The letter from the Elysée Palace, written in French, is signed “Friendly, Francois Hollande”, a mistranslation of the French sign off “amicalement”.
The official Elysée Twitter account published a photo of the letter, where the mistake was soon picked up by eagle-eyed tweeters and mocked.
One tweeter said: “The Queen of England should give English lessons to Francois Hollande. It would be very “friendly” of her."
La Reine d''Angleterre devrait donner des cours à François Hollande. Ca serait Friendly de sa part. #FPRCF4
— Thibault . (@Narcissike) Novembre 7, 2012
Another tweeted, along with a famous photo of Barack Obama laughing: “What Obama will look like when he reads Hollande’s letter.”
La tête d'Obama quand il lira la lettre de François Hollande, avec le "Friendly" à la fin. twitpic.com/bb5goj
— Othman Nasrou (@othmannasrou) Novembre 7, 2012
This is not the first time a French president has been mocked for making a linguistic mistake when communicating with an American politician.
Back in January 2010, Nicolas Sarkozy famously said to Hillary Clinton, while stood in the rain, “sorry for the bad time” – a mistranslation of the French "temps", for weather.
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