Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Weird words of the day

(un) amour (pronounced ah - moor)= love
(un) délice (day - lee - ss) = delight
(un) orgue (org) = an organ (the instrument, not the body part)

These three have an unusual common trait: when singular, they are masculine, but they become feminine when plural. E.g.:
un amour passager = a love that doesn't last
mes premières amours = my first loves

Monday, August 29, 2005

Mes amis

Some uplifting words to start off the week...
l'amitié (pronounced ah - mee - tee - ay) = friendship
un ami / une amie (ah - mee) = a friend
un copain (koh - pin) / une copine (koh - peen) = buddy, pal
un(e) pote (the 'e' is silent)= buddy, pal (colloquial)

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Back to the basics

Today, let's take a step back and review the personal pronouns:
je
tu
il / on
nous (pronounced "noo")
vous (pronounced "noo")
ils (pronounced "eel")

"On" is the colloquial form for "nous", and the verb needs to be conjugated as third person singular. I don't know any person in his right mind who would use "nous" in day-to-day conversation.
Example:
je mange
tu manges (the 's' is silent)
il mange
nous mangeons (the 's' is silent)
vous mangez ('ez' is pronounced 'ay')
ils mangent ('nt' is silent)

manger = to eat

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

French lullaby of the day

Une souris verte
qui courait dans l'herbe
je l'attrape par la queue
je la montre à ces messieurs
ces messieurs me disent
trempez-la dans l'huile
trempez-la dans l'eau
ça fera un escargot tout chaud
je la mets dans mon chapeau
elle me dit qu'il fait trop chaud
je la mets dans mon tiroir
elle me dit qu'il fait trop noir
je la mets dans ma culotte
elle me fait trois petites crottes.

And a loose translation. Let me know if there are some words here worth delving into another day:
A green mouse
Running in the grass
I catch it by the tail
Show it to these gentlemen
These gentlemen say:
"Dip it in oil, dip it in water
It'll turn into a warm snail"
I put it in my hat
She says it's too hot
I put it in my drawer
She says it's too dark
I put it in my pants
She makes three little droppings

It is good news to know you can do drugs and still have a mainstream job, like writing children's songs. More French lullabies and other nursery rhymes (une comptine - pronounced kon - teen) here, where you will also find some audio samples, including one for the song above (MP3 format, 84Kb)

Monday, August 22, 2005

Turlututu, chapeau pointu

(un) chapeau (sha - po) = a hat. Plural: des chapeaux (the 'x' is silent)
Chapeau bas! = hats off! (literally "hat down")
Porter le chapeau = to take the blame (literally "to wear the hat")

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

Thursday, August 18, 2005

La vache!


(une) vache ("vah - sh") = a cow

The word becomes interesting when one looks at its alternate meanings:
1/ It is slang for mean, nasty:
t'es vache! = you're mean!
il m'a fait un coup vache = he pulled a dirty trick on me

2/ "vache de" is a locution that translates to "hell of". E.g.
il m'a offert un vache de bouquin = he offered me a hell of a good book

3/ As in "bastards":
les vaches, ils ne m'ont pas attendu! = the bastards didn't wait for me!

4/ la vache! indicates surprise (God!), admiration (Wow!), anger (Shit!)...

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Les repas

Today, meals (les repas):

petit-déjeuner: breakfast ("pe - ti - day - je - nay")
déjeuner: lunch ("day - je - nay")
goûter: afternoon snack ("goo - tay")
dîner: dinner ("dee - nay")
souper: supper ("soo - pay")
pique-nique: picnic ("picnic")

E.g. "Ce week-end, je vais aller faire un pique-nique dans le parc = this week-end, I'm going to go picnic in the park

or if you live in Quebec and try to stay away from English words: "Cette fin de semaine, je vais aller faire un pique-nique dans le parc"

Monday, August 15, 2005

Mea culpa

First, as I was kindly reminded, I forgot one key synonym for "drunk" in last week's word:
ivre (pronounced 'eevr') = drunk
for example:
je suis ivre-mort (the 't' is silent) = I am totally drunk (literally "dead-drunk")

Moving on, today's word:
(une) chatouille (sha - too - ye) = a tickle
Mostly plural: faire des chatouilles = to tickle
être chatouilleux = to be ticklish

Friday, August 12, 2005

Je suis fait!

Today's useful synonyms…"drunk":
Saoul or soûl (pronounced "soo"), the "official" one. Of course, there are countless of slang equivalents:
Bourré
Beurré
Fracassé
Rond (the 'd' is silent)
Blindé
Fait
("fay")
...

More information on this important and vast topic can be found here.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

French Quiz of the day - continued

And here are the answers to yesterday's quiz:
Serial noceurs: Wedding crashers
La coccinelle revient: Herbie, fully loaded
Shérif, fais-moi peur: The dukes of hazard
Furtif: Stealth
Collision: Crash

Except Crash, I don't think I can seriously recommend any of these.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

French Quiz of the Day

As I sometimes like to do, here's a quiz. Can you guess what American movies had their titles translated to the following when released in France:
  • Serial noceurs ("Serial party animals"). Note here that "serial" is really the English word, since the correct French expression would be "noceurs en série"
  • La coccinelle revient ("the ladybug is back")
  • Shérif, fais-moi peur ("scare me, Sheriff!")
  • Furtif ("Stealth" - which I guess makes this an easy one)
  • Collision (not that much more difficult)
Answers tomorrow!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Au pif

(un) pif (peef)= slang for nose / intuition, hunch

au pif = by chance, roughly (when estimating)
E.g. au pif, je dirais qu'il est 17h = I'd guess it's roughly 5PM
il a un gros pif = he's got a big nose

Also, Pif is the name of a famous dog that appeared in numerous comic magazines for about 40 years, until the early 90's. Pif Gadget was the most famous format, a weekly comic book not only narrating the adventures of Pif and sidekick Hercule, but offering a "gadget" with each issue (plastic toys, tools for practical jokes,...).

Check out:
http://www.pif-collection.com

After a gap of over 10 years, Pif Gadget has been back in book stores for about a year.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Merde!

Arguably the most useful word in French language.
Merde! = Shit!

It is also known as le mot de Cambronne (Cambronne's word). Legend has it this is what the General answered when asked to surrender at the battle of Waterloo. But he may also have shouted back the infamous "the Guard dies, it does not surrender!" ("La guarde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!"). I like both equally.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

À la rue!

(une) rue = a street
être à la rue = slang for "to be completely lost, to have no idea what's going on" (literally to be on the street)

E.g. il est complètement à la rue = the guy has no idea what's going on

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Le bitoniau

(un) bitoniau (bee - to - nee - oh) = a small unidentified thing / a tiny knob / a thinggy
E.g. C'est quoi ce bitoniau ? = What's this thinggy ?

Monday, August 01, 2005

Saucisses et saucissons

(une) saucisse (ss - oh - see - ss) = a sausage
(un) saucisson (ss - oh - see - sson) = a sausage destined to be sliced and eaten raw

E.g.:
saucisson sec (sayk): dry saucisson








saucisson à l'ail (ah - l' - ay): garlic saucisson