Archive for 'Vocabulary'
5 French Onomatopoeias Commonly Used in Conversation Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Apr 13, 2015
Last year, MTaulier wrote a great post on some French onomatopées. Make sure to check it out to learn about the different kinds of onomatopoeias in French. Today, I want to focus on something a little different: a certain kind of French onomatopoeia that is commonly used in conversation. Because French is very expressive, many of these…
La vie en rose: Expressions with Pink Posted by Josh Dougherty on Apr 9, 2015
This week’s post’s title comes from a very famous song by French songstress Edith Piaf. This song has known international success – I would say in part to its catchy chorus. I chose the title because we’re going to continue with colorful expressions. Last time, we looked at le vert, and this time, we’re going…
April Fish! Fous d’Avril! Posted by John Bauer on Apr 1, 2015
Humor can be a bit hard to understand in another language, whether it’s a knock knock joke, or an inside joke that you’re not in on. Heureusement (fortunately), April Fool’s Day exists in France. That said, it has a different set of traditions and a very different name: April Fish or in French, Poisson d’avril…
Top 10 “Untranslatable” French Words Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Mar 31, 2015
I hesitate to use the word “untranslatable” here because, frankly, there is no perfect translation between languages. Words and concepts have different shades of meanings in different languages based on particular linguistic cultures and histories. But non-native speakers can have an idea of a particular word, even if they don’t know all shades of its…
50 Shades of Green in French Posted by Josh Dougherty on Mar 26, 2015
Le printemps (spring) has officially sprung — even if parts of the east coast in the USA still have a white blanket of snow. La nature et vos allergies sont revenues à la vie (Nature and your allergies have come back to life). Flowers are blooming, bees are hard at work, and all that was…
Celebrate French And Tell Me Ten Words! Posted by John Bauer on Mar 18, 2015
While listening to RFI, I learned that this week is la semaine de la langue française (French Language Week) as part of the celebration for la journée de la francophonie (Francophonie Day) on March 20th. On l’émission (the show) they talked about one of the fun events going, Dis-moi dix mots (Tell me ten words)…
Lève ton verre: French Drinking Songs Posted by Josh Dougherty on Mar 17, 2015
Tonight, many people around the world are partaking in a bit of drinking to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The French aren’t an exception. A few weeks ago, John taught you how to toast in French. Today we’re going to learn something just as important: la chanson paillarde or la chanson à boire (drinking song). There…