French Word of the Day July 2003

Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 7:56 AM

The "little differences"....

Greg le millionnaire = Joe millionaire

The main difference being that Greg not only had to confess he wasn't a millionaire, but also that he's actually an ex-con who lied about being a construction worker (he was a go-go dancer who played in p*rn movies) and who will probably steal "his" Jaguar before the end of the show. Which makes the whole concept even more fascinating.

Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 7:27 AM

(un) pied = a foot

Nothing extraordinary here, but there are countless expressions using "pied":

avoir pied = to touch the bottom (of a swimming pool)

ne pas mettre les pieds dehors = not to set foot outside

faire quelquechose comme un pied = to suck at doing something

faire du pied à quelqu'un = to play footsy with someone

c'est le pied! = it's terrific!

prendre son pied = to have a good time (if out of context, assume 'in bed')

partir du bon pied = to get off on the right foot

Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 8:09 AM

Subject: RE: French album of the day

Mass Hysteria: French fusion/metal band, that doesn't mind experimenting with techno loops or inviting hip-hop bands to sing with them. If you can get past laughable lyrics ("on met le feu dans ton cerveau"), you'll probably enjoy their raw energy... "music to kill kittens to", as some like to say :-)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000023X8D/qid=1059428786/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2098016-5152807?v=glance&s=music

Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 1:24 PM

(une) masse = a mass

E.g. une masse informe = a shapeless mass

mettre un fil électrique à la masse = to ground an electric wire

être à la masse = to be lost, to have no idea what's happening

Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 9:48 AM

(un) côté = a side

E.g. prendre les choses du bon côté = to look on the bright side of things

Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 8:25 AM

I've had questions regarding the decision by the French government to ban the use of the word "e-mail":

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030719/ap_on_re_eu/france_out_with__e_mail__1

Here's the deal. Like Quebec has been doing with all English words for a long time, the French have a history of inventing their own neologisms, but mostly for technology-related words. Since we're not known for being a tech-savvy nation, we figured we might as well come up with our own name for other people's inventions so we could pretend we had something to do with it:

(un) ordinateur = a computer

(un) octet = a byte

(un) télécopieur = a fax machine

And it worked, these words now being widely used. In 97-98, when the Internet started to gain momentum (yes, we have Internet in France...it came just a few years after we first got electricity and automobiles), the Académie Française fought back and started introducing more and more new words to instantly replace their English counterparts:

(un) mel = an e-mail

(un) butineur = a browser

and many more (http://www.w3perl.com/fun/computing/academie.html), all very funny if you ask me. Even Internet was translated into "la toile" (the web).

But this time, the new generation didn't adopt these stupid new words and kept on using the much sexier 'mail' or 'e-mail'.. So actually, this ban is not really new, it's just a second shot at getting rid of 'e-mail', since 'mel' failed miserably. Bottom line: nothing to be worried about :-)

Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 9:20 AM

(une) saucisse = a sausage

(un) saucisson = a sausage destined to be sliced and eaten raw

E.g. saucisson sec: http://www.auvergne.chambagri.fr/pages/rubsav/fiches/charsal/sauci.htm

saucisson à l'ail : garlic saucisson

Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 8:29 AM

(une) pince : a plier

(une) pincette (generally plural) : tweezers

E.g.

prendre quelquechose avec des pincettes = to take something with caution

il n'est pas à prendre avec des pincettes = he's like a bear with a sore head.

Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 6:59 AM

(un) retour = a return

Also, I'd take any good French translation of "welcome back"...

Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 8:47 AM

(une) musette = 1/ an old-fashioned music style based on accordion, e.g. un bal-musette = a dance where accordion music is played

2/ a soldier's bag, or a lunchbag. E.g.: Je prends deux semaines de vacances, mais reviendrai avec plein de nouveaux mots dans ma musette = I am taking two weeks off, but will come back with plenty of new words in my bag

Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 8:50 AM

Other synonyms of "paying the price / having a hard time":

en baver ("to drool" - coloquial)

prendre cher (untranslatable - modern slang)

E.g. J'en ai bavé! J'ai pris cher!

Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 9:19 AM

trinquer à quelquechose = to drink to something

Also means "to pay the price for something"

E.g. "Je trinque à ta réussite" = "Let's drink to your success!"

"Il a fait une grosse erreur, il va devoir trinquer" = "He made a big mistake, he's going to have to pay the price"