{"id":29874,"date":"2018-03-14T19:58:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T18:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=29874"},"modified":"2018-04-04T20:57:14","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T18:57:14","slug":"running-in-circles-in-every-nook-and-cranny-two-french-idioms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/running-in-circles-in-every-nook-and-cranny-two-french-idioms\/","title":{"rendered":"Running In Circles In Every Nook And Cranny – Two French Idioms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singing along to a song makes repeating the same few words over and over again much more fun and feels a lot less like les devoirs<\/strong> (homework). However, sometimes it can be hard to sing along, especially if the singer has a strong accent<\/a> or there are a lot of expressions fran\u00e7aises<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n

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Image from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.<\/p><\/div>\n

La semaine derni\u00e8re<\/strong> (last week) I posted about une chanson<\/strong><\/a> (a song) I really like and when I was working on la traduction anglaise<\/strong> (the English translation) of les paroles<\/strong> I came across deux expressions<\/strong> (two expressions) that didn’t have a perfect equivalent en anglais<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

La premi\u00e8re expression<\/strong> gave me the most trouble since it’s in the chorus of the song:<\/p>\n

En long, en large et en travers<\/strong>
\nLengthwise, widthwise and across<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The literal translation<\/a> of l’expression<\/strong> kind of makes sense, but it sounds very bizarre<\/strong>. The saying is meant to carry the feeling of\u00a0 understanding or knowing something fully and completely. When used to talk about a physical location it can safely be translated as every nook and cranny<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In la traduction des paroles<\/strong>, I decided to use the following:<\/p>\n

Up, down and side to side<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It keeps the feeling of physical space that the original has, but keeps the more symbolic meaning it has in la chanson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

La deuxi\u00e8me expression<\/strong> was less troublesome, because it is only used in one verse:<\/p>\n

\u00c7a ne tourne pas rond<\/strong>
\nIt doesn’t turn round<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unsurprisingly, the literal translation<\/a> of l’expression<\/strong> sounds strange in English again, but it immediately makes sense after hearing la traduction<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

There’s something’s not right<\/em>
\n There’s something’s wrong<\/em>
\n There’s something’s amiss<\/em>
\n There’s something fishy<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idiom refers to something that doesn’t feel right in some vague way and it’s easy to see how something that’s not turning round<\/em> has a problem somewhere. The idea is that a turn should be curved or circular and not jagged or crooked.<\/p>\n

Ne tourner pas rond <\/strong><\/em>is also it’s used in another fun French expression<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00c7a ne tourne pas rond chez toi !<\/strong>
\nThere’s something wrong with you!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

La semaine derni\u00e8re<\/strong>, if you missed ces expressions<\/strong> when you listened to la chanson,<\/strong> Petit S\u0153ur<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, make sure you listen to it again and see if you can understand them now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Singing along to a song makes repeating the same few words over and over again much more fun and feels a lot less like les devoirs (homework). However, sometimes it can be hard to sing along, especially if the singer has a strong accent or there are a lot of expressions fran\u00e7aises! La semaine derni\u00e8re…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":29875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29874","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t