Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Still Lost in (Abréviation) Translation? (Part 2) Posted by Hichem on Sep 27, 2010
French abréviations are virtually partout (everywhere): In les journaux (newspapers), les magazines, les films (movies), les conversations quotidiennes (daily conversations), including les SMS (text messages), etc. We continue today the list of must-know French abbreviations, which we have started last week (Lost in (Abréviation) Translation? (Part 1)) À vos marques! Prêts! Partez! (Ready! Steady! Go!) * CEDEX…
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…
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…
How do you feel about French vegetables? Posted by Hichem on Sep 2, 2010
When you were très jeune (very young), did you enjoy eating all types of vegetables, or only a select few? Did you have the kind of dream parents who indulge you with the luxury of choosing what you want to eat, or did they force-feed you toutes les légumes sans exception (all the vegetables, no exception) because -they always said-…
Gratos and other ‘G’ French Slang words Posted by Hichem on Aug 30, 2010
Et c’est reparti (here we go again): What would it mean if you hear someone telling you in French: “allez, grouille-toi !”? Or if you’re offered something “gratos“? After we went through the first two parts of the letter ‘G‘, here comes la troisième partie (the third part): “G comme…” (G as in…) * GONFLÉ: We have…