French Language Blog

The names of flowers in French can be really fun to learn: Sometimes they are un peu étranges (a bit weird), other times they are plain drôles (funny), and quite often they refer to a very far away country—most likely the country of their origins, or at least thought to be so.

Granted, this bouquet we are offering you today will not turn you overnight into an astute botaniste.

It will, however, allow you to know the names of beaucoup de fleurs (many flowers) en français.

So please accept this “International” bouquet graciously offered to you: Our French fans!

Let us start with the flowers which have (essentially) the same name in French and English: Adonis is also the English Adonis; Alysse is the English Alyssum; Anémone is Anemone (just with the accent); ditto for Camélia; Dahlia is identical to the English Dahlia;  Chrysanthème is Chrysanthemum; Edelweiss is exactly the same as the English Edelweiss; Émilia is obviously Emilia; the same for Iris, although it is not to be simply confused with the Iris Tigré, namely the Belamcanda; and finally Mimosa, the same as the English Mimosas.

But, obviously, not all famous flowers need to have similar names in both languages!

For example, Capucine is not Capucine in English, but rather Nasturtium; the Fleur de pâques is called Pulsatilla; the Genêt is Cytisus; the Lavande refers to Lavender; and the royal flower Lis is Lily.

Now, for the world countries that lent their names to French flowers, the list is rather lenghty:

Japan gave the French the so-called Erable Japonais (Acer), and China provided them with le lis géant de l’Himalaya, meaning the “Giant Lily from Himalaya”  (the French name of Cardiocrinum), as well as le Chapeau Chinois, literally meaning “the Chinese Hat“, which is the French name of Rhodochiton.

Another “hat flower” is le Chapeau Mexicain, namely “the Mexican Hat“, which is the English Ratibida.

Also from Mexico, a country that has once been invaded by France but many people now tend to forget it, comes le lierre du Mexique (“The Ivy from Mexico“, which is the name of Cobaea.)

Another type of Ivy is la Clochette d’Irlande (“the Little Bell from Irelande“, namely the Moluccella)

Back to the Americas: We find that Chile has also offered its own Clochettes to France: les Clochettes du Chili (the “Little Bells from Chile“) is how the French call Lapageria.

Neighboring Perou offered France le coqueret du Pérou, meaning the Physalis, as well as la Merveille de Pérou (the “Marvel from Perou“), which refers to Mirabilis. 

African countries such as Madagascar and l’Afrique du Sud (South Africa) gave France, respectively, le Jasmin de Madagascar (the French name of Stephanotis) and la Marguerite du cap (meaning Felicia, the cap in question being Cape Town.)

Finally, even faraway Nouvelle Zélande (New Zeland) made a contribution to the names of flowers in French: the Lin de nouvelle zélande, which refers to Phormium!

Palmashow – “Le Rap des Prénoms” (“The Rap of First Names”)

Mais Ouais, dans la vie y a des prénoms prédestinés

Well, yeah, in life there are some predestined first names

C’est vrai qu’dans certains cas, ton avenir est tout dessiné

It’s true that in some cases, your future is already traced

T’as vu les Jacky ? R’garde comme on les taille

You saw Jackys? Look how they are carved out

Une banane, un jogging, plus besoin d’détails

A banana, a jogging, no need for details anymore

Michael & Kévin, c’est les kékés du fond d’la classe

Michael and Kevin, it’s the flashy dudes of the classroom

Ils aiment le tuning, et font du weeling sur la place

They like tuning, and do weeling down the square

Jimmy c’est un gitan, toujours accusé à tort

Jimmy is a Gipsy, always wrongfully accused

Tous les Joël sont gays, mais ils le savent pas encore

All Joels are gay, they just don’t know it yet

T’as vu les Olivier, c’est des ***** monos de ski

You saw Olivers, they are freakin’ ski instructors

Mais ouais ils sont sympas, c’est comme les Fredo et Thierry

But yeah they are pretty cool, like the Fredos and Thierrys

Les Corinne, 35 ans, célibataires endurcies

The Corinnes, 35-year-old hardcore singles

S’inscrivent tous les dimanches pour la vitrine du “Juste Prix“

Register every Sunday to win big at the “Price is Right”

Eric, Bruno, Teddy : Des sapeurs pompiers!

Eric, Bruno, Teddy: Firefighters!

It’s the first names

Almost two years ago, we featured une petite fille vraiment adorable (a truly adorable little girl) here on the The French Blog, with an incredible gift for storytelling!

Capucine

Since then, her improvised video has enchanted so many people around the world, that some have even decided to make a mini film project based on it.

