beauf, or brother-in-law, is shorthand for uneducated and ignorant.

Sarkozy jangles nerves with colloquial tics such as dropping the "ne" between pronoun and verb in negative sentences. "J'u00c3u00a9coute mais je tiens pas compte," he said the other day. (I listen but I don't take notice). He often uses the slangy "ch'ais pas" for "je ne sais pas" and "ch'uis" instead of "je suis".

Sarkozy is a lawyer with a posh education who uses low-class tones as a way of endearing himself. The style grates because of France's attachment to language as a unifying force. Most previous leaders have cultivated a literary side, including military ones such as Charles de Gaulle and Napoleon Bonaparte.

The president stands accused of setting a bad example when he is trying to stem a decline in literacy. Jean-Marie Rouart, a writer and member of the Acadu00c3u00a9mie Franu00c3u00a7aise, accused Sarkozy of pandering to youth "by apeing their vulgarity".

Jean Vu00c3u00a9ronis, who wrote a study called The Words of Nicolas Sarkozy, said the president's speech was natural to him. "He is not very cultivated and does not read much. Usually politicians correct themselves when they arrive at a certain level, but Sarkozy does not give a hoot. It's his nouveau riche attitude," he said.