Archive for the year 2010
Lost in (Abréviation) Translation? (Part 1) Posted by Hichem on Sep 22, 2010
Le dernier mois (last month), many internautes rejoiced to find here on the “French Blog” a list of must-know abréviations commonly used in les textos français (French SMS), together with brief explanations and examples of their daily use. See “Lost in (Textos/SMS) Translation?” Today, we’re going to go encore plus loin (even further), and show you the abbreviations commonly…
Encore, Édith PIAF !—“Milord” Posted by Hichem on Sep 18, 2010
Vous avez été nombreux la dernière fois à aimer la célèbre chanson de Édith Piaf intitulée “Non, je ne regrette rien” (You have been many last time to like the famous Édith Piaf song titled “No, I regret nothing”), which you can find here: “Non, je ne regrette rien! (Édith Piaf).” Another famous song by Édith Piaf -whose real nom…
Ô Canada: The Canadian National Anthem in French Posted by Jennie on Sep 16, 2010
Alors, quoi dire de la culture française à Terre-Neuve? Actually, although it’s bilingual, Newfoundland is not very French. (It is awfully irlandais—Irish—however, for reasons of historical migration.) One element of bilinguality les Terre-neuviens can’t get away from, however, is l’hymne national, the national anthem. “O Canada,” or “Ô Canada” (with a chapeau on the…
French Slang ABCs: Expressions with the Letter I Posted by Hichem on Sep 15, 2010
From the letter ‘G’, nous sautons directement vers la lettre ‘I’ (we jump straight towards the letter ‘I’), since there aren’t any French slang words starting with ‘H‘ that belong to the “must know” category of argot that we have so far covered in this series, “le B.A.-BA de l’Argot (The ABC of French Slang.)” “I comme…” (“I…
How to Learn French in One Very Simple Step Posted by Jennie on Sep 15, 2010
Step One: Démenagez au Canada. Move to Canada. That’s all it takes. I’ve been here depuis dimanche, and I forgot how amazing it is to be in a country where everything is labeled in French. But even better than actual France, le tout Canadais bilingue, so everything is labeled in French and then translated! Incroyable…
Monsieur Jean-Claude Van Dam Posted by Hichem on Sep 14, 2010
We are not talking about “Schwartzie” (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nickname in France, or “Arnie” for everyone else) with his most notorious: “I’ll Be Back.“ Non, pas du tout (no, not at all), this time the one who is making a comeback is another acteur, whose first shot to fame came at about the same time as Schwartzie’s, although the two actors do…
“Demain, dès l’aube”—La fille de Victor Hugo (Victor Hugo’s daughter) Posted by Hichem on Sep 10, 2010
After the post where we introduced Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” (“The Flowers of Evil”), today we discover yet another poem, but this time from another grande figure of the French literature. It is le seul, l’unique (the one and only) Victor Hugo. Though mostly acclaimed outside of France for his roman (novel) “Les Misérables” and its celebrated héro Jean Valjean, Victor Hugo remains nevertheless as…