{"id":30616,"date":"2018-08-07T05:23:35","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T03:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=30616"},"modified":"2018-08-03T02:25:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T00:25:40","slug":"time-for-another-nap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/time-for-another-nap\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for another nap"},"content":{"rendered":"

John recently wrote about mixing up words when speaking French<\/a>. It’s a common occurrence for those of us using multiple languages to communicate… And a story that reminded me of a funny error from my own past!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Un lit avec des oreillers blancs et des cousins bleus.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was just 16 years old when I went to France the first time<\/a>. I was fortunate to live with an extraordinary family<\/a> that year (and beyond)\u00a0and one of the great experiences I got to have was\u00a0une semaine au ski<\/strong> (a week skiing)<\/em> in the French Alps. With a group of friends,\u00a0mon fr\u00e8re\u00a0Fabrice<\/b>\u00a0(my brother Fabrice<\/em>) and I, nous<\/strong>\u00a0avons pris le train<\/strong> (we\u00a0took the train<\/em>) to spend a week at one of the friends family houses in St. Gervais<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While heading off to spend a year \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9tranger<\/strong>\u00a0 (abroad<\/em>) at 16 might seem bold, I was still just a kid, and a kid with allergies to boot. Which explains why my\u00a0premi\u00e8re nuit<\/strong> (first night)\u00a0<\/em>in St. Gervais I couldn’t sleep. You see, all the beds had down pillows! The next day, tired from a lack of sleep, I showed up at the breakfast table and said:<\/p>\n

– Est-ce que quelqu’un peut me trouver un orteil sans plumes?

Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_safe_remote_get(). A valid URL was not provided.<\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n

A question which earned me a bunch of confused stares and a few chuckles. Which makes sense when you know (as I do know!) that\u00a0orteil<\/strong> means\u00a0toe<\/em>!<\/p>\n

What I should have asked, of course, was: Est-ce que quelqu’un peut me trouver un oreiller sans plumes?

Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_safe_remote_get(). A valid URL was not provided.<\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n

Useful vocabulary:
\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Fran\u00e7ais<\/b><\/th>English<\/i><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
un oreiller
Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_safe_remote_get(). A valid URL was not provided.<\/div><\/b><\/td>
a pillow<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
une oreille
Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_safe_remote_get(). A valid URL was not provided.<\/div><\/b><\/td>
an ear<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
un orteil
Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_safe_remote_get(). A valid URL was not provided.<\/div><\/b><\/td>
a toe<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
un coussin
Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_safe_remote_get(). A valid URL was not provided.<\/div><\/b><\/td>
a cushion<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
des plumes
Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_safe_remote_get(). A valid URL was not provided.<\/div><\/b><\/td>
feathers<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\n

I like the poetry of\u00a0oreiller\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0oreille<\/em>. In French, the word for pillow<\/em> is basically a thing to rest your ear on<\/em>. Un coussin<\/em> is also a pillow, but not for sleeping. It’s more\u00a0a cushion<\/em> (throw pillow, sofa cushion, chair cushion).\u00a0<\/em>You may also run into the word\u00a0(or to the actual thing!)\u00a0traversin\u00a0<\/em>which translates into English as\u00a0bolster<\/em>, and is a sort of long pillow that spans a whole bed.<\/p>\n

If you want to review some\u00a0oreiller\/coussin<\/em> -related vocabulary, check out this post from last November<\/a> where I talked about a little food-induced sleeping.<\/p>\n

Photo by Malidate Van from www.Pexels.com (CC0)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

John recently wrote about mixing up words when speaking French. It’s a common occurrence for those of us using multiple languages to communicate… And a story that reminded me of a funny error from my own past! I was just 16 years old when I went to France the first time. I was fortunate to…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":30625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[408503,284,316,357,432,12514],"class_list":["post-30616","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-free-french-lesson","tag-free-french-lessons","tag-french-culture","tag-french-language","tag-french-vocabulary","tag-vocabulaire-francais"],"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