Words In French

Here is a key question.

The subject came up at a meetup when our friend Jim, an accomplished guitarist as you know, asked about the French translation for the word “key” used in a musical context.
The basic translation for that word in French is “clé”, with the particularity of having an alternate spelling: “clef”. Both forms are pronounced exactly the same way, as in “clay”.
For a musician, however, the key in which a piece is written or played is, in French, “le ton”. For example, singing out of key is “détonner”, which, of course, is a nightmare for the guitarist accompanying that singer! And how about the pianist, I hear you ask? Well, the keys on her instrument are, in French, “des touches”, as they are called also on a typewriter and all keyboards in general, including those of a computer.

Some expressions with the word “clé”
• Prendre la clé des champs. Word for word: “to take the key of the fields”. This is to head for the hills, escape, flee, run away.
• Mettre quelque chose sous clé is to place something in an enclosed and locked container, box, safe and so forth. Word for word: “to put under key”
• Clé plate: wrench.
• Clé en croix: A tool in the shape of a cross.

• Clé à molette: adjustable wrench, monkey wrench.

• In Architecture, la clé de voûte: the keystone.

• Les clés d’un saxophone: the keys of a saxophone.
• In Jiu-jitsu, une clé is an immobilization technique, a lock.

You can find the 171 results for the word “clé” here:
http://dictionary.reverso.net/CollabDict.aspx?lang=en&srcLang=1036&targLang=1033&searchIn=all&allPairs=1&sort=1&word=clé

Frantz Présumé
www.SeriousFrenchButRelax.com
www.meetup.com/serious-french-but-relax
frpresume@yahoo.com
857-251-1662

 Salut, tout le monde!

Quand j’ai vu le contenu de la vidéo suivante, j’ai pensé que je devrais vous le communiquer pour vous mettre en garde. Faites très attention!   Quoi que vous fassiez, ne parlez pas comme cette personne! Vous voilà avertis!

When I saw the content of the following video, I thought I should communicate it to you as a warning. Be careful! No matter what you do, do not speak like this person! You have been warned!

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There is a better way to go about it!

Frantz Présumé

857-251-1662

THAT &%$#@&*! LETTER “H”.

The letter “h” – among other things — can drive some students of French crazy. Why can they not make the liaison every time a word starts with an “h”? The answer, indeed, is that in some words, the initial “h” is said to be “muet” (muted) while in others it is called “aspiré”.

La hutte

The liaison is mandatory in “les hommes”, “les habitudes”, “les habitations” et l’on dit “l’homme”, “l’habitude”, “l’habitation”. The “h” here is “muet” (muted). Other words starting with an “h muet”: l’habileté, l’habillement, l’habitant, l’haleine, l’hélice, l’heure, l’hallucination, l’harmonie, l’hôtel, l’hurluberlu, l’homéopathe, l’hépatite, l’horticulture, l’huile, l’hyène –some authors prefer “la hyène”–, l’hippocampe, l’hélicoptère, l’herbe, l’honnêteté.

That consonant is “aspiré” in “la hache”, “la hanche”, “la hauteur”, “le haut”, “le héros” –but “l’héroïne” __, “le hochement”, “la horde”, “la hotte”, etc… and there is no liaison with those words, except, of course in “les héroïnes”. However, “aspiré” or “muet”, that “h” has no bearing on the pronunciation of the word itself. It is just as if it were inexistent. For example, “la hanche” is pronounced “la anche”, “la hauteur” sounds like “la auteur”.

L' hyène ou bien la hyène

How does one know when that troublesome consonant is of one type or the other? One does not know. Not by following a rule, that is. The really true way is to know the words through practice. The French Academy has formulated some rule in this respect but it is rather complicated to apply in practice, especially when conducting a conversation, for example. Dictionaries seem to be the surest guide in this case, as they put an asterisk before the words with the “h aspiré”.

