La tête

For some reason, we hae a lot of synonyms for la tête (head) or le visage (face), including:

• (la) bille
• (la) binette
• (la) bobine
• (la) bouille
• (la) caboche
• (la) figure
• (la) frimousse
• (la) gueule
• (la) tronche
• (la) trogne
• (la) trombine
• and probably others I can't remember right now.

E.g. se casser la figure
or se casser la binette
or se casser la margoulette (I've never heard anyone say this, but give it a shot)
or se casser la gueule (slang) = to fall

MIam!

miam is the equivalent of "mmmh", an expression to signal that one is enjoying food... but mostly in anticipation of eating it (try saying miam miam! while actually chewing food).

It is pronounced mee-am

Nouveau-né

un nouveau-né or un nourrisson = a newborn

Coming from, respectively:

• nouveau (feminine nouvelle) = new
• né / née = born
• nourrir = to feed

As someone who can never remember when consonants are doubled, I sometimes need help with nourrir (two 'r's) and mourir (to die - only one 'r'). A well-known trick is to use a single 'r' for the verb related to something you do only once, and two 'r's for the one you do more than one time. Works for me everytime.

La dent

(une) dent = a tooth

avoir une dent contre quelqu'un = to hold a grudge against someone

La petite souris = the tooth fairy (literally the little mouth)

Tête et queue

la tête = head
la queue = tail

a couple of expressions that incorporate both:
ça n'a ni queue ni tête = it doesn't make sense (literally it has neither head nor tails)
faire un tête-à-queue = to slew around

La Blanquette

la blanquette is a French dish, whose name is derived from blanc ('c' is silent, feminine blanche) which means white. It is a delicious veal stew with lots of aromatic herbs, served in a thick creamy sauce. It's not even that hard to make if you have time on your hands (and a bouquet garni)

La mouche

une mouche (pronounced moosh) = a fly, bull's eye (when referring to a target) or a fake beauty spot.

Lots of interesting expressions with mouche:

• il ne ferait pas de mal à une mouche = he wouldn't hurt a fly
• on entendrait une mouche voler = you could hear a pin drop (literally a fly buzz)
• quelle mouche les a piqués? = what's gotten into them? (literally what fly bit them)
• regarder voler les mouches = to stare into space (literally to watch flies)
• prendre la mouche = to get upset, to take something personally
• tomber comme des mouches = to drop like flies.

Cadeau

un cadeau (promounced kah-doh) = a present, a gift

faire or donner un cadeau (à quelqu'un) = to give (someone) a present

Back to basics

oui = yes (pronounced wee)
non = no
peut-être = maybe (literally could be, pronounced puh't-aytr)

An example, in the spirit of this week-end's presidential wedding:
Sarkozy et Bruni ont dit "oui" = Sarkozy and Bruni said "yes"