FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

haleine (ah-len) noun, feminine
1. breath; breathing

Expressions:
avoir mauvaise haleine = to have bad breath
tout d'une haleine = in the same breath
avoir l'haleine courte = to be short of breath or short-winded
perdre haleine = to lose one's breath
rire à perdre haleine = to laugh until one's sides ache
reprendre haleine = to catch one's breath
discuter à perdre haleine = to argue non-stop
retenir son haleine = to hold one's breath
un travail de longue haleine = a long and exacting task
d'une seule haleine = in the same breath (without interruption)
tenir quelqu'un en haleine = to hold somebody spellbound; to keep somebody in suspense

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Citation du Jour:

Contre la mauvaise haleine, un seul remède: le téléphone !
There is only one remedy against bad breath: the telephone! -Michel Chrestien

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A Day in a French Life...

(Don't miss the story that originally appeared here, along with the vocabulary below--now a part of this book!)

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*References: noisette = hazelnut; beurk! = gross! le dégoût (m) = disgust; arrête (arreter) = stop; ça suffit = that's enough! embêter = to annoy; encore du camembert, s'il te plaît! = more camembert, please!

une panne (pan) noun, feminine
1. a breakdown

Also:
panné(e) = broke (c'est une panné = he's penniless)
une panne de courant/d'électricité = power failure
une panne de moteur = engine failure

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Expressions:
en panne = out of order
panne sèche = out of gas
tomber en panne d'essence = to run out of gas
laisser quelqu'un en panne = to let someone down
avoir une panne d'oreiller = to oversleep
rester en panne devant une difficulté = to be stumped (by a problem)

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Citation du Jour:

The writer's pen is to thoughts what the hunter's net is to butterflies. --Paul Carvel

("En panne" for a good "panne" quote, I offer a "pen" quote today! Note: "panne" and "pen" have the same word origins.)

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A Day in a French Life...

(Les Risques du Métier)*

Max and Jackie have writer's block. My 9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter were in charge of a weekly column for this newsletter. I had this all set up to where if one kid backed out, then the other could write the column. That's when my little écrivains* in residence came down with writer's block. Simultanément.*

"Je ne sais pas quoi écrire," (I don't know what to write) Jackie moaned.
"J'ai mal au bras," (My arm hurts) said Max, patting his wrist.

The inkwell has dried up. Une "panne sèche" of the pen. Plus rien.*

I do not know how to translate writer's block into French. I guess you could employ the verb "coincer" which means "to be in a jam". I should get writer's block too, but when your dream is to put out a daily edition there is no time to be kwen-say* over a few words, be they French or English.

"We wouldn't say coincé" my husband informs me over the phone. But he doesn't know the French word for writer's block either. "Perhaps 'une panne'?" he says.
"Panne.." Une panne is a breakdown or a failure.
"Une 'panne d'idées,' or 'une panne d'esprit'..." he offers.
"That would be a failure of ideas, of wit or of mind..."

Perhaps. Peut-être. ("Pas de panique!" I tell myself.)

All I know is that we had better not have too many more of these "panne" episodes, or I'll be panhandling for a living, my pen dream having petered out.

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*References: les risques du métier = work hazards; un écrivain = a writer; simultanément = simultaneously; plus rien = nothing left; kwen-say = pronunciation for "coincé" = stuck; pas de panique! = not to worry!

Update: writer's block = "le syndrome de la page blanche"

lâcher (lah-shay) verb
1. to release, to loosen, to slacken
2. to let go of
3. to come out with
4. to leave, to walk out on

se lâcher
1. to let oneself go (to speak frankly)
2. to speak one's mind

Expressions:
lâcher prise = to let go, to lose one's hold
lâche-moi les baskets! = get off my back!
lâcher des sous = to fork out (money)
lâcher le morceau = to tell the truth, to come clean
lâcher le peloton = to get a lead on (the rest of the pack)
lâcher la bride à quelqu'un = to give someone more of a free rein

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Citation du Jour

Combien de gens meurent dans les accidents, pour ne pas lâcher leur parapluie.

How many people die in accidents because they didn't let go of their umbrella. --André Gide

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A Day in a French Life...

Don't miss the story that originally appeared here, check out the book "Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language from the South of France".

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*References: une crique (f) = a cove, bay; un dimanche après midi (m) = Sunday afternoon; profitez bien! = take advantage (of the day!); un oursin (m) = a sea urchin; le déjeuner sur le sable (m) = lunch on the sand; un éclat de rire = a burst of laughter; un maillot (de bain) m = a bathing suit

salut (sa-lew) exclamation
1. hello!

