French Word of the Day December 2002

Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 8:44 AM

(une) doudoune = a down jacket

Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 9:00 AM

(une) dent = a tooth

"Avoir une dent contre quelqu'un" = "to hold a grudge against someone"

"La petite souris" = "the tooth fairy"

Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 8:34 AM

(un) truc = a thing. Very similar in meaning to "(un) machin" or "(un) bidule"

Useful when poorly performing braincells can't remember the name of an object or a person, or when referring to something unknown or new.

E.g.: "C'est quoi ce truc ?" = "What's this ?"

"J'ai vu machin hier, il te dit bonjour" "I saw what's-his-name yesterday, he says hi"

Sent: Monday, December 16, 2002 8:46 AM

(un) bitoniau = a small unidentified thing / a tiny knob / a thinggy

E.g. C'est quoi ce bitoniau ? = What's this thinggy ?

Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 7:46 AM

Avoir la flemme ("fley - me") de faire quelque chose = to be too lazy to do something

E.g. "Aujourd'hui, j'ai la flemme de travailler" = "Today, I'm too lazy to work"

Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 8:29 AM

Bâcler = to dash something off / to rush through something

Un travail bâclé = a sloppy job

Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 8:43 AM

(un) portable = un téléphone portable (a cell phone) / un ordinateur portable (a laptop computer)

Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 8:39 AM

A lot of fun and interesting reading here: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/f.akbik/dico%20quebec.htm

Words like "gosse" ("kids" in spoken French, "testicles" in Canadian French) show how numerous the little differences between the two languages can be. And why we enjoy so much making fun of each other :-)

Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 8:35 AM

Pincer = to pinch

Rire = to laugh

Pince-sans-rire = noun or adjective referring to someone with a deadpan sense of humour. As in "Il est très pince-sans-rire"

Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 8:42 AM

Se faire une raison = to resign oneself to something

Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 8:20 AM

(un) contour = outline

Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 7:59 AM

(un) lapsus = a slip of the tongue

E.g. Un lapsus révélateur = a Freudian slip

Kind of like saying "Ses amis l'ont fait porter le chapeau" instead of the correct "Ses amis lui ont fait porter le chapeau"...

Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 8:35 AM

(un) chapeau = a hat

Chapeau bas! = hats off!

Porter le chapeau = to take the blame

"Ses amis l'ont fait porter le chapeau" = "His friends made him take all the blame"

Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 8:21 AM

(un) bouc: goat / goatee

(un) bouc-émissaire (book - ey - miss - ey - re) = scapegoat