French Word of the Day September 2002

Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 8:44 AM

"Dans la vie, quand ça va, ça va, et quand ça ne va pas, et bien il faut patienter" (Pierre Bacri in "Family resemblances" <<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0118015>>)

Dans = in

Vie = life

Ca va = Everything 's fine. As a question, "ça va?" = "how are things?", popular way to greet someone.

Il faut = one has to / needs to

Patienter = to wait, to be patient

Recommendation of the day: movies written by Bacri/Jaoui (<<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Bacri,%20Jean-Pierre>>) and/or directed by Cedric Klapish (<<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Klapisch,%20Cédric>>) are pretty much all worth watching...

Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 8:28 AM

First, my apologies to those that I offended by saying there are no good French beers. Adelscott and Jenlain happen to be very decent ones, I stand corrected.

"L'erreur est humaine" (erreur = mistake)

Bon week-end!

Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 9:03 AM

Today, some French beers:

1664 ("Seize-cent soixante-quatre"): cheap, not that good

Kronenbourg ("Kro"): not expensive, but not tasty either

Pelforth: reasonably priced but terrible

Come to think about it I don't think we make any good beer.

Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 9:01 AM

Apéritif = drink(s), usually before dinner to stimulate the appetite. E.g. Pastis is a famous anise apéritif in the South of France.

PS: I'm looking for a Chinese word of the day, please let me know if you know someone who does that :)

Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 8:40 AM

"- On peut se tutoyer ? Je trouve ça plus sympa

- Oui

- T'es lourd" (from <<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0109440>>)

Se tutoyer = to address each other using "tu" (to mark closeness/friendship) as opposed to "vous" (distance/respect)

Trouver = to find

Sympa = nice

Lourd = heavy/annoying

Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 10:22 AM

Con = stupid (adjective) idiot/jerk (noun). Pejorative. Highly useful.

E.g. "Si les cons volaient, tu serais chef d'escadrille" (Michel Audiard, famous screenwriter)

Voler = to fly, Chef d'esquadrille = squadron leader

More quotes from the guy here: <<http://www.citationsdumonde.com/thema.asp?thema=audiard>>

Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 8:55 AM

La fortune sourit aux audacieux = Fortune favors the audacious (sourire = to smile)

Now compare with yesterday's saying and try to make sense of all this. I can't.

(PSG 3 - Ujpest 0, first round of the UEFA cup, easy victory)

Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 8:40 AM

Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre = Everything comes to him who waits

Tout = everything

A point = in time

Savoir = to know (je sais/tu sais/il sait/nous savons/vous savez/ils savent)

Attendre = to wait

I suddendly remembered that one on my last pathetic attempt to cook rice...

Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 8:57 AM

L'avenir appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt = "the future belongs to those who get up early", literally

Avenir = future

Appartenir = to belong to

Se lever = to get up

Needless to say, I have mixed feelings about this one.

Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 8:56 AM

Avoir un bon fond = to be good at heart (and I've recently been wondering how different that is from simply être bon but anyway...)

Au fond = at the bottom, deep inside. Figuratively, means "after all". Toucher le fond = to hit rock bottom

Did I mention PSG's wonderful 3-0 victory over Strasbourg this week-end ?

Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 8:13 AM

Chaque chose en son temps = One thing at a time

Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 8:57 AM

Homme libre, toujours tu chériras la mer! = Free man, always you will cherish the sea!

(which is actually an extract from a poem by Beaudelaire)

And also today, a link: <<http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2002/08/26/tomo/index.html>>

Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 8:56 AM

"Jamais deux sans trois" = "Bad luck comes in threes" ("never two without three", literally)

--

Laurent

Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 9:04 AM

Anniversaire = 1/ birthday 2/ anniversary

Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 9:02 AM

Télétravail = telecommuting

Sent: Monday, September 09, 2002 8:38 AM

A brief extract from nice song "L'âge d'or" by french rock band Aston Villa:
"Est-ce par le jeu du hasard ? Nous sommes lundi, nous sommes riches"

Hasard = chance. Par le jeu du hasard = by coincidence

I don't know about rich, but we're definitely Monday...Also, France beat Cyprus 2-1 in the 1st game of the Euro 2004 qualifiers. C'est du football, c'est culturellement important :)

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

"Ne pas savoir sur quel pied danser" = "Not to know what to do" , e.g. when faced with a tough decision or when basing a choice on randomly changing conditions

Savoir = to know

Quel = which

Pied = foot

Danser = to dance

Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 8:35 AM

Chic = 1/ smart, elegant (e.g. for clothes) 2/ sophisticated, fashionable (e.g. for a place) 3/ nice (e.g. for a person)

E.g. "C'est un restaurant chic" = "It's a fancy restaurant"

"C'est une chic fille" = "She's a nice girl"

Interestingly enough if you say "C'est une fille chic" you now mean "She's an elegant girl". Don't ask me why, I have no clue whatsoever.

Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 9:01 AM

A word in creole today (why not, after all it's still loosely related to French):

Koumen ou ye? = How are you?

Useful if you find yourself in a French overseas territory, or in Haiti, Louisiana etc.

Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 9:09 AM

"Les voyages forment la jeunesse"

Voyage = travel

Jeunesse = youth