[can also mean "bye bye!"]

salut (noun, masculine)
1. greeting. 2. wave (of hand) 3. nod (of head) 4. salute (military) 5. safety 6. salvation

Also:
un port de salut = a haven of refuge
L'Armée du Salut = the Salvation Army.

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Expressions:
salut à tous! = hi everyone!
faire son salut = to find salvation
travailler à son salut = to work out one's own salvation
chercher son salut dans la fuite = to run for dear life
faire le salut militaire = to salute

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Proverb
A bon entendeur salut!
A word to the wise is enough!*

(lit. To the good listener, salvation)

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A Day in a French Life...

In France, if you want to seem odd to the French, just say "Hello" one time too many in the course of a day. Les Français* don't understand the Anglophone affinity for repeating "Hello" at another point in a 24 hour time frame; the French say "Bonjour" once, point final.*

That said, the Frenchies have come up with a way to re-greet one another using the popular term "rebonjour."

Hélas,* after 12 years in this country, I continue to make the repeat-greet faux pas. The following conversation illustrates my point:

At 14 o'clock,* after a two hour lunch break, a colleague returns to the office where I work:

(Moi) "Bonjour Fifi!" * [Our caviste* looks at me perplexed]

(Fifi) "Mais... On ne s'est pas vus encore aujourd'hui?" 'But... haven't we seen each other already today?" he says, pushing a cheek forward to accept my greeting.

(Moi) "Ah oui, c'est vrai" "Oh yes, that's right" I say.

(Fifi) "Rebonjour alors!" "Hello again, then!" he says, content to put the matter straight (or content to be right, I'm never sure which).

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*References: the quote, "A word to the wise is enough!" is by Benjamin Franklin; les Français = the French; point final = period; hélas = unfortunately; 14 o'clock = 2 p.m.; Fifi (fee-fee) short for "Philippe"; caviste (m) = cellarman

omettre (oh-metr) verb
1. to omit, pass over, to leave out

Expression:
omettre de faire quelque chose = to fail, omit, neglect, to do something

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Citation du Jour

Un voyageur est une espèce d'historien; son devoir est de raconter fidèlement ce qu'il a vu ou ce qu'il a entendu dire; il ne doit rien inventer, mais aussi il ne doit rien omettre.

A traveler is a kind of historian; his duty is to faithfully recount what he has seen or what he has heard; he must not make anything up, but also, he must not omit anything. --François René de Chateaubriand

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A Day in a French Life...

Omission. It is the same word in French as in English. Some say omitting is a form of lying, and that a lie is a lie whether it is outright, downright, white, delivered in French, English or otherwise.

"Omettre" is the French verb for "to leave out." When the churchlady phoned yesterday afternoon I told her Max would not be attending evening catechism class each Tuesday night this fall. (I left out the fact that he would be attending basketball practice instead.)

Omettre is pronounced "oh-metr," sort of like "Oh Maitre!" which can also mean "Oh God!". Speaking of Dieu, or God, I hoped He wasn't listening to my telephone conversation...

When the churchlady remained silent on the other end of the line, waiting for me to fill in the blanks as to why Max would not be attending Caté class (pronounced "kah-tay" and short for "catéchisme") this year, I said:

"On a un problème avec son emploi du temps."*
"Ah, bon?"* the churchlady said.
"Oui!" I said. I couldn't very well tell her, "He has basketball practice at the same hour," could I?

"Yes, you could!" my husband said that night at dinner, adding, "Pourquoi pas?"
"That's basketball before God!" I replied.
"Mais, non!" he assured. "There is simply--tout simplement-- 'un souci'* with Max's emploi du temps* this year and he will not be able to do both caté and basketball. It will be up to him to choose."

And so he chose. "Le Basket!"* he said. And his enthusiasm was hard to deny.

* * *
One can "mentir par omission" and I do just that as I grit my teeth and finagle together just enough French words to tell the churchlady everything except, "Our son has chosen basketball over Caté." By the end of the conversation, the churchlady is a bit perplexed and very, very concerned about me. "You know, if you ever want to talk," she says, "You can always call me."

This is a small village. Sooner or later the churchlady will find out that Max has swapped the holy hour for the hoop.

Later that night I slither into bed and say a prayer: "Dieu, je vous promis de continuer avec le catéchisme de Max l'année prochaine (si c'est possible) je veux dire, s'il y a pas de basket à la même heure l'année prochaine. Pardonnez-moi pour mes péchés."*

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*References: We have a problem with his schedule; Ah, bon? = really?;un souci (m) = a concern, worry; emploi du temps (m) = timetable; le basket (m) = basketball; God, I promise to continue with Max's catechism next year (if possible) I mean, if basketball practice isn't at the same time next year. Pardon me for my sins.

un rayon (ray-oh) noun, masculine
1. a ray, beam
2. radius
3. spoke
4. shelf; department, counter

Also:
un rayon d'espoir = a ray of hope
un rayon de lune = a moonbeam
un rayon de soleil = a ray of sunshine
aux premiers rayons de soleil = at sunrise
un rayon d'action = a field of action
le rayon visuel = the line of vision
les rayons gamma = gamma rays
le rayon frais = the fresh food department
le rayon d'enfants = the children's department

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Citation du Jour

L'amour fait songer, vivre et croire Il a pour réchauffer le cœur. Un rayon de plus que la gloire, et ce rayon, c'est le bonheur.

Love makes one think, live and believe. To warm the heart it has one ray more than glory, and this ray is happiness.--Victor Hugo

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A Day in a French Life...

Loading the grocery bags into le chariot,* I think about how attached I've become to our village's supermarket. The store has undergone two agrandissements* since we moved here, each time to the villagers' collective chagrin, but is still quaint enough to feel at ease while navigating the narrow isles.

Though we don't have grocery baggers in France we now have a system at our supermarket whereby the cashier can load items directly into the bags after swiping them across the product scanner. La caissière* can also weigh les fruits et légumes* for us. Not long ago, we had to wait in line at an electronic scale, stare at a panel of 50 or so produce depictions (looking for the picture of the banana or leek or pomme* in question) push the corresponding button to retrieve the adhesive price ticket, stick that on the see-through bag and worry about if it we did right selecting "pomme* reinette" when maybe it was a "pomme rouge"* after all?

Our supermarket has well-stocked rayons,* and even a "produits étranger"* section where I can select peanut butter (beurre de cacahouètes in French), cranberry juice, tortillas and recently, Campbell's mushroom soup. But I don't buy those things anymore.

You know what they say, "On veut toujours ce qu'on n'a pas chez nous" (We always want what we don't have). Though I can now have a few staples from my American childhood, it isn't a glass of cranberry juice or a PB & J sandwich that will enhance this French life.

Realizing the truth in this, I whip past the jars of peanut butter and veer back to the cheese counter. I am in France, doing like a Frenchwoman. Fitting in, smoothing down the often self-constructed barriers, becoming a part of the ebb and flow of French life. Slipping forward at times, sans beurre de cacahouettes* to smooth the ride.

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*References: le chariot (m) = grocery cart; un agrandissement (m) = an expansion; la caissière (le cassier) = cashier; le fruit (m) = fruit ; un légume (m) = a vegetable; une pomme (f) an apple; rouge = red; produit étranger (m) = foreign product; le beurre de cacahouètes (m) = peanut butter Note: in Canada it is beurre d'arachide

Introducing our new correspondent, Jackie Espinasse. She has named her column "Pensées d'une Petite Fille de France" (Thoughts of a Little Girl from France). I told her that "Thoughts from a little French Girl" might be better, but she prefers it her way. She will be 7-years-old in just over a week. Today's story is in French and English and is a mix of fiction/non fiction.

mèche (mesh) noun, feminine

1. lock, streak (of hair)
2. wick (candle); fuse (firecracker)
3. a drill bit (tool)

Also:
une mèche folle = a stray lock/wisp of hair
une mèche rebelle = a wayward lock of hair
une mèche lente = a safety fuse
une mèche postiche = a hairpiece, toupee

Expressions:
se faire faire des mèches = to have highlights put in one's hair.
Y a pas mèche (slang) = there's no way (it's impossible)
être de mèche avec quelqu'un = to be in cahoots with someone
vendre la mèche = to spill the beans, to let the cat out of the bag
découvrir la mèche = to uncover the plot

Citation du Jour

Même si votre mère vous trouve parfaite, elle aura toujours besoin de replacer l'une de vos mèches de cheveux.

Even if your mother thinks you are perfect, she will always need to smooth back a lock of your hair.—Suzanne Beilenson

Pensées d'une Petite Fille de France... by Jackie Espinasse

L'autre jour, je suis allée chez le coiffeur pour me faire colorer les cheveux. Je voulais des cheveux roses parce que c'est ma couleur préférée.

Je me suis assise sur la chaise pour qu'on puisse peindre mes cheveux. J'ai dit à la coiffeuse: "Je n'ai pas envie que tout soit peint. Je veux juste quelques petites mèches roses." Et comme ça, elle a commencé à peindre mes cheveux roses!

Et après, quand on a fini de me colorer les cheveux, j'ai pris un bonbon rose (parce que c'est ma couleur préférée)!

* * * *

The other day I went to the hairdressers to get my hair colored. I wanted pink hair because (pink) is my favorite color.

I sat down on the chair so that they could paint my hair. I told the hairdresser: "I don't want all of my hair painted. I would just like a few pink streaks. And just like that, she began to paint my hair pink!

And after, when she finished coloring my hair, I took a pink bonbon (because it is my favorite color)!

*   *   *
A note from Jackie's mom: Rest assured, Jackie's hair is not pink (not yet, anyway). It is still vert after a summer of mixing white blond hair with eau de piscine.*

French Vocabulary

vert (adj.) = green

l'eau de piscine (f) = pool water

Fruits and vegetables ought to help this cold... (picture taken at the farmers market in Les Arcs-sur-Argens)

attraper (a-tra-pay) verb

1. to catch, to pick up

Vocabulary:
une attrapade (a-tra-pahd) f = a reprimand
un attrape-mouches = a fly-catcher
un attrape-touristes = a tourist trap
attrape-tout (adj) = a catch all

Expressions:
attraper froid = to catch cold
attraper un rhume = to catch a cold
attraper une contravention = to get a ticket
attraper un coup de soleil = to get a sunburn
se laisser attraper = to be had
attraper quelqu'un = to trick someone
se faire attraper (par quelqu'un) = to be told off by somebody
attraper le coup = to get the knack of something

Je préfère attraper un torticolis en visant trop haut que devenir bossue en regardant trop bas. I'd rather get a stiff neck from aiming too high than become hunchbacked from looking too low.—Sylvaine Charlet

A Day in a French Life... by Kristin Espinasse

I caught a cold last week. In French, that would be: J'ai attrapé un rhume.

My husband says: "As-tu téléphoné au medecin?" This is so French of him, the reflex to head straight to the doctor at the first sniffle. For me, c'est hors de question to go to a doctor's office and mingle for one hour with a roomful of microbes in la salle d'attente.

"Prends un Dolipran, ça te fera du bien." my friend Barbara suggests.

"Vas-y, mets toi au lit," my husband encourages. He'll fix dinner tonight. Suddenly tout le monde is sympathetic. But the most sympathetic of all is le pharmacien, whose job it is to sell me un traitement.

I ask for a salt water nose spray and le pharmacien returns with two cans of a new brand that I have never heard of. "I only need one can," I point out.

"C'est une meilleure affaire," he explains. "Deux pour un" or "two for one" as we say in English.

"But is it REAL salt water. De la vraie?" I ask.

He assures me that it is and piles the cans into a bag along with some powders and chalky disks that fizz will fizz when I add water to them.

I walk out of la pharmacie, my pockets now 15 euros lighter. I know my husband is right and that I should have gone to the doctor. A doctor visit costs 20 euros and the prescribed medications would have been reimbursed (health care payments) along with the visit.

By the next morning the children are fussing over me:

"Ça va maman? Tu te sens mieux ce matin?"

"Yes, Max. Thank you. I do feel a little better."

"A tes souhaits, maman!" Jackie says when I sneeze. "Pauvre maman..." 

I smile appreciatively at my little nurses. Le médicament helps some, but it is les mots that soothe the most when we are sick, n'est-ce pas?


FRENCH VOCABULARY

As-tu téléphoné au medecin? = Have you called the doctor?

c'est hors de question = it is out of the question

un microbe (m) = a germ

la salle d'attente (f) = the waiting room

prends un Dolipran = take a (paracetamol tablet)

ça te fera du bien = that'll make you feel better

vas-y, mets toi au lit = go ahead and get in bed

tout le monde = everybody

le pharmacien = the pharmacist

un traitement (m) = a treatment

une meilleure affaire (f) = a better deal

de la vraie = the real (thing)

n'est-ce pas = isn't that so?

pauvre maman = poor mommy

le médicament (m) = medicine


One of my little nurses, Jackie.

Back to School or la rentrée. Max and Jackie in 2004, at our old home in Les Arcs-sur-Argens

une roue (roo) noun, feminine
1. a wheel

la grande roue = the Ferris wheel
une roue dentée = a cogwheel
un bateau à roues = a paddle boat
véhicule à deux/quatre roues = two-/four-wheeled vehicles
une roue de secours = a spare wheel or tire
une roue de transmission = a driving wheel
la roue de la Fortune = the wheel of Fortune
la cinquième roue du carosse = an entirely useless person, thing

Expressions:
être en roue libre = to freewheel, to coast
pousser à la roue = to lend a helping hand
se mettre en roue libre = (fig.) to take it easy, to do as one likes
faire la roue = to do a cartwheel, (also) to strut about, to swagger; to spread its tail (peacock)

Le succès est comme une grande roue; on ne peut vraiment apprécier la vue que l'on a d'en haut que si l'on redescend quelques fois. Success is like a Ferris wheel; we can only really appreciate the view that we have from up high if we come down a few times. --Yvon Deveault


A Day in a French Life...  by Kristin Espinasse

Six-year-old Jackie is already asking for wheels! Put-putting along the autoroute in our micro car, Jackie shrieks when a cherry red sports car whizzes by:

"Ooh là là! Une FAY-RAR-EE!"

"No, Jackie, that isn't a Ferrari. That is a Toyota!" her brother insists.

My daughter has been hounding me for wheels for some time now. To be clear, she is only asking for two wheels (and not the kind you see spinning under French teens as they speed through the village, zig-zagging through traffic). The wheels Jackie longs for are attached to a hefty, multi-pocketed cartable.

I don't blame my daughter for wanting wheels on her schoolbag—you should see the amount of books she has to carry home each day! After one year of yearning for such a schoolbag-sur-roulettes, her wish was granted. Thursday morning she gingerly wheeled her new bag into the schoolyard....

Soon enough she discovered that the cartable à roulettes wasn't so easy to navigate through the hordes of bag-encumbered élèves. So she pushed in the collapsible handlebar, hoisted the bag onto her back, and threaded her way through traffic to class.

This morning at breakfast she inquired about graduating to four wheels. "Maman," she began, "quand je serai grande, tu m'achèteras une voiture?"  I'd better start stashing euros aside now. The good news is I'll have an extra year to save as French teens don't start driving solo until they are dix-sept years old.  

French Vocabulary

une autoroute (f) = a motorway

fay-rar-ee = pronunciation for Ferrari

un cartable (m) = schoolbag

une roulette = a small wheel

une élève (f) = a student

maman (f) = a mother

dix-sept ans = seventeen

Update: Jackie, 5 years after this story was written... The wheels get bigger every year. Soon she'll be driving.

A Day in a French Life....

Yesterday we drove to the centre-ville* to buy the children's lunch tickets (a.k.a. les tickets de cantine). The little lime green squares of paper with "Cantine Scolaire Municipale" printed on one side are for sale at the Town Hall, a building sandwiched in between La Poste and la boucherie.*

Motoring into town, we made a left past the old iron kiosque à musique* and turned into the narrow and crowded parking lot.

"Je vois une place!"* said Jackie.
"No, that parking place is marked 'handicapée', " Max replied.

After a few trips around the parking lot, I found a half-space next to l'Office du Tourisme. My car is short and compact and easily fits into even the most étroit* of spaces. I pulled in to the familiar spot (which is usually empty due to its impossible size) and, comme d'habitude,* ran right into le réverbère* which, by the way, is a funny name for a lamppost.

PAF! as they say here (BOOM!)
"T'as cabossé la voiture maman!"
"No, I did not dent the car!" As for the lamppost, I wasn't sure...

Max got out of the car and ran up to the post to inspect for damage.
"Don't stand there like that Max, the police will come over!"

Not that I was hiding from les flics,* I knew I hadn't done any damage. (I've hit that pole on two previous occasions, so far not a scratch!)

My 9-year-old stood there, nose to the fender. "Max, hurry up, quit being so conspicuous!"

I looked left, then right. Nobody seemed to have noticed the bump. Looking left again, I saw the grand-mère sitting on the bench in front of the Office de Tourism. I froze before the would-be rapporteuse.*

We studied each other in silence until the thin straight line of her mouth turned up. With that she simply nodded her head. Not far from her, a chipped blue 2CV,* bien cabossé, was parked under an old Platane* tree. I imagined she had her own run-in with the lamppost at some point or another. And you might say we were now soeurs, or sisters in crime.

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*References: le centre-ville = town center; la boucherie (f) = the butcher's; kiosque à musique (m) = a bandstand; je vois une place = I see a place; comme d'habitude = as usual; un réverbère = a lamppost; un flic (slang) m = cop; une rapporteuse (un rapporteur) = a tattletale, étroit = narrow; une Platane (f) = a plane tree; 2CV (Deux Chevaux = "two horses") = a car by Citroën