It is also interesting to notice that the term “aspiré” – equivalent to the English “aspirated” — is a misnomer since in the case of the pronounciation of the “h”, air would, in fact, be expelled. That is, if that “h” were heard at all.

Some words starting with an “h muet”:

habile, habit, habitat,habitude, hébergement, hébreux, hectare, hélice, hélicoptère, herbe, hérédité, héritage, héroïne, héroïsme, hésitation, hétérogène, hippique, histoire, homme, huissier, hypoténuse …

Here is a Wikipedia list of French words starting with an “h aspiré”:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_aspiré

Frantz Présumé

857-251-1662

A FEW PROVERBS

QUELQUES PROVERBES

Pierre qui roule n’amasse pas mousse / A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir / literally “It is better to prevent than to cure” / A stitch in time saves nine.

Un « tiens » vaut mieux que deux « tu l’auras » / literally: A “here, take this” is better than “you will have this later” / A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Les bons comptes font les bons amis / A debt paid is a friend kept.

Tout est bien qui finit bien / All is well that ends well.

Tous les chemins mènent à Rome / All roads lead to Rome.

Tout ce qui brille n’est pas d’or / Not all that glitters is gold.

Nécessité fait loi/ Necessity dictates the rules or Any port in a storm.

Prudence est mère de sûreté, literally: “Prudence is the mother of safety”/ Better be safe than sorry.

Qui se ressemble s’assemble/ Birds of a feather flock together.

Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué / Catch your bear before you sell its skin.

L’habit ne fait pas le moine/ The clothes do not make the man (the monk).

Possible confusions in French

You have learned certain ways to recognize whether a noun is masculine or feminine, since this is so important in French. For example, usually, a general rule is that if the word ends with an “e” it should be feminine. Exemple: une table, une ardoise, une pomme, une guitare. However, ô surprise! Un arbre, un livre, le charme, le calme, are masculine nouns.

A few ones to remember:

un moule : a mold;  — une moule: a mussel

un mousse: a young apprentice sailor;  — la mousse: moss or foam

un page: a page, a pageboy;  — une page: a page of a book

le carpe: carpus (anatomy);  — la carpe: carp (the fish)

un somme: a nap;  — une somme: an amount of money, or the result of an addition

un vase: a vase;   — la vase: mud, silt

un critique: a person judging a literary or artistic work;  une critique: the judgment of something

le manche: a handle;  — une manche: sleeve

un livre: a book;  — une livre: a pound (weight unit or currency)

Add to all that some paradoxes. The word “corsage” is masculine but is used for a feminine piece of clothing. The word “chemise” is feminine but the object it represents is usually a masculine type of clothing.

Watch out for a word such as “le foie” ( the liver), which is maculine even though it ends with an “e” as opposed to “la foi” (faith) which, of course, is feminine but does not have an “e” at the end.

 Dancie Jiu-Jitsu À La Rescousse.

Parue dans les média il n’y pas longtemps, une nouvelle réconfortante décrit une attitude plus courageuse et plus déterminée des victimes éventuelles face au “bullying”, ce mal qui a toujours hanté les écoles, probablement depuis que des écoles existent. Ou alors, faudrait-il plutôt dire cette endémie qui a toujours frappé la société depuis l’avènement de l’humanité et du monde animal. Cette conduite déplorable, présente également chez les animaux, est copieusement documentée. Cependant, depuis quelques années, une série de suicides a déclenché une sonnette d’alarme dans les communautés à travers tout le pays. En mai dernier, la tragédie s’est reproduite, une fois de plus, dans le cas d’un petit garçon de sept ans qui a recouru, comme unique porte de sortie, à l’acte ultime de désespoir. Un enfant de sept ans. Par ailleurs, dans l’épisode la plus récente de “bullying”, ainsi que le rapporte ABC News, une fille de seize ans de San Diego a dû abandonner son école.

