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April 2026 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Category Archives: Vocabulary
Un anniversaire
Yes, I’ve been in London, thank you for asking. A 70(ish)th birthday party in Covent Garden, in fact. You didn’t realize I was that trendy, did you? To his treat my friend invited me and nine other women, and a great … Continue reading
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Au fur et…
‘Au fur et à mesure’. There is no point in trying to make a literal translation of this because there isn’t one. But the whole phrase can translate as: ‘as (one goes along), gradually).
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Les carottes…
‘Les carottes râpées’ are, in fact, ‘grated carrots’. My entries on this blog are not always flippant. And for those of you who have not been paying attention, ‘flippant’ is a perfect example of a ‘false friend’. The French ‘flippant(es)’ … Continue reading
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Formidable
Thank you to Malcolm Rigg for pointing out that ‘my mother-in-law is formidable’ becomes a compliment in French. Put the stress on the third syllable, and the French ‘formidable’ instantly transforms your mother-in-law to: amazing, fantastic, tremendous. If Malcom Rigg sends me … Continue reading
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Une nuit blanche…
‘Une nuit blanche’, literally ‘a white night’, is a sleepless night. I don’t know why I should have been awake, on and off, between 2am and 4am last night as my conscience is (relatively) clear but I ended up listening … Continue reading
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Tagged Football, French language, Manchester United, vocabulary
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Je viens de…
Literally ‘I am coming from…’ this (‘Je viens de…’) translates more easily as ‘ I have just…’: Je viens de découvrir que mon ami(e) est parti(e) pour l’Espagne: I have just discovered that my friend has left for Spain. Add the … Continue reading
La langue de bois
Try not to confuse ‘la langue de bois’ with ‘une gueule de bois’. Literally these translate as ‘the language of wood/a wooden tongue’ and ‘a throat of wood/a wooden throat’. The former means formal, stilted language, and the latter is … Continue reading
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Par contre/en revanche
‘En revanche’ et ‘par contre’ both mean: ‘on the other hand’. I have heard discussions of whether one is better to use than the other but, as far as I’m concerned, the jury is out on the matter.
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Accidenté(e)
Although ‘un accident’ translates as an accident, when somebody describes ‘une rue accidentée’ they mean a road that is full of twists and bends. So don’t be too alarmed if anyone directs you to one of these…
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Les bouchées…et décupler
Strange as it may seem, ‘mettre les bouchées doubles’ (literally: to put the double mouthfuls) means ‘to redouble your efforts’. And ‘décupler’ may sound like ‘to uncouple’ but in fact means ‘to increase tenfold’.