EN UN MOT | IN A WORD

EN UN MOT | IN A WORD

curfew

If you're a student of French, I sincerely hope you've had the luck to experience a moment when for some reason, all of a sudden ça fait tilt*. As a lover of language, there's nothing I like more than when a word I've been using unthinkingly all my life takes on a whole new relevance thanks to my studies.

Take the example of the English word 'vinegar' for example. Have you ever paused to ponder its provenance? Probably not, I would venture.

However, when you look at the French word for it, vinaigre, it really does make a lot of sense. Most of you know the French word for 'wine': vin. But do you know what aigre* means? Oui, c'est ça*: sour. So vinaigre = sour wine. C'est logique, non?*

A further dig into wordreference.com turns up these beauties:

• tourner au vinaigre - to turn sour (literally and figuratively)

• un pisse-vinaigre - a sourpuss/grump

• On n'attrape pas les mouches avec du vinaigre - You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Again, j'adore mon travail*.

*something clicks | *sour | *Yes, that's it | * It makes sense, doesn't it? | *I love my job

On aime | We like

on aime | we like

Quelle histoire

One of our lovely students brought back this charming petit livret* on Coco Chanel from a recent trip to France. We frequently have people ask us to recommend children's books as a starting point to reading French, which in theory sounds like a good idea. However, if you think of the average vocabulary of a five or six-year-old, it is quite extensive: they can ask for pretty much anything they want.  Therefore, children's books are often more difficult to read than one would expect. At the time of writing, we still haven't found a series of simple story books for learners of French. If you know of one, we'd love to hear about it.

This series by Quelle Histore, while not extremely simple, is great because they tell the story of a known figure, using illustrations help to flesh out the tale. While you're unlikely to understand every single word, with the help of a good dictionary (we recommend www.wordreference.com) you'll be well on your way to reading your first French book.

Coco Chanel is just one of many mini-biographies produced by Quelle Histoire. Bonne lecture!*

*little book | *Happy reading!

DE QUOI? | say what?

DE QUOI? | say what?

REtournons à nos moutons | Let's return to our sheep

If I had a euro for every time I've pulled this one out in a lesson...

I love this French saying as it not only evocative but effective as well.

Our French lessons here at Lingua Franca are casual affairs. Of course, we want our students to learn, and we're happy to report they do, but with groups of like-minded people passionate about French as well as countless other topics, we can sometimes become side-tracked. 'Retournons à nos moutons' (which literally means 'let's return to our sheep' or more colloquially 'let's get back to the subject') is a gentle and amusing way to remind everyone to come back to the topic at hand - le français*.

Apparently the saying originated from a 15th century French play called La Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin. It tells the story of five characters, each more dishonest than the next, and includes a courtroom scene where the accused is instructed by his lawyer to answer all questions directed at him by saying 'Baaa' in an attempt to have him declared mentally instable. Sounds très drôle* indeed.

*French | *very funny