 Plusieurs institutions ont pris des mesures sévères contre cette aberration en vue d’en prévenir la manifestation. Hélas, ces dispositions n’ont pas semblé capable de réfréner les perpétrateurs de ces actions d’intimidation dans leur quête de pouvoir facile. Une sorte de désordre mental semble pousser certains individus à persécuter d’autres à l’air plus tranquilles, et par conséquent, dans l’esprit de ces morbides agresseurs, plus vulnérables.

 Une nouvelle stratégie de nature plus proactive, connue sous le nom de BullyProof, s’est développée récemment dans plusieurs régions de la nation, ciblant en particulier les enfants et adolescents susceptibles de tomber victimes de “bullies”. Les résultats ne se sont pas fait attendre. Dans une éclante victoire pour l’esprit humain, un garçon de douze de Torrance, en Californie, a non seulement fait face à son agresseur, mais l’a également subjugué au moyen de techniques jiu-jitsu fraîchement acquises, le forçant à promettre d’arrêter ses harcèlement pour toujours.

Frantz P.

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Dancie Jiu-Jitsu to the rescue

A refreshing story appeared in the news in recent days about victims taking a different stance in the face of bullying, that plague which has been haunting schools, probably for as long as schools have existed. Or, even, should one say, an endemic that has been plaguing society for as long as humanity and even beasts have been around. That unfortunate behavior, in animals also, is well documented. However, for quite sometimes now, a series of suicides have served a wake-up call to communities around the country. Last May, tragedy struck again when a 7-year-old Chicago boy resorted to that ultimate act of desperation, as the only available exit. A 7-year-old. The latest bullying episode reported by ABC News, involved a 16-year-old San Diego girl who had to drop out of school.

Many schools have taken stark measures against that aberration in order to prevent it. Yet, those policies have not seemed to deter some students from trying to exercise a form of power through intimidation over those who appear to be more quiet types, hence, more vulnerable, in the bullies’ minds.

Of late, a different and more pro-active strategy has been in use in several parts of the country under the name of BullyProof, a program available to children and teenagers who might fall victims to bully characters. In a shining victory of the human spirit, Torrance, California, 12-year-old Martin Hendricks recently put his training from that program to good use when he stood up to his school tormentor and used his newly acquired jiu-jitsu techniques to subjugate the agressor who promised to stop his harrassments.

Frantz P.

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They are everywhere and show up at every turn and when you expect them least. So, one is never too vigilant. Here are a few more.

Affluent

English: –The adjective “affluent” qualifies a well-off individual.

French: —The word “affluent” is always a noun and refers to a smaller water stream —a tributary stream– feeding a main one. Les affluents du fleuve la Seine. The “affluents” of the Seine River.

Affluence

English: –Affluence is an abundance of something, most of the time, wealth. The term can apply to other things, too, such as information, for instance. A man of affluence.  An affluence of information.

French (contemporary): — Une affluence is a great number of people. L’affluence des touristes = The crowd of tourists. Il y avait affluence à la banque = The bank was crowded. Cinq heures de l’après-midi est une heure d’affluence = Five o’clock in the afternoon is traffic time (of both people and cars). “Traffic time” is also une heure de pointe.

An old meaning of the term is close to the English one but not really with the wealth connotation.

Argument

English: –The English word argument translates in French as une dispute, une discussion, un débat.

French: — Un argument is a line of reasoning that attempts to prove or refute an idea, which is also one of the meanings in English. –Phrase: un argument de vente= a selling point.

Ballot

What people put in a box when voting is called, in French, un bulletin de vote. –Ballot, as a method of voting, is “un scrutin” in French; un tour de scrutin= a round of voting.

In French, un ballot is a bundle, a package.

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More faux-amis

Actual, actually

• In French, “actuel” means “current, present”, and “actuellement” is “now”, “at this time” , “currently”. “Dans l’état actuel des choses”. “As things stand at this time”.
• The English adjective “actual” is, in French, “réel, exact, vrai,véritable”, and the adverb “actually” is “vraiment, réellement, véritablement, en réalité”. “Nobody knows the actual cause of that accident”. “Personne ne connaît la vraie cause de cet accident”.

