I first saw this on the “Good Grammar Is Hot” group on Facebook. Since my (film major) sister just saw Pulp Fiction for the first time, I knew I had to put it up. For those of you who don’t know, in France, they call a quarter pounder a “Royale with cheese.”
I saw this picture and knew that it was incorrect French grammar. First of all, fromage is the correct spelling of the word for cheese. Also, it’s technically called une royale avec du fromage. I showed it to my coworker Spence.
It turns out that the grammar was incorrect on purpose.
There is this zany, weird site called I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER. Spence is a big fan, and he showed me. You have to check it out — it’s so weird! It’s pictures of animals saying weird, grammatically incorrect and somewhat gangsta things.
It’s inspirational — my friend Tricia has an adorable dog named Bandit whose Facebook profile reads like the entire site.
This is weird stuff — enjoy!
The Grammar Vandal 
I’ve been studying French all summer so I am going to challenge even the expression “Royale with cheese.” It should be “Royal with cheese,” meaning no ‘E.’ The ‘E’ would make in feminine but it doesn’t work like that with this particular adjective because “royal” in French means “fit for a king,” hence why Burger King uses the term.
So if you want to get technical, it should be, “Je voudrais un royal avec du fromage.”
Just to be an idiot questioner, why do you think the french use the partitive here? To me, it would be like saying, “I would like a roayl with some cheese.” Do you think the French get carried away with the partitive? Other romance languages (e.g. Spanish) don’t abuse it so: “Quiero un royal (o lo que sea) con queso,” plain and simple.
It has nothing to do with being fit for a king (as opposed to a queen). Royal(e) is simply an adjective that means the same thing in French as it does in English (that which relates to royalty, and by extension that which is fit for royalty). The reason it should be royal with no e is that in this case it applies to a hamburger, which is a masculine noun, regardless of whether or not the monarch for whom it is fit is male or female. For the same reason, your royal highness (votre altesse royale) always takes an e because altesse (highness) is a feminine noun.
I would also add that it is not necessary to add «du». «Royal avec fromage» is perfectly acceptable to write, if not to eat. It is something of a moot point, however, as this culinary delicacy is simply called a Royal Cheese in France (I can’t direct link because it’s all Flash, but go to mcdonalds.fr, click on «découvrir la carte», then «tous les produits», then «boeuf».
Here in Canada, in the French-speaking parts of the country, McDonald’s calls it a Quart de livre avec fromage (literally, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese). Notice the absence of «du».
I disagree that you can drop the ‘du.’ It’s not proper. While I’m sure McDonalds can do anything they want, you need an article in there. It’s like water, ‘l’eau.’ It can’t be ‘eau.’ It has to be l’eau or d’eau or de l’eau.
Homer Simpson says d’eau.
In my experience, in the real world, you read and hear avec fromage about as often as avec du fromage.
A survey of written usage (conducted via Google) reveals that hamburger au fromage is used about eight times more frequently than either hamburger avec fromage or hamburger avec du fromage.
The LOLCAT phenomenon is strangely hilarious, and I’m glad to see that it’s made its way to French. Google it and you can has much more atrocious grammar.
it is un Royal Cheese. “avec du fromage” is certainly not the best idiomatic translation. Real French people do not say “avec du fromage”; “au fromage” is preferred. In fact, ‘avec’ is bland and reveals an elementary knowledge of french verbs and prepositions. As a fragment, however, “avec du fromage” is perfectly acceptable.
-Un sandwich, s.v.p
-avec du fromage?
-oui, avec du fromage.
Even “avec fromage” squeezes by.
Have a laugh at “hors’ dourves” on this Kansas fine dining site. http://www.brasslanternmanor.com/appetizers.php
Forget arguments over partitive articles. This is just stupid. Enjoy!
I’d like to point out that “Avec du fromage” sounds ridiculous. It sounds better when you say “with some cheese” in English, but… avec is already with.
(I just shudder when people say things like “omelette du fromage” — it’s really “omelette au fromage”.)