Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Kif

kif: originally a synonym for marijuana, then evolved to a variety of slang words associated with pleasure:
C'est le kif! = It's great!
Je kiffe! = I love this!

See also kif-kif = the same
C'est kif-kif! or C'est kif-kif bourricot! = It's all the same! (a bourricot is a donkey - don't ask me)

Friday, May 26, 2006

Le pont

un pont = a bridge
un pont also designates a long week-end, including days between a public holiday and a weekend. E.g. Yesterday was a holiday in France, so if you take today off you would say "Je fais le pont"
il coulera beaucoup d'eau sous les ponts avant que… = it will be a long time before… (literally a lot of water will flow under the bridge before...)
faire un pont d'or à quelqu'un = to offer someone a large sum (a "golden bridge") to accept a job

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Le tour de la question

A few days ago, some guy base-jumped from the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower). Again. Which is a good opportunity to cover:
une tour = a tower. Not to be confused with:
un tour = a turn / revolution / round. E.g.:
la Terre fait un tour sur elle-même en 24 heures = the Earth rotates once in 24 hours
faire le tour de quelquechose = to go around something
allons faire un tour = let's go for a walk
chacun son tour = each one in his turn
faire le tour de la question = to cover a problem/question.
This is also the title of MC Solaar's live album and my recommendation of the day.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Pari

un pari = a bet, a wager. From the verb parier = to bet.

E.g.:
le pari de Pascal = Pascal's wager (philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal's probablilistic justification for belief in God)
pari tenu! = you're on!
je te tiens le pari que... = I bet you that...
tu paries ? = you want to bet ?
il a parié gros sur un cheval, et il a perdu = he bet heavily on a horse, and he lost

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Couleurs

Today, some basic colors (couleurs):
blanc (the 'c' is silent) / blanche = white
noir / noire = black
rouge = red
jaune = yellow
vert / verte = green
violet / violette = purple
rose = pink
orange = orange
marron = brown
bleu / bleue = blue

les Bleus is the nickname for France's soccer team (they wear, you guessed it, blue jerseys). By the way, France coach Raymond Domenech today announced his selection of 23 players that will go to Germany next month.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

For the NY crowd

Today, no French word, but a couple of pointers to some French events in New York - sorry for the others :-)

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Belote et rebelote

la belote is a popular card game in France, typically involving two teams of two players. One of the declarations a player can make during the game is "belote et rebelote". According to these rules, this happens when a player plays two consecutive trump cards, the Queen and King (I could never really get into the game, which I believe is considered treason in France)

This also became a common expression, often shortened to "et rebelote" or simply "rebelote" to indicate something happening for the second time.
rebelote! = here we go again!

Monday, May 08, 2006

How to sound French

Some important short words:
hein = what? but also used to fill in gaps or emphasize
hein ? = what ?
tu viens, hein ? = you're coming right ?
je suis pas content hein = I'm not happy

euh = er
euh je sais pas = er, I don't know. Note the missing "ne" in the colloquial form, the right way would be "je ne sais pas"

ouais (oo - ay) = yeah
ouais ouais j'arrive = yeah yeah I'm coming

nan = nah
nan je viens pas = nah I'm not coming

ben = pronounced like "bien" without an "i", and means the same (good)
ben ouais je viens = well yeah I'm coming

bah = so what
bah quoi ? = so what

ptet = short for peut-être (pronounced peutetr), maybe
ptet ben que oui, ptet ben que non = maybe, maybe not

quoi = what, but you can easily append it to any sentence without adding anything to its meaning
je sais, quoi = je sais = I know

You can combine these almost infinitely to come up with extremely annoying sentences. Think the equivalent of saying "like" every other word
ouais bon ben euh je sais pas, quoi, hein, bah ouais, ptet = I don't know, maybe

Needless to say you should not use any of this.

Friday, May 05, 2006

A la bonne franquette

à la bonne franquette = adverbial locution describing something done informally, without any fuss. Generally, a meal.

c'est à la bonne franquette = it's just an informal meal

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Foie Gras

As foie gras is making the headlines again, I thought I'd write once again about one of my favorite subjects.

Foie gras ('fat liver') is the fattened liver of a duck or goose that has been overfed. A specialty of the South-East of France, it exists in several presentations:
  • whole liver, raw (foie gras entier cru), which you can cook or cure yourself if you have the courage, or simply pan-fry
  • whole liver, cooked (foie gras entier cuit, seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in its container) or semi-cooked (mi-cuit, either prepared on demand at a restaurant, or purchased in jars)
  • bloc de foie gras (with or without 'morceaux', or chunks, of liver). It is a pâté made with minced-up foie gras
  • a variety of other preparations like mousses, parfaits...






Entier cru


Bloc avec morceaux

Entier mi-cuit

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Expression du jour

un four (pronounced foor) = an oven / furnace
un moulin (pronounced moo - lin) = a mill

on ne peut être à la fois au four et au moulin = one can't be in two places at once (literally you can't be at the furnace and the mill at the same time)
apporter de l'eau au moulin de quelqu'un = to fuel someone's arguments (literally to bring water to one's mill)

Monday, May 01, 2006

Victoire

Of course, as a follow-up to Friday's word, and more importantly PSG's 2-1 victory over Marseille in this year's French Soccer Cup final on Saturday, I have to cover a few items:
Allez Paris! = how you'd cheer the team (Go Paris!)
une victoire = a victory (pronounced veek - to - ahr)
une défaite = a defeat (pronounced day - fay - t')

And as today most of Europe's staying in bed ot celebrate Labor Day:
le travail = work (pronounced tr - ah - vah - y')