French Word of the Day November 2002

Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 9:27 AM

(la) dinde: turkey (hen)

(le) dindon: turkey (cock)

(la) farce: practical joke / stuffing

Étre le dindon de la farce: to be fooled / duped

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 12:06 PM

Colloquial French:

Être à la bourre: to be late

Not to be confused with:

Être bourré: to be drunk

"Non seulement il est à la bourre, mais en plus il arrive bourré" : not only is he late, but he gets here drunk

Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 9:46 AM

(un) boulet = a ball (as in "ball and chain")

"être un boulet" = "to be a millstone around someone's neck"

Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 8:59 AM

(une) came: very familiar term for drugs, that also extends to other goods

"C'est de la bonne came" "It's good stuff"

So now we put the pieces together for a little extract of Franch hip-hop…most of the new words are similar to English but I accept translation requests :)

"Caroline était une amie, une superbe fille.

Je repense à elle, à nous, à nos cornets vanille,

A sa boulimie de fraises, de framboises, de myrtilles,

A ses délires futiles, à son style pacotille.

Je suis l'as de trèfle qui pique ton cœur...[...]

Elle était ma dame, elle était ma came, elle était ma vitamine,

Elle était ma drogue, ma dope, ma coke, mon crack, mon amphétamine,

Caroline…"

(MC Solaar - Caroline)

Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 10:07 AM

(un) as: ace

(une) boulimie: bulimia

(un) délire: delirium / frenzy / madness. Also used colloquially to designate something fantastic/unusual/crazy, in which case it can be used as either a noun or an adjective:

E.g. "Travailler autant, c'est du délire!" = "It's madness to work that hard"

"C'est délire!" = "It's fantastic!"

Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 9:26 AM

Les cartes à jouer (playing cards):

(le) pique: spade

(le) cœur: heart

(le) trèfle: club

(le) carreau: diamond

Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:45 AM

Ice cream flavors:

(la) vanille: vanilla

(la) fraise: strawberry

(la) framboise: raspberry

(les) myrtilles: blueberries

(le) chocolat: chocolate

(le) cornet: ice cream cone

Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 10:49 AM

(un) pavé = cobblestone, or slab if we're talking food

E.g. Sous les pavés, la plage (popular slogan during May '68)

Un pavé de rumsteak sauce béarnaise...

Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 9:30 AM

Mortel = lethal, deadly. In colloquial French, means great, fantastic.

C'est mortel!

Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 8:13 AM

Réprimander = to reprimand

Gronder = to tell someone off (kids/pets)

Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 11:01 AM

(une) cime = top (of a tree, most of the time)

(un) abîme = abyss, bottom

Le chapeau de la cime est tombé dans l'abîme = the circumflex accent on "cime" fell in the "abîme" (nice way to remember which one of the 2 takes a î)

Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 9:50 AM

(un) biscuit = cookie

(un) gâteau = cake

(une) tarte = pie

Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 8:18 AM

Touiller (too - yeah) = to stir

Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 7:07 PM

French sounds:

Toc toc: knock knock

Dring dring: bell ring

Boum!: Bang!

Paf!: Wham!

Pouf!: Oopsadaisy!

Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 7:32 AM

Some more spoken French:

Ouais = oui ("wey!")

Nan = non

Bah = so what ?

Euh = er...

Quoi = can be freely put at the end of any sentence, without adding any value and/or meaning to it

Which gives birth to wonderful 'sentences' like

"Ouais m'enfin, euh, bof, bah en fait, là, nan quoi..." (in short: Non)

Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 9:12 AM

Atchoum: (ha - t - ch - oom) sound of someone sneezing (atishoo ?)

Oh lala / ah lala / ouh lala (and almost any variation you can think of): demonstrates disbelief / surprise / resignation / astonishment … depending on the context and intonation :-)

Tututu: used to interrupt someone and show disagreement.

Bof: shows indifference / lack of energy or spirit

M'enfin: abbreviation for "Mais enfin" = "for heaven's sake"

E.g.

"- Tu viens avec nous ?

- Bof. Je suis fatigué

- Tututu. Viens."

(to be continued...)

Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 8:00 AM

Quart = quarter (e.g. un quart de siècle, a quarter of a century…)

Demi = half (e.g. un demi-litre, a half-liter)

Sent: Monday, November 04, 2002 7:55 AM

(un) mur = wall

Aller droit dans le mur = to go straight into a wall

Être le dos au mur = to have one's back to the wall

"C'est à se taper la tête contre les murs" = you feel like banging your head against the wall

Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 8:12 AM

(une) citrouille = a pumpkin

(une) sorcière = a witch

(un) bonbon = a candy

Recommendation of the day: Dragibus. Best bonbons ever. I'm running out and am ready to pay good money for those...

<http://www.haribo.fr/france/produits/preferes/preferes_rgt.html>