French Word of the Day July 2002

Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 8:44 AM

Today, 2 expressions:

"Plus on est de fous, plus on rit" (the more the merrier)

"Jamais deux sans trois" (if it happened twice, it'll happen a third time, I don't know the English translation of this one either :-)

fou = crazy

jamais = never

sans = without

Yesterday I forgot "Quatre heures" as a nice synonym to "Goûter". And I got several questions on Office Space so here's some info (a must see!):

<<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0151804>>

--

Laurent

Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 9:49 AM

Today, meals:

petit-déjeuner: breakfast

déjeuner: lunch

goûter: afternoon snack

dîner: dinner

souper: supper

pique-nique: picnic

"Ce week-end, je vais aller faire un pique-nique dans le parc"

(or if you live in Quebec and try to stay away from English words: "Cette fin de semaine, je vais aller faire un pique-nique dans le parc")

Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 11:26 AM

Today, not a word but the chorus of a very appropriate song, "Le lundi au soleil" by french disco legend Claude François:

"Le lundi au soleil, c'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais

Chaque fois c'est pareil, c'est quand on est derrière les carreaux,

Quand on travaille, que le ciel est beau"

A few hints:

lundi = Monday

soleil = sun

carreaux = windows

ciel = sky

So that's actually a lot of words today. I'm also giving away PIMS cookies to anyone who can come up with a French translation of "someone's got a case of the Mondays" (coz I can't, and yes I watched Office Space for the 10,000th time this w-e :)

Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 9:02 AM

Today, a word that ranks in my personal top 10:

grasse matinée = a morning spent in bed (not sure there is any equivalent in English to this wonderful word that Babelfish happily translates to "fatty morning")

E.g. "faire la grasse matinee est mon activitee favorite du week-end"

"Sleeping late is my favorite week-end activity"

Bon week-end a tous

--

Laurent

Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 9:08 AM

2 for the price of 1 today:

flèche : arrow

flechette : dart

to play darts = jouer aux flechettes

to follow the arrows = suivre les fleches

Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 8:23 AM

(today, the Frenchiest word of all)

grève = strike

faire la grève = to go on strike

E.g. "In France, when you don't feel like working, you go on strike"

"En France, quand tu n'as pas envie de travailler, tu fais la grève"