A childhood belief about foreign languages

I remember one time my friend said "What's the tille?" and I asked him what it meant, and he said that 'tille' meant 'time' and I assumed it was just a more grown up word. He used to say it all the time.

I never heard anyone else ever say it so one time I asked him where he got the word from. He said, "it's French .... Quel est le tille? .... it means 'what is the time?' "

I was 11 and had started French by then. He felt a bit stupid when I told him it was "Quelle heure est-il ?" (What hour is it ?)