Monthly Archives: November 2011

Try not to confuse fielleux, -euse/mielleux, -euse as they have almost opposite meanings: ‘Fielleux, -euse’ is venomous, spiteful and ‘mielleux, -euse’ is honeyed, smooth(-tongued), sugary or sickly sweet. P.S. ‘Le fiel’ is gall and ‘le miel’ is honey.

Those of us over 90 years of age may dimly remember those interminable telephone conversations that I heard on europe1 radio this morning: ‘Non, c’est toi qui raccroche…’ ‘Non, c’est toi qui raccroche…’ ‘Non, c’est toi qui raccroche…’ : ‘No, … Continue reading →

Similar to our ‘rosy’, ‘rose(s)’ is ‘pink’: Used humorously to describe a socialist ‘rose’ denotes a left-winger as ‘pink’; Toulouse is called ‘la ville rose’ because of the pink stone of which it is largely built. ‘Une rose’ is a … Continue reading →

For my friend’s week-old baby: ‘faire areu areu’ is ‘to gurgle’. A rattle is ‘un hochet’ and a stuffed bear is ‘un ours en peluche’. Happy days, happy life…tout le bonheur du monde.

Naming no names, but ‘to be a nit-picker’ is translated as ‘être très tatillon (a man) or tatillonne (a woman)’. And, in similar vein, ‘to split hairs’ is described as ‘chercher la petite bête’ : literally: ‘to search for the little … Continue reading →

‘Un octet’ is not a musical group with eight instruments (‘un octuor’) or a poem with eight lines (‘un huitain’) but ‘a byte’ in computer terms. One day I shall treat you to a whole section of computer words but, for … Continue reading →