Character

• In literature, cinema or theater, what is a “character” in English, in French is “un personnage”, while “caractère” in French is, in English, “character, nature, personality, print, type (font)”. “Cette personne a bon caractère”. This person is good-natured”. “Ce texte a été écrit en petits caractères”. “This text was written in small print”.

Photograph

– A “photograph” translates in French with “une photographie”. A “photographer” is “un photographe”. “Photography” is, in French, “la photographie”.

Phrase

A “phrase” in English is, in French, “une expression”, while a “sentence” is “une phrase”.

Rude

• The English adjective “rude”, in French is “grossier, impoli”. That person was rude at the meeting. Cette personne a été impolie à la réunion”.The French adjective “rude” is, in English, “rough, hard”. “Il m’a fallu un rude effort pour terminer ce travail”. “I had to put hard work to finish that task”. “C’est un homme rude”. “He is a rough man”.

Résumé

As used in English, the word “résumé” is, in French, “un curriculum vitae”, while the French word “résumé” is, in English, “a summary”, or “an abstract”. To “resume an activity” is, in French, “reprendre une activité”.

Frantz P.

SOME SLANG WORDS. QUELQUES MOTS D’ARGOT.

Note: In the following, the French slang words  were forced into a text simply for the purpose of introducing them. So, do not look for a story or some profound philosophy.

In France, one thing not to say to a man, especially in an aggressive and angry tone – because, maybe he cut in front of you or something – is ”Et ta soeur! [Eh-tah-sir]”, meaning “How about your sister”. That would be as respectful as shouting at him something about his mamma . That is, unless you are completely crazy, “zinzin” [ pronounced “zen-zen” but keeping the “n” silent] or “maboul [mah-bul], cinglé [sen-gle], dingue [ den-gh, “n” silent], toqué”, and you want, in return, to be at the receiving end of “un coup de boule”, a blow delivered by the head, “en plein dans la caisse”, right in the chest, as in the famous 2006 World Cup scene. That could immediately send you to see “ le toubib”, the doctor.

Don’t say I did not warn you.

Sometimes, a guy, “un type”, who thinks he is a tough guy, “un dur de dur”, ends up receiving a beating, “une dérouillée”, from a most innocent-looking fellow. After that, he should not go crying like a baby, “chialer comme un bébé”.

Frantz P.

One could say that proverbs are a legacy of the Wise.
Following are some with their origins, when possible, and their English equivalent.

_ Vouloir, c’est pouvoir.

Literally: “to want is to can”. In other words, if you want something bad enough, you will find a way to get it or to make it happen. The English equivalent is “ Want is the mother of industry”.

Note. After publication, a reader suggested a different English equivalent that is closer to the French idea. Hers is “”where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Thank you Heather.

_ Rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir à point.

This one comes straight from 17th century writer Jean de La Fontaine’s fable “The Hare And The Tortoise” or “The Tortoise And The Hare”. The French fabulist’s inspiration is the work with the same title by Greek storyteller Aesop whose own existence some authors even contest. That, of course, would make the latter the quintessential fable character.

Literally: “It serves no purpose to run — or rush–, one must start on time”. The English equivalent is: “Slow and Steady Wins The Race”.

_ Se tirer en douce.

Ex.:  Comme la situation s’aggravait, il s’est tiré en douce.

This is not a proverb but a saying, “un dicton” in French.
I include it because it is so interesting. It means “to leave without saying good-bye” or “to leave quietly, so not to draw attention”. The funny part is that another version of it is “Se tirer à l’anglaise”, meaning “to take an English leave” while English speakers translate that expression by “to take a French leave”. Go figure.

_ Tant que l’or luit, force d’amis.

Translation: “ As long as the gold shines, many friends gather around”. The English version is “In time of prosperity, friends are plenty”.