French Word of the Day June 2004

Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 9:06 AM

sage = wise / well-behaved

E.g.:

il serait sage que tu te taises = you would be wise to shut up

sois sage! = behave yourself!

une sage-femme = a midwife - literally a wise woman. I doubt there is a masculine other than "un homme sage-femme", which sounds pretty funny if you ask me

Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 8:03 AM

la purée = mashed potatoes, unless another vegetable is specified

Also an expression:

Purée! = Crap!

Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 8:31 AM

la honte = shame

T'as pas honte ? = You should be ashamed!

"t'as" being short for "tu as" = you have

Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 8:12 AM

(un) week-end = a week-end (I kid you not)

In Quebec, you would say

une fin de semaine (very literal translation of "week-end")

BON WEEK-END! BONNE FIN DE SEMAINE!

Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 7:23 AM

It's been a while since we had a swearword. chier is one of them and has many interesting applications:

faire chier quelqu'un = to piss someone off. E.g. Tu me fais chier! = You're pissing me off! Fais pas chier! = Leave me alone!

se faire chier = to be bored to death. E.g. je me fais chier = I'm bored to death

envoyer quelqu'un chier = to tell someone to piss off. E.g. il l'a envoyé chier = he told him to piss off

As usual, use responsibly.

PS: there was a typo in yesterday's word, it should read profond / profonde

Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 8:56 AM

profond / prodfonde = deep (the 'd' is silent when masculine)

Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 8:10 AM

mdr = "lol". Stands for mort de rire (literally dying of laughter). Use in bold capital letters with a lot of exclamation points

MDR !!!!!

Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 8:21 AM

(une) brochette = a skewer, and by extension any type of kebab cooked with it.

une brochette de poulet = a chicken kebab

Also a term to designate a group of people. Usually to denigrate them:

voilà une belle brochette d'imbéciles = here's a fine bunch of imbeciles

Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 8:45 AM

The word that's on everyone's mind in France today: Zizou, French midfielder Zinedine Zidane's nickname. Thanks to Zizou's two goals in the last three minutes of the game against England on Sunday, the team pulled an incredible comeback not seen since... well since France's last-minute comeback against Italy four years ago in the final of the same tournament.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/soccer/06/13/france.england/index.html

Non soccer-related words to resume shortly. Maybe.

Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 8:09 AM

l'Euro: masculine noun, whose meaning is going to switch from "European currency" to "European soccer championship" starting tomorrow and for three weeks.

Allez la France!

Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 7:11 AM

(un/une) ado = a teenager (short for "adolescent")

Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 8:07 AM

(un) lolo = boob / milk (baby talk) / typical nickname for Laurent/Laurence

Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 8:41 AM

(un) boui-boui = a small, cheap restaurant

Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 8:25 AM

(une) fois = a time, in the sense of "occurrence"

une fois = once

deux fois = twice

des fois = sometimes, but as any good mother would teach you as a child, you should use "parfois" instead

neuf fois sur dix = nine times out of ten

encore une fois = once more

Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 6:58 PM

mieux vaut tard que jamais = better late than never

If you like contrepèteries you can say

vieux motard que j'aimais (old biker I once loved)

which is quite ridiculous, therefore funny.

Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 7:48 AM

(un) lit = a bed ('t' is silent)

Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 7:09 AM

Subject: RE: French artist of the day

Aqme: initially French versions of Korn (kind of like Pleymo, which I've already mentioned here, and with whom they started their career), Aqme have softened and varied their style on their recently released second album: Polaroïds & Pornographie (tout un programme!)

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001TSWH8/402-6943842-9643368

Pornographie and A chaque seconde are good introductions to the band