Voltaire and Frederick the Great were friends who liked to have fun with words. This “puzzle” was, according to my erudite father-in-law, from a real correspondance between these two illustrious, enlightened men:

Frederick sent the following invitation to Voltaire: (I tried but wasn't able to put it all on one line...)

P
----
venez

à

si
----
sans .


To which Voltaire responded:

G a


Who can figure it out?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pauline,

voltaire? FdG?
Has got to do w Sans Souci, doh!
Venez souper à Sans Souci !!!
Hahaha, they wrote like SMS.
can't get g a. j'ai sth, but what?
Thanx Normandy dude, now i won't sleep.

Very good Americana. You got the first part.
The second part isn't "g a."
It's "G a."
Get it?

Got it, Dude. Classy!
Was stumped for a long time because of the "e" and "é" descrepancy, doh.
Now I can sleep.
I'll wait for you to reveal the answer, whenever you think all the others have given up...

Go ahead, Americana. Take the glory. No one else gives a you-know-what*...

(*cannot use the intended word for fear of "offending" someone).

Nah, dude, I can't crash your umpteenth post joke. It's your honor.
Tiens, I just realized I have not contributed my umpteenth post joke. Just as well. I don't any that is sortable .

It isn't MY joke. It's Voltaire's! Go ahead, Americana...IF you REALLY figured it out!

Grotesque, I got great appetite but misspelled discrepancy.
Dude, you are trying to taunt me into telling the joke. No way, it's yours, vas-y.

Okay. You DID get it, though you translated it into a foreign language.

Dude, why don't you move the riddle over to the French language forum?
It's much more of a languag thAng.

Okay, time's up. What's the answer??

Vicky,

I got my first hint from history, not from looking at the writing structure of the joke, therefore you can say I sort of cheated.

First, the word "sans" reminded me that FtG's digs: Sans Souci.

Therefore I looked at:
si
-
sans

Voilà, it can be said in French as "sans sous [under] ci".

I applied the same structure to:
p
-
venez

and got "venez sous p [pronounced "souper"]".

The "G a" , although so short, took me a long time.
I'll let Dude complete your education.

Sorry, Vicky, for the suspense.

Freddy: "Venez souper à Sans Souci."

Voltaire: "J'ai grand appétit."

Le voilà. I'm a spoil sport. No one offended, I hope...