Funny sounding words

flagada or raplapla = exhausted, worn out.
Two funny-sounding words for the price of one…I love them

Je me sens raplapla = I'm feeling worn out

Gateaux

(un) biscuit = cookie
(un) gâteau = cake
(une) tarte = pie

Les Bronzés

A (huge) piece of French culture today. Le Splendid is a theater company that emerged in the 70s. Their first movie, "Les bronzés", adapted from their successful play depicting the adventures of a group of friends in a Club Med vacation camp, quickly became a cult movie. Having seen the movie and knowing at least 10 quotes from it is a requirement for becoming a French citizen (ok, maybe not, but it should be).

The movie was followed by a sequel ("Les bronzés font du ski", same group of friends, this time on a ski vacation in the French Alps), and another cult adaptation of one of the Splendid plays, "Le Père Noël est une ordure" ("Santa Claus is a bastard"). Only Les bronzés seems to have made it to the English-speaking world, under the interesting title "French fried vacation".

27 years after the last movie, the same actors recently reunited to complete the trilogy with "Les Bronzés 3, amis pour la vie" (Friends forever). See the trailer , courtesy of Yahoo! France

Also, see some video clips of classic scenes from the first two movies.

No one is innocent

[no one is innocent] is a French band whose career start in the 90s, with influences such as Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails in the US, Therapy?, Urban Dance Squad in Europe. The hard rock/fusion group became famous in 1994 with their single La peau (The skin - RealPlayer sample courtesy of Amazon.Fr), an anti-racism anthem typical of their outspoken activism. Unfortunately, in 1998, after a second album experimenting with electonic sounds, and a lot of difficulty overcoming the one-hit-wonder syndrome, the band split.

In 2004, its leader, Kemar, reformed the band with none of the original members except himself. The result was revolution.com, a record that didn't have the impact the first one had but was nonetheless well received, especially thanks to contributions from other artists like M, Urban Dance Squad and Indochine. Some CDs are available for import on Amazon.com

Pissenlit

(un) pissenlit = a dandelion (the 't' is silent)

manger (or sucer) les pissenlits par la racine = to be dead and buried - literally to be eating (or sucking) dandelions by the roots

But the most interesting part lies in the origin of the names:

• The French name, "pisse-en-lit" literally means pee-in-bed, and reminds us of the flower's diuretic effects
• Another French name for the flower is dent-de-lion (literally lion's tooth) because of the shape of its leaves. And, you guessed it, the English name is a phonetic adaptation of this one

Grosso Modo

grosso modo = roughly
grosso modo, tout va bien = broadly speaking, everything's fine
ça fait grosso modo 5 ans que je ne l'ai pas vu = it's been more or less 5 years since I saw him

Machin

(une) machine = (surprisingly) a machine

E.g.:
une machine à calculer = a calculator
une machine à coudre = a sewing machine
une machine à laver (le linge) = a washing machine. Literally "a laundry-washing machine". Le linge = laundry, and it is optional in this expression.
une machine à laver la vaisselle = a dishwasher

In some cases, it is not even necessary to specify the type of machine:
taper (une lettre) à la machine = to type (a letter)
mettre le linge à la machine = to put the laundry in the washing machine

(un) machin, on the other hand, means thing(y)
C'est quoi ce machin ? = what's that thing ?

Machin = what's his name (feminine is Machine)
t'as vu Machin ? = did you see what's-his-name ?

100

Back to the basics today - how to count from one to one hundred...
Un = one
Deux = two (the 'x' is silent)
Trois = three (the 's' is silent)
Quatre = four
Cinq = five
Six = Six (pronounced "seess")
Sept = seven (pronounced "set")
Huit = eight
Neuf = nine
Dix = ten (pronounced "deess")
Onze = eleven
Douze = twelve
Treize = thirteen
Quatorze = fourteen
Quinze = fifteen
Seize = sixteen
Dix-sept = seventeen
Dix-huit = eighteen (pronounced "deezuit")
Dix-neuf = nineteen
Vingt = twenty (the 'gt' is silent)

From there on, the construction repeats itself (almost) predictably:
20: vingt-et-un, vingt-deux, vingt-trois, vingt-quatre, vingt-cinq, vingt-six, vingt-sept, vingt-huit, vingt-neuf
30: trente, trente-et-un,...
40: quarante, quarante-et-un,...
50: cinquante, cinquante-et-un,...
60: soixante, soixante-et-un,...
70: continues from 60 in a weird way: soixante-dix, soixante-et-onze, soixante-douze,... (think sixty-ten, sixty-eleven...)
80: quatre-vingt (literally four-twenties), quatre-vingt-un,...
90: probably the weirdest one of all - quatre-vingt-dix (literally four twenties and ten), quatre-vingt-onze,..., quatre-ving-dix-neuf
100: cent (the 't' is silent)

C'est la panne

(une) panne = a breakdown/failure
(un) oreiller (pronounced oh - rey - yea) = a pillow

Une panne d'oreiller = a pillow failure, i.e. forgetting to wake up

Sain

sain / saine = healthy

E.g.
un esprit sain dans un corps sain = a healthy mind in a healthy body
sain d'esprit = sane
sain et sauf = safe and sound

Les douanes

(les) douanes (pronounced doo - ahn) = customs
(un) douanier (pronounced doo - ah - nee - ay) = a customs officer

Henri Rousseau, also known as Le Douanier Rousseau because of his daytime occupation, was a famous Naive French painter at the start of the 20th century.

Voyelles et consonnes

(une) voyelle (pronounced voa - yell) = a vowel
(une) consonne (pronounced kon - sonn)= a consonant

"A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu : voyelles"
Arthur Rimbaud - Voyelles