Hi! Frank!

The real thing is, as for English, there are several levels of language
in French. "Il ne fonctionne pas" is the correct expression, the one
that'll be corretly translated by Google or dare I say "academic". "Il ne
marche pas" is the popular and most used way to say this and you'll hear
it in France, in Quebec, in Acadia, in New Orleans and all of French
Africa and we'll all understand the same thing, although we may have some
trouble understanding the Cajun accent! ;-)

Jean

Frank wrote:

Well, it ain't "real" French; but growing up in New Orleans I always
heard "ne marche pas." I never heard "tomber en panne." Maybe it's
because Cajun French is kinda archaic and therefore from the same
period that we got all the radio calls, whereas "tomber en panne" is
contemporary? Just guessing here.

Frank