Excellent advice, @Stella !
Incidentally, one of my earliest and daftest mistakes…
merci de votre aide and merci pour votre aide
we arrived at the chambres d’hote and chatted with our hosts… Madame was watching me closely… and finally asked (in French of course) “just what help will you be needing??”
In my letter of confirmation, I’d thanked them for their help… (in arranging our visit)… using my best French or so I thought…
but by using the wrong phrase I’d inferred I would be needing some help… 
stuck in my brain ever since… merci pour… is for the future 
of course this was a lifetime before Google etc…
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Real life situations & conversations - best way to learn French!!
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The other phrase I remember you saying you’d misinterpreted originally @stella was “C’est pas terrible” which I have to say I’d interpreted exactly the same way but after my teacher and lots of people round me used it in the same week, it became clear it meant “It’s not great”. I keep coming across these sorts of things, where the main translation in the dictionary is not at all what the phrase means…
Interestingly Deepl gives “it’s not great”, and Google gives “it’s not terrible” and notes that translation has been marked correct by Google users.
Can it be either or is Google (and its users) just wrong?
I need a collection of these gems somewhere. 
yep, lessons gained the hard way…
when buying old cars… if someone tells you (or you read) what sounds like “not much to do/not too bad”… it really means there’s loads to do and it’s pretty awful…
"pas mal de chose "… aaargh
yet another reason why I always go back and ask questions, to confirm that what I’m now understanding is actually correct… and best to do this before handing over any money…
I imagine that @vero can confirm but I’m fairly sure that Google is wrong in this case…
Interesting that Deepl gives the translation that seems to fit everything I’ve heard.
“mais pas de neige” … is something I throw at moaning folk… makes 'em stop moaning and we chuckle… but that really only works in Summer…
and bearing in mind we risk overheating… neige might become something we love/treasure…
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Yes, as a native speaker, I’m hoping that @vero can disentangle that one.
However, if I Google the phrase (rather than putting it into Google translate) the first 10 or so hits seem to confirm that Google’s translation n’est pas terrible
[How’s that for ambiguity ]
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Google is wrong and those particular users are too.
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Yes, the only reference that I checked which which got anywhere near the translation offered by Google explained that “terrible” is an interesting example of a word in French which is its own antonym - in that it can mean both “terrible”1 and “terrific” but “c’est pas terrible” is always interpreted as “it is not good”, and never “it is not terrible”.
I’ve offered the correct translation - but how many down votes are needed before Google sits up and notices I have no idea. Perhaps some enterprising SFers could also visit translate.google.com pop it the text “c’est pas terrible” and downvote the result (and offer the correct translation).
1] Terrible retains a meaning in English of huge and fearsome but it is less used these days - e.g. Tyrannosaurus Rex = Terrible Lizard (i.e. huge enormous one, not something that wasn’t very good at being a lizard).
We quite often refer to people as terrible ie inspiring fear and amazement but usually slightly jokingly, eg when they are incorrigibly naughty or prone to tantrums or whatever. Old ladies and 2 year-olds are often terrible 
If we weren’t joking we’d say épouvantable
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Yes, it’s used that way in English as well - “Terrible Two’s” for that period of life around the age of two when toddlers can be a handful.
X is a terrible Y can be used (e.g. Ian McKellen is a terrible luvvie) as well without it meaning “bad” - indeed " Ian McKellen is a terrific luvvie" would be interchangeable I think.
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Petit Nicolas says Mes parents sont terribles, meaning terrific.
Just now while checking this out I came across a scholarly paper about ambiguity in the Petit Nicolas series, but I balked at accepting cookies so didn’t read it.
Yes terrible can mean wicked or baaaaad!
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Ah bon? was used by a neighbour in the sense of "oh, really???"
He was surprised by something I’d told him…
so I’ve added his response to my list and will be throwing it into the verbal mix at the next opportunity…
EDIT OH thinks I’ve gone mad, as I keep muttering… ah, bon? … to get the questioning-intonation perfect…
I thought of scarecrow… but it’s not quite the same word… on the other hand “scary” would fit…
On a much more serious note, in what sense did Andre Malraux use “terrible” in the speech he gave (a speech I can’t read without crying) when Jean Moulin was pantheonized? “Entre ici, Jean Moulin, avec ton terrible cortege…”
I think terrible can mean awesome - in both the meanings of awesome
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