Archive for 'Vocabulary'
French Culture – Current(ish) Events Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 25, 2019
As you know, I had the great privilege of studying in France au lycée (in high school). I also enjoyed returning during my junior year (3rd year) à l’université (in college*). Reading a recent New York Times article, I learned that that was just one thing I shared with the late Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Une…
Forced To Pull Your Hair – French Expression For Poor Explanations Posted by John Bauer on Jun 21, 2019
The hardest part about taking care of les cheveux (your hair) in French is not le shampooing (shampoo). At least, that’s not the only French lesson hiding in your hair! It always surprises me how often people use une expression (an expression, an idiom) without realizing how it’s nearly impossible to understand what it means…
French Music – Christophe Willem Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 18, 2019
Christophe Willem exploded onto the French pop scene in 2006 when he won the French singing competition Nouvelle Star (the French version of American Idol / Pop Idol). Since then he’s become one of my favorite singers, though his songs (and particularly his videos) aren’t always well suited for a blog. I recently came across…
How’s It Waxing? – Silly French Slang Posted by John Bauer on Jun 13, 2019
Words can unintentional sound funny when switching between le français et l’anglais (French and English). Les faux amis (false friends) like raisin juice are fun on their own, but when a perfectly normal word in one language sounds like a more cheeky word in the other, the effect is greatly amplified. I recently learned un…
French vocabulary – Food shopping Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 4, 2019
While it is true that there are more and more épiceries (grocery stores) in France and that more people font leurs emplettes dans des grands-surfaces (do their shopping in big stores) or in des supermarchés (super markets), most Français (French people) still do a fair amount of their food shopping in small, often-family-owned shops that…
French Lessons Hiding In Un Café – Coffee Order Mistakes Posted by John Bauer on May 29, 2019
Le café (coffee) hides a lot of surprising lessons for anyone learning la langue de Molière (the Language of Molière, French expression for the French language). From the size of the cup to the establishment itself, there’s a lot to learn from le café français (French coffee). My daily routine has become amazingly regular over…
French Colors and Commercials Posted by Tim Hildreth on May 28, 2019
We’ve talked about colors in the past. And we’ve looked at a pub (French TV commercial) for Haribo as well. But these two that I came across recently do such a good job of combining the two, that I just had to share them. They also provide a nice illustration of the useful French verb préférer. Je…