FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Photo: (summer 2003) my mom, my son & the verb casse-croûter.

Just for fun, a very informal verb for you today from the popular noun 'le
casse-croûte' (snack, quick lunch).

casse-croûter (kass-kroo-tay) verb
1. to take along a bite to eat; to eat quickly and informally

Hear today's word (compliments of my ten-year-old, Max):Download casse-crouter.wav

Citation du Jour:
Le pain d'autrui a sept croûtes.
The other's bread has seven crusts.

A Day in a French Life...
Don't miss the story, part of this book, based on this edition!


Recette / French Recipe               