French Language Blog

It’s now official, French people finally got to know the names of the new “A-Team” which will surround Monsieur François Hollande.

Until the official announcement, nobody knew anything about the group of les ministres who were to be picked by the newly-elected French President, except for the fact that it was promised to be “gender-balanced” entre les hommes et les femmes (between men and women.)

Indeed, the promise seems to have been kept: Among the 18 French ministers, there are 9 men and 9 women.

Until he was tapped as French PM, or Premier ministre, Jean-Marc Ayrault was mayor of Nantes, the sixth largest city in France after Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse and Nice.

One of his first actions as PM was to lower the salary of ministers by 30%, from 14,000 Euros to less than 10,000 Euros.

He’s very fluent en allemand (in German), and will therefore be the best link to act between the new French President and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.

However, his meetings won’t be as smooth with Arab politicians and journalists as with the Germans, since his last name sounds just like an Arabic slang word (mostly Lebanese) for “phallus“—some French “humour noir” enthousiasts have already dubbed his appointment “une dyfonction électile” (“electile dysfunction.”)

The man who will be the face of France abroad is actually a familiar one—to the French people, at least!

Laurent Fabius, “un vieux routier“ (“an old vet”) of French politics is now France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He was already Prime Minister under “Tonton” (or “Uncle”, a nickname of ex-French President François Mitterrand, who was also sometimes called “Dieu“, meaning “God”), and was in fact the youngest French politician to have held this position in the history of la cinquième république (the Fifth Republic.)

Le Bébête Show: A French pardoy of “The Muppet Show” featuring “Tonton” François Mitterrand as “Kermitterrand the Frog.” It ran non-stop during the Mitterrand presidency, spanning the years 1982 to 1995

It has then been replaced by a similar French show: “Les Guignols de l’Info“

A son of well-known Parisian antique dealer, Laurent Fabius joined the famous French politician-making machine, l’ÉNA (Read more about it in the French Blogs’s post “What is an Énarque?“)

He voted non in the 2005 French referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

Although his name is a French anagram of “naturel abusif“, and despite his now famous “responsable mais non coupable” (“responsible but not guilty”) uttered during l’affaire du sang contaminé (contaminated blood affaire) which broke open in the early 1990s, he usually maintains a reputation of a clean politician.

Sadly, “not so much” can be said of his businessman son, Thomas Fabius, who was recently condamned by a French court for abus de confiance (breach of trust.) Some even see a highly unusual traitement de faveur (special treatment) awarded to le fils à Papa by the French justice, since he only had to pay back 5,000 Euros out of the 90,000 Euros he was convicted of pocketing for no good reason.

Liberté, Égalité,…?

À Suivre (To Be Continued)

Coming up soon:”Les Femmes who ‘Make Up’ the New Face of French Politics”  (no big pun inteded.)

À cause du Mondial (because of the World Cup), we took une pause from our series of French Slang.
Today, we continue with the second part of la lettre F.
Remember that we have so far covered the letters A, B, C, D, and E:
* B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘A’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘A’)
* B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’)
* B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ [Cont.] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’ [Cont.])
* “C comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘C’)
* “C comme…(Ça Continue!)” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘C’ [cont.])
* “D comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘D’)
* “E comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘E’)
* “F comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘F’ [1] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘F’ [1]) 

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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x39r

* FILER À L’ANGLAISE: 
Depending on which side of la Manche (the English Channel, that is), you either say “filer à l’Anglaise“, or, conversely, “take the French Leave.” The expression means to ”jump ship.” Another close expression is ”fausser compagnie à quelqu’un“, like ”leaving under a cloud”!

* FIN DES HARICOTS:
“The end of beans” in French simply means “the End”, when it’s all over. Exemple, “Vous voulez dire qu’en 2012, ce sera la fin des haricots?” (“So you mean that it’s all gonna be over in 2012?”) 
  

* FILS À PAPA:
Or “Daddy’s boy”, close in meaning to some kind of a spoiled, silver-spoon fed child.
Similarly, you can also say that someone is “un fils à maman” (Mommy’s boy!)
Check in the video below la volte-face (the about-face) of the recruiter when he finds out that the job seeker is a fils à papa, and that the papa in question is none other than the PDG (CEO) of the company…   

 

* FLANCHER:
Synonymous to “jeter l’éponge” (“to throw the sponge”), meaning to give up. 

* FLEMME:
“Avoir la flemme” means to feel totally lazy, like not doing anything at all. You can also say “tirer sa flemme”, meaning to take it easy and relax. Both expressions “avoir la flemme” and “tirer sa flemme” are used in this French song:
 

* FLIC:
Un or une flic means “a cop.” Like we saw in B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘A’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘A’), ”Deux Flics à Miami“, meaning “Two Cops in Miami”, is the French title of the 80′s series ”Miami Vice.” 
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8bswp

* FLIPPER:

It’s spelled the same way as the name of le gentil dauphin (the nice dolphin), but it means to get stressed out, or “worked out” about something. The adjective flippant, however, means “creepy.” For example, ”Ce film est vraiment  flippant” (“This movie is really creepy.”) 

* FLUTE!
Most new French learners know “zut!” or “zut alors!”, as in “darn!” or “shoot!”, but more common of an intejection is “mince!”
“Flute” is also as rarely used as “darn” in English, but it’s useful to know what it stands for if you happen to hear it.  

* SE FOURRER:
To be dead wrong about something; to be mistaken. 

* FOUTAISE:
Total nonsense. You can also say “des salades“ , as in “ce ne sont que des salades!”

* FRANGIN:
Frangin means “bro”, as in brother. Related to it is the word “fréro“, which is reserved for your little brother.
Here’s the trailer of the movie “Frangins malgré eux”— which is the French title of the Will Ferrell comedy “Step Brothers.”
Check it out, it’s dubbed in French!

* FRIC:
Money, dough, or ”ca$h”, as in the Euro “FRI€.“, which we’ve already seen in “YELLE (à tue-tête) if you like “le FRI€” the TTC way.”  

* FRIGO:
Like the English “fridge”, Frigo is a French shorthand for refrigirator. 

* FRIME
La frime is the noun which gives us a “frimeur“, that is someone who’s a show-off.
Par exemple: The character Mickael Vendetta is a frimeur wanna-be. Remember him from ”B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ [Cont.] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’ [Cont.])“   
  

* FRINGUES:
Les fringues mean clothes. Another argot synonym of fringues is fripes.
 

 * FURAX:
Être furax comes from furieux, meaning furious. You can also say “disjoncter“, “perdre la boule“, or the more often used nowadays, ”péter un câble” or “péter les plombs.”