Feelin' Good

Un film qui rechauffe le coeur

A 'feel good film' - un film qui rechauffe le coeur - literally, a film which  warms the heart or we would say, which warms the cockles of your heart. Why on earth we have to say 'cockles' and what exactly they are is a mystery to me.

Talking of films...... Monday 26th March is Film Night chez Julian & Judith.

You have a choice: 

Watched this one last night. Very clever and complex plot. Keeps you guessing the whole time .  Click for information

 

Powerful, well-crafted plot and beautifully acted drama.  More info.

Perfect comic timing and belly-achingly funny throughout. More info.

À vous de choisir!

Please note: the above are my opinions and not that of a film critic. However, I think Claudia Winkelman does have some serious competition.

Les Devoirs

Is the wordsearch doing your head in?  Fear not, it is difficult and not compiled by me, I hasten to add. Although there are 43 verbs in total (I have found 36 so far), you are doing well if you find 10 in each category. Hint - Look for the ones which take être first, as you know what they are and it helps to know what you are looking for. Just do as much as you can and don't get stressed by it.  I am more interested to see if you know which category they fit into. 

It's good value!

Why, of course - c'est bon marché!

bon marché  = good value or good deal

Click here for the history of one of the best known department stores in Paris.

C'est Julian non?

faire signe à quelqu'un = to wave to someone

Il fait beau

Can it possibly be the beginning of March en Angleterre? 

This week, we took our coffee break in the garden, enjoying the warm, early spring sunshine - amazemont! (sic). 

As requested, today's post is about how to type French accents. There are, at least, 3 ways. There may be more, for all I know. 

1)  Use the alt key plus the code numbers on your number pad.  I usually use this method.  

2) Use French typeit and then cut and paste your document. I use this method if I am writing a long text.

3) When using 'word' you can click on Insert, Symbol to access French accents and characters for a wide range of languages.

As you like it

Here are two phrases we revised this week:

   Without doing something = sans + infinitive

Examples:
without speaking                    =   sans parler
without eating                       =   sans manger
without drinking                     =   sans boire
without doing the washing up =   sans faire la vaisselle

If you remember, this phrase is repeated to great effect in the Jacques Prévert poem, Déjeuner du Matin.

Sans, meaning 'without' is an archaic English word most famously used in the 'All the world's a stage' soliloquy from Shakespeare's 'As you like it'.

"Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste sans, everything"

(William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II Scene VII)

N.B. Words in dark red are hyperlinks and if you click on them you will be taken to the relevant internet page. 

 
Before doing something = avant de + infinitive

Examples:

before reading    =   avant de lire

before speaking  =   avant de parler

before going out =   avant de sortir

When you use reflexive verbs, remember to change the reflexive pronoun e.g.me, te, se, etc.) to match the subject eg. je, tu, il, elle etc.

Examples:

avant de me coucher, j'ai regardé la télé 

before going to bed, I watched t.v. 

avant de te coiffer, tu as cherché le miroir

before doing your hair, you looked for the mirror

avant de se lever, il a regarde son réveil 

before getting up, he looked at his alarm clock

Je suis allé au travail sans me changer

I went to work without getting changed

Tu t'es couché sans te brosser les dents

You went to bed without brushing your teeth

Elle est sorti sans se maquiller

She went out without putting on her make up

  

Keeping Pigs

Nous n'avons pas gardé les cochons ensemble!

Linda taught us this phrase today, which, I must say, is new to me. It means, 'don't get so familiar with me' and might be used when you say tu instead of vous to someone you hardly know. It originates from when a member of the aristocracy thought that a peasant was getting too familiar, hence, 'we didn't keep pigs together'. Merci Linda.

Plus ça change ......

....plus c'est la même chose. Meaning, the  more things change, the more they stay the same. French people will often use this cynical phrase when talking about 'new ideas' introduced by the government, for example. We often talk about things going 'full circle'. You will hear people saying just, Plus ça change because it's such a well-known saying that everyone knows that it is followed by, 'plus c'est la même chose'.

If you want to say I did something for a change, you say, pour changer un peu. This can be used seriously or sarcastically, just as we do in English.

Nul points.......

 ... was the men's score after our 'passé composé' game today.  Despite getting most answers right, Lady Luck was not on their side and the wheel of fortune dealt them a savage blow, which sadly, only added to our hilarity pour changer un peu!

Bits 'n' Pieces

Herewith the vocabulary, which we encountered in last week's conversation:

Angela is still doing her spring cleaning, so the verb nettoyer has featured regularly over the past few weeks.  Nettoyer is a regular ER verb but the y changes to i in certain parts:

                                                          nettoyer = to clean

                                     1) je      nettoie       4) nous  nettoyons

                                     2) tu      nettoies      5) vous   nettoyez

                                     3) il    }                    6) ils   } nettoient

                                        elle }   nettoie          elles}

                                        on   }

This is known as a 1,2,3,6 verb because it changes in parts 1, 2 3 and 6!

un tiroir    =   drawer

tirer          =   to pull

pousser     =  to push

la trousse =  (small) case 

la trousse (scolaire)

la trousse de maquillage 

la trousse de secours 

la trousse manucure

You might wonder how on earth the following words came into the conversation?

mordre (irregular verb)        = to bite
étrangler (regular ER verb  =   to strangle

If you remember, Julian was talking about the puppy!

surtout                =  above all, especially
un écran              =  screen
Ça va mieux?       =  Are you better? Is s/he better? Is it better? etc. 
Oui ça va mieux   = Yes I'm better. S/he's better. It's better etc.
mûr                     = mature / ripe
commander         = to order (regular ER verb)

N.B. attendre is to wait and to wait for.

Two phrases from last week:
il y a       =  there is or there are
il y avait = there was or there were

Les Devoirs
Use the passé composé to write captions to the pictures in the handout. Most verbs (but not all) are reflexive or are one of the 14 which take être.

Relaxez-vous.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9t7WuRz3RQ

As requested, here is the séance de relaxation gratuite which we did today. We listened to the first 2 minutes 42 seconds. Enjoy......

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

Blog

Please note you can get new posts  emailed to you. Just type in your email address in the space at the top right hand corner of this blog and click on 'submit'. 

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!