Et encore........

Have you noticed the new gadget at the side? French word of the day. Each day the word changes. You can click on the sound image to hear the pronunciation. Click on the back arrow to hear previous words of the day. Cool huh?

Last lesson, we listened to each other's presentations. They were fabulous and you had all worked really hard on them. Thank you. As you lead such interesting lives, we learnt all sorts of random information along the way. In this post, I will 'mop up' the vocabulary which cropped up in your presentations.

sauf                  =   except
les poils            =   animal hair /fur
faire la queue   =   to queue 
le stage            =   (work) placement

faire la queue

(not something the French are noted for!)

un avertissement                = warning
le feu                                 = fire
empêcher                           = to prevent
comment empêcher le feu  = how to prevent fire
épuise                                = exhausted

un avertissement

apprendre        =   to learn (regular RE verb) related to the English word 'apprentice' 
enseigner         =   to teach (regular ER verb)
la leçon}          =   lesson
le cours} 
la peinture       =   painting
le / la peintre  =   painter

la peinture

le peintre (and also une peinture)

voler                    =   to fly (regular ER verb)
en vol                  =  in flight
le cygne               =  swan
faire de l'aviron    =   to row
un embouteillage = traffic jam
les médicaments  = medicine 
déménager          = to move house

les cygnes en vol 

You can say, j'ai vu les cygnes en vol or j'ai vu les cygnes voler

faire de l'aviron

un embouteillage

(think of 'bottleneck')

les médicaments

Mardi Gras

Mardi gras = Shrove Tuesday. Literally 'Fat Tuesday', when we use up our butter, oil and eggs before fasting during le carême (lent). Mardi gras precedes le mercredi des cendres (Ash Wednesday), the first day of lent. 

Traditional fare on mardi gras:

les crèpes

les beignets

les gaufres

mmm.... I'm beginning to salivate and I've only just had breakfast!

Many French towns have carnivals at this time. Here are a few famous ones:

Carnaval de Nice

Carnaval de Limoux

Limoux is a lovely town in south-west France, not far from Carcassonne. Malcolm and I visited Limoux whilst on holiday in Rennes les Bains last year.

Carnaval de Strasbourg

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Les Devoirs

Write captions in the 'passé composé' for the pictures on pages 1 and 2 of the handout.



Le Photographe

Robert Doisneau 1912 - 1994

Yesterday we looked at some iconic pictures by this famous Parisian photographer.

le photographe = photographer

la photo (photgraphie) = photo (photograph)

The photos generated much discussion and you asked me for titles and dates, so here they are:

 Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (1950)

Yes, I know I said that this was called, 'les amoureux de l'hôtel de ville', but I was wrong (mea culpa). It is in fact called, as in English, 'le baiser de l'hôtel de ville' . Although the verb baiser has taken on a different meaning as outlined in a previous post (click on the link to take you to the relevant post), the noun le baiser, has not taken on these connotations and means, quite simply, 'the kiss'.

Incidentally, there is a rather sad story about the couple who believed themselves to be the ones in this photo. You can read about this here (scroll down to 'le baiser de l'hôtel de ville).

La lessive du marinier (1961)

le marinier = bargee (boatman)

Be-bop en cave, Vieux Colombier (1951)



 Le remorqueur du Champs de Mars (1951)

remorquer = to tow, haul, pull 

le remorqueur = tugboat, hauler  

Get lost!

s'en aller = to go away.

It's a reflexive verb so you use the reflexive pronouns (me, te, se etc.) with the parts of the verb 'aller' 

                                 je      m'en vais        nous  nous en allons

                                 tu      t'en vas          vous  vous en allez

                                 il    }                        ils   } s'en vont

                                 elle } s'en va           elles} 

                                 on  }

  

                                 

If you want to tell someone to go away, in the sense of 'get lost' or 'stop bothering me' you can say va-t'en! or allez-vous en!

Les Devoirs

Just a reminder: Prepare a presentation of approx. 12-15 sentences entitled, 'Mes vacances de février.'  In other words, write about some of the things you did between last lesson (9 Feb) and the next (23 Feb). You will need to use the 'passé composé', so look this up and we will go over it again next lesson. 

Travaillez bien!

Mais si!

We also learnt that if you want to say 'yes' when you are contradicting someone, you say 'si' (often preceded by 'mais' for emphasis). 

Here are a few examples:

"Nous ne sommes pas devant La Tour Eiffel."

"Mais si!"

"Ce n'est pas vrai - ils ne sont pas encore perdus!"

"Mais si, il faut consulter la carte."

"Ce n'est pas la prof de français?"

"Si, c'est la prof de français."

Les vrais amis et les faux amis

Les vrais amis (true friends) are those words, which look the same (or nearly the same) in French and in English and which have the same meaning in both languages e.g. table, religion, absent, long, radio. 


Les faux amis (false friends) are those words, which look the same (or almost the same) in French and in English but have a different meaning.


Last lesson we learnt sensible, which is definitely one of the 'faux amis':
sensible = sensitive. If you want to say that someone is sensible you say, il a du bon sens or il est raisonnable.


avoir du bon sens}  to be sensible (reasonable)
être raisonnable     }


Talking of true friends, you can't be any more loyal than this guy: 

Thai attends every lesson and listens carefully from under the table. You will notice that he has now become a follower of this blog.  He is very keen to improve his French.

More random vocab:

un film muet = silent film

un(e) auxiliaire médical(e) = paramedic

un son = sound

une étagère = bookcase

une serre = greenhouse

un siècle = century

à travers les siècles = across (throughout) the centuries

Still more to come in future posts - Keep looking!

  

C'est du vin gris n'est-ce pas?

Over the last two weeks we have been looking at 'colour phrases' such as: une nuit blanche, voir la vie en rose, avoir la main verte and so on. We came across le vin gris.......  

......another name for 'le vin rosé. No-one knew why rosé wine should be referred to as 'vin gris' and we speculated as to the reason. For an explanation click on the link. 

We  also learnt n'est-ce pas, an all purpose tag phrase which means, isn't it?, don't you?, didn't he? etc., etc., etc., Much easier than English innit?

Comme elle est belle!

Today, we learnt some canine-related vocab because of Julian and Judith's latest addition to the family, Bonnie.

  

remuer la queue = wag the tail

aboyer = bark

faire pipi = to wee

faire caca = to poop

faire ses besoins = to do one's 'business' (literally attend to one's needs) 

avoir l'air = to seem, e.g. elle a l'air content = she seems happy

If you trawl the websites (how sad am I?), the French are as concerned as we are about 'la crotte du chien' (doggy doo doos) in the street. For this reason, many parks have 'canisites' or 'sani chiens', which are specially designated areas for your dog to do his business.

You can be fined anything from 60 to 250€ if your dog does his 'besoins' in the wrong place! 

Les Chefs-d'Oeuvre

Un chef-d'oeuvre = a masterpiece, and here they are from those well known French artists, Pakes et Hunt; Grocott et Brown; Stone et Kershaw. Move over Matisse!
 

Pakes et Hunt

Stone et Kershaw

Grocott et Brown

Today's vocab:

fixer (reg ER verb) = to fix

résoudre un problème = solve a problem

emmener qqn. (quelq'un) quelquepart = to take someone somewhere

le chiot = puppy (N.B. there is no feminine form)

comment ça s'écrit? = how do you spell that? (literally - how do you write that?)

un scarabée = beetle

une coccinelle = ladybird

une cicatrice = scar

les cheveux en brosse = spiky hair 

une joue = cheek 

avoir froid = to feel cold (j'ai froid). 

avoir chaud = to feel hot (j'ai chaud)   

un pantalon à pattes d'élephant = flared trousers

un pantalon bootcut = bootcut trousers

At my place, your place etc:

chez moi = (at/to) my place; chez toi (at/to) your place; chez lui (at/to) his place; chez elle (at/to) her place; chez nous (at/to) our place; chez vous (at/to) your place; chez eux / chez elles (at/to) their place.

Les Devoirs

Listen to the dialogues on pages 203, Au magasin de vêtements and 206, Chez le marchand de chaussures.   Practise the dialogues, 'À Vous' on pages 205 and 207.  Next week you will practise similar dialogues, but without the book.  

Next week's lesson is at the usual venue unless there is a last minute change, in which case, I will email and text you all.   

Travaillez bien!