{"id":24838,"date":"2016-10-06T23:24:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T21:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=24838"},"modified":"2018-02-22T15:50:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:50:23","slug":"live-laugh-love-how-to-express-these-verbs-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/live-laugh-love-how-to-express-these-verbs-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"Live, Laugh, Love – How to Express These Verbs in French"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, my friend and I were in a home decor store and came across one of those signs with the words live, laugh, and love painted on it. You know the ones I’m talking about – they’re a thin piece of wood with the words painted on in cursive. Sometimes they’re not painted at all, and the words are carved out of a block of wood. Still not sure what I’m talking about? Spend a few minutes on Pinterest, and you’re bound to find something similar.<\/p>\n

If you’re expecting me to give you some home interior tips in the following paragraphs, I’m sorry, but you’re going to be disappointed. Instead, I’m going to show you how you can take any experience you have and improve your foreign language skills through it. Let’s take the 3 words from that sign and examine them a bit. Do you know how to say those words in French? Do you know of other ways to say them? Do you know the differences between those answers?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Live<\/strong><\/span>
\nThis is one of the first verbs you learn in French. While it’s not as important as avoir<\/strong> or \u00eatre<\/strong>, it is indeed needed to say where you live. The verb you learn for this, habiter<\/strong>, is a normal -er verb and doesn’t pose many problems until you come across the verb vivre<\/strong>. What’s the difference?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Habiter<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nUse this verb when you want to show where you live or reside. Habiter<\/strong> can mean to live IN, so, as John pointed out in a previous post<\/a>, you don’t have to use a preposition with it. You can absolutely use the preposition, though, if you wish to (and I always do).<\/p>\n

Nous habitons (\u00e0) Toulouse.
\n<\/strong>We live in Toulouse.<\/p>\n

Olivier et St\u00e9phane habitent dans un appartement \u00e0 Lyon.
\n<\/strong>Olivier and St\u00e9phane live in an apartment in Lyon.<\/p>\n

Blanche Neige habite avec les 7 nains dans les bois.
\n<\/strong>Snow White lives with the 7 dwarfs in the woods.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Vivre<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nUse this verb to express existing or being alive. Vivre<\/strong> generally answers how and when. Note that vivre<\/strong> is an irregular verb!<\/p>\n

Marc ? Il vit dangereusement !
\n<\/strong>Marc? He lives dangerously!<\/p>\n

Louis XIV a v\u00e9cu au 17e si\u00e8cle.
\n<\/strong>Louis XIV lived in the 17th century.<\/p>\n

Je vis pour elle !
\n<\/strong>I live for her!<\/p>\n

Ils v\u00e9curent heureux et eurent beaucoup d’enfants.
\n<\/strong>They lived happily and had a lot of children.
\nThis is the French equivalent of “They lived happily ever after.”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As you can see, there is a difference between the verbs, but vivre<\/strong> is a bit more flexible as it can also express where you live.<\/p>\n

Je vis dans une maison de verre.
\n<\/strong>I live in a glass house.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Laugh<\/strong><\/span>
\nI don’t need to tell you that laughter is the best medicine, is universal, etc. etc. We all know laughing is great. Regular laughter is important for a happy soul, but what’s not regular is the French verb for to laugh. Rire<\/strong> is an irregular verb, though the conjugation is pretty easy to memorize.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at some terms related to laughing:<\/p>\n

un rire<\/strong> – a laugh, laughter
\nun rire jaune<\/strong> – a force laugh
\nrire<\/strong> – to laugh
\nglousser<\/strong>* – to giggle\/chuckle
\nrigoler<\/strong>* – to laugh
\nse marrer<\/strong>* – to giggle
\nrire \u00e0 plein dents<\/strong> – to laugh your head off
\nse tordre de rire<\/strong> – to be in stitches
\n\u00eatre mort de rire<\/strong>* – to be in stitches
\nse rire de quelqu’un\/quelque chose<\/strong> – to laugh at someone\/something
\navoir un fou rire<\/strong> – to have a fit of the giggles
\n\u00e9clater de rire<\/strong> – burst out laughing
\nrire au nez de quelqu’un<\/strong> – to laugh in somebody’s face<\/p>\n

* informal<\/em><\/p>\n

Text speak<\/strong>
\nMDR<\/strong> – lol (literally mort de rire – dead from laughter)
\nEDR<\/strong> – lol (\u00e9croul\u00e9 de rire); less common than MDR
\nPTDR<\/strong> – lmao (p\u00e9t\u00e9 de rire)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Love<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe last word in the wooden decor mantra is love. If you don’t think word choice is important when it comes to love, ask a French person if she’d rather hear her boyfriend say je t’aime<\/strong> or je t’aime bien<\/strong>. If you look up aimer in the dictionary, you’ll see the definition as to like or to love. What’s the difference? How can you tell someone if you like them or if you like like<\/em> them?<\/p>\n

When you use aimer with no adverb, you’re saying you’re in love with the person.<\/p>\n

J’aime Karine.
\n<\/strong>I love Karine. (=I am in love with Karine)<\/p>\n

You can also use the verb \u00eatre amoureux\/amoureuse de quelqu’un<\/strong> to mean the same thing.<\/p>\n

Je suis amoureux de Karine.
\n<\/strong>I’m in love with Karine.<\/p>\n

If you want to express liking someone as a friend, you just need to tag an adverb on it. Also note that if aimer is used with a negation, it can mean “don’t like” or “don’t love.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

J’aime bien Luc.
\n<\/strong>I like Luc. (=I like Luc as a friend.)<\/p>\n

J’aime beaucoup Luc.
\n<\/strong>I really like Luc. (=I really like Luc as a friend.)<\/p>\n

J’aime assez Luc.
\n<\/strong>I kind of like Luc. (=He’s an okay guy.)<\/p>\n

Je n’aime pas Luc.
\n<\/strong>I don’t like Luc.<\/p>\n

Je n’aime pas beaucoup Luc.
\n<\/strong>I don’t really like Luc.<\/p>\n

So when to use aimer as to like if you need all these adverbs to clarify things? If you’re talking about an object, it can translate as like with no confusion.<\/p>\n

J’aime les fruits.
\n<\/strong>I like fruit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, chers lecteurs<\/strong> (dear readers): live, laugh, and love!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, my friend and I were in a home decor store and came across one of those signs with the words live, laugh, and love painted on it. You know the ones I’m talking about – they’re a thin piece of wood with the words painted on in cursive. Sometimes they’re not painted at…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24838","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24838"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34334,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24838\/revisions\/34334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}