Story by: Capucine
Starring: Capucine
Original video of: Capucha
Filmed by: Her mother Anne

Her name is Capucine. Maybe her parents named her after the late French actress who played “Simone”, the wife of the famous inspecteur Clouseau in La Panthère rose (The Pink Panther)?

Il était donc une fois… (Once upon a time…)

- Capucine: Tigrou et Winnie l’ourson, ils allaient dans les bois pour trouver des fraises (Tigger and Winnie the Pooh were going into the woods to find some strawberries), mais la sorcière elle voulait pas du tout, parce que c’était *SES* fraises à elle ! (but the witch did not agree at all, because these were *HER* own strawberries!) Ils se sont bagarrés, bagarrés, et c’est le lion qui a gagné! (So they fought, fought, and the lion won!)

- La Maman: Wow!

- Capucine: Et puis c’était lui le roi, il avait un casque, une épée, et… Comment on dit là où on se protège? [formidable expression!] (And he was the king, he had a helmet, and a sword, and… how do you say where you protect yourself?)

- La Maman: Heu, un casque? Un bouclier ?! (Eh, a helmet? a Shield?!)

- Capucine: Un bouclier! Et des pouvoirs magiques! (A shield! and magic powers!)

- La Maman: Wow!

- Capucine: Et ensuite ils ont vu plein de choses, elles étaient très jolies (And then they saw many things, very pretty things.) Il y avait des fleurs, le soleil, les nuages… Mais plein de choses ! (There were flowers, the sun, the clouds, MANY things!) Mais il y avait quelque chose qui cloche, c’est qu’il y avait… il y avait un crocodile qui dormait dans l’herbe… (But there was something going amiss, because there was a crocodile who was sleeping in the grass…) Et puis quand on montait dessus il se réveillait et il mangeait les bébés (And when you stepped on it, it would wake up and it would eat the babies!)

- La Maman: Oh!

- Capucine: Donc, il y a quelque chose qui cloche encore, c’est que l’hippopotame, il est pas dans l’eau. Il préfère, il préfère se tuer (So, something goes amiss again… because the hippo is not in the water, and he prefers to kill himself.)

- La Maman: Oh?

- Capucine: Donc, le lion il tue, il tue l’hippopotame et il va au ciel. (So the lion kills the hippo and they go to heaven.) Mais il le savait pas! Et, lui il voulait pas aller au ciel. Et puis il décida de pas aller au ciel (But the hippo did not know, he didn’t want to go to heaven, so he decided not to go to heaven), mais le lion il dit: “C’est trop tard, maintenant. T’as décidé d’être mangé.” Et Pchhhh! (but the lion said: “ It’s too late now!  You decided to be eaten,  pshhhhh.” Et ensuite, le lion, c’est bien fait pour lui, parce qu’il n’avait plus de pouvoir (And then it was well-deserved for the lion, because he had no more powers.) Et puis ensuite, le pouvoir (elle) a allé au popotame, et le popot… et le hippopotame, il était allergique à la magie (And then the power went to the popotamous, and the hippo was allergic to magic.) Et le hippopotame et le lion, le tigre, ils ont eu des… des boutons, ils ont eu la (b)aricelle (The hippo and the lion and the tiger, they got… spots, they got the “chicken-(b)ox.”)

- La Maman: Oh dis donc !

- Capucine: Et puis ensuite, la baricelle, elle a allé à un autre animal qui était TRÈS méchant, énormément, très méchant, et c’était un mammouth ! (Then, the “Chicken-box” went to another animal, who was very bad, tremendously VERY bad, and it was a mammoth!)

- La Maman: Oh !

- Capucine: Mammouth, il avait des griffes (Mammoth had claws.)

- La Maman: Oh !

- Capucine: Des pouvoirs pour que les gens qui sont morts au ciel (Powers so that people are dead in heaven.) Même les animaux ! (Even the animals!)

- La Maman: Oh…

- Capucine: Et ensuite, il y avait une dame qui avait une bague, comme toi, mais elle était pas pareille, parce qu’elle était orange (And then, there was a lady who had a ring, like yours, but it was different because it was orange.) Et ensuite, la bague orange, elle fait, elle fait Pchhht! elle tue toutes les sorcières, comme ça les gens ils sont tranquilles, ils peuvent faire tout ce qu’ils veulent, et même les enfants… (Then the orange ring, it would go “pshhht” and kill all the witches. This way,  people are peaceful, and they can do whatever they want, and the kids as well…)

Ça y est, c’est fini ! (That’s it, it’s over!)