{"id":432,"date":"2010-04-26T18:52:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T18:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=432"},"modified":"2021-08-05T22:23:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T20:23:01","slug":"french-slang-letter-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-slang-letter-a\/","title":{"rendered":"The ABCs of French Slang: A"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Like we saw before, idioms\u00a0are among the first challenges in learning a new language, and <em>surtout <\/em>(especially) French. Another challenge, almost as unavoidable, when you try to actually go to the country, meet and talk with\u00a0its people, is the slang of that country, or as it is\u00a0called in French: <em>l&#8217;argot<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>L&#8217;argot<\/em> is not necessarily <em>le verlan <\/em>(the &#8220;back slang&#8221;),<em>\u00a0<\/em>which we talked about last time. In fact, there are many forms of <em>l&#8217;argot. <\/em>One of them, as we see in this video (<em>&#8220;qui date un peu<\/em>&#8220;, meaning a bit old), is <em>l&#8217;argot des cit\u00e9s <\/em>(suburbs slang), where many first- and second-generation French of Maghreb and African origin still\u00a0live:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"L&#039;argot des banlieu !!  .mp4\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hTNDXzjJHfA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Understanding <em>l&#8217;argot <\/em>in general is also a must if you are a fan of <em>le cin<em>\u00e9<\/em>ma fran\u00e7ais<\/em> -as previously pointed out\u00a0by Jennie-\u00a0where the employed\u00a0language is not necessarily <em>une langue ch\u00e2ti\u00e9e <\/em>(&#8220;polished&#8221; or refined language)&#8230; but quite to the contrary!<\/p>\n<p>There are of course\u00a0many dictionaries and references\u00a0of French slang that are readily available in bookstores and even online with a free access, but the trouble with\u00a0them is that they list way too many entries,\u00a0to a point\u00a0where\u00a0any foreign reader would helplessly drown into them,\u00a0completely at a loss as to\u00a0which expression\u00a0would actually be\u00a0more important to learn and memorize\u00a0than another.<\/p>\n<p><em>La<\/em>\u00a0<em>solution<\/em> is now here:\u00a0I am\u00a0providing you with<em> le strict minimum<\/em>. The <em>expressions argotiques <\/em>or<em> famili\u00e8res <\/em>which you must know when you are surrounded by\u00a0native French speakers.\u00a0As a &#8220;useful&#8221; semi-side note, you will maybe be amused (or perhaps shocked, it depends)\u00a0to learn that some\u00a0French people often resort to\u00a0slang when they do not wish to be understood by foreigners. Now that you&#8217;re armed with a minimal\u00a0knowledge of <em>l&#8217;argot<\/em>, they will have to be extra-careful with you!<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, however,\u00a0that you&#8217;ll learn here only the expressions that you need to know when you&#8217;re, shall we say,\u00a0in a relatively\u00a0&#8220;good social company&#8221;&#8230; <em>Bien entendu<\/em> (Of course.)<\/p>\n<p><em>Aujourd&#8217;hui<\/em> (today)\u00a0we will cover the letter A.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A:<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">* <\/span><\/strong><em><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Accouche!<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<\/em>As in &#8220;<em>Allez, accouche !&#8221; <\/em>Meaning: &#8220;Confess&#8221;, or &#8220;spit it out!&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0Often used\u00a0when people\u00a0urge you to finally reveal something to them. Or\u00a0you may for example see it\u00a0in a French movie scene,\u00a0typically when a police interrogation of a suspect is conducted.\u00a0Literally, it means: &#8220;Come on, give it birth!&#8221;\u00a0 Close expressions with the same meaning as &#8220;to confess&#8221; is &#8220;<em>passer aux aveux<\/em>&#8220;, &#8220;<em>l\u00e2cher le morceau<\/em>&#8220;, or &#8220;<em>passer\u00a0\u00e0 table.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">* Accro:<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<\/em>Meaning to be\u00a0hooked\u00a0on something, since it&#8217;s short for the verb <strong><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">accro<\/span>cher<\/em> <\/strong>(to hook something.) Example: <em>&#8220;Elle est\u00a0accro\u00a0\u00e0 la musique techtonique<\/em>&#8221; (<em>C&#8217;est quoi la &#8216;techtonique&#8217;<\/em>, you may ask?<em>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>* Allonger<\/em>:<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong>This one\u00a0is\u00a0rather &#8220;versatile&#8221;, and depends on the\u00a0context of its use.\u00a0The verb<em> allonger <\/em>means &#8220;to extend&#8221; or\u00a0&#8220;to strech out.&#8221; So if you say<em> &#8220;allonger une claque<\/em>&#8221; or\u00a0&#8220;<em>un coup de poing&#8221;, <\/em>it means to\u00a0slap or punch someone, knocking them down.<em>\u00a0<\/em>But you may also hear: <em>&#8220;Allez, allonge-moi mon fric, mec<\/em>!&#8221;<em>, <\/em>meaning &#8220;Come on, fork over my money, dude!&#8221;<br \/>\nAs an adjectif, &#8220;\u00eatre allong\u00e9&#8221; means to be dead.\u00a0&#8220;<em>Il a aval<em>\u00e9<\/em> son acte de naissance, et maintenant il est au jardin des <strong>allong<em>\u00e9<\/em>s<\/strong><\/em>&#8220;, which literally\u00a0means: &#8220;He &#8216;swallowed his birth certificate&#8217;, and now he&#8217;s at the garden of &#8216;the lying\u00a0down&#8217;.&#8221; Quite charming of an expression, isn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n<p><strong><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ami-ami:<\/span><\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nThis one definitely amuses me, because it reminds me of a childhood memory of\u00a0my little brother. When he was very young, he used to call the show &#8220;<em>Deux Flics\u00a0\u00e0 Miami&#8221; <\/em>(&#8220;Two Cops in Miami&#8221;, which is the French title of\u00a0 &#8220;Miami Vice&#8221;,\u00a0featuring Don Johnson and Philip M. Thomas) &#8220;Deux Flics Ami-Ami&#8221;, which means\u00a0word-for-word &#8220;two cops friend-friend&#8221;, but it in fact means to be reconciled after a fight.<br \/>\n&#8220;<em>Bon, on fait ami-ami, on enterre la hache de guerre, et on fume le calumet de la paix?<\/em>&#8221; The translation of which is: &#8220;So, we become friends again, we bury the hatchet, and smoke the peace pipe?&#8221;<br \/>\nFor a (very) little idea of what &#8220;Miami Vice&#8221; may sound\u00a0when dubbed\u00a0in French, here&#8217;s an example (It&#8217;s funny that the scene starts with &#8220;Croissants&#8221; and a French flag&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p>Now, let&#8217;s &#8220;cut down to the chase&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Deux flics a Miami Porsche 906\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player.html?video=x18wn6&#038;\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like we saw before, idioms\u00a0are among the first challenges in learning a new language, and surtout (especially) French. Another challenge, almost as unavoidable, when you try to actually go to the country, meet and talk with\u00a0its people, is the slang of that country, or as it is\u00a0called in French: l&#8217;argot. L&#8217;argot is not necessarily&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-slang-letter-a\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[8482,8483,8485,8486,196,8481,8488,8487,8484,595],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-accouche","tag-accro","tag-allonger","tag-ami-ami","tag-argot","tag-argot-des-cites","tag-deux-flics-a-miami","tag-miami-vice","tag-techtonique","tag-verlan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34018,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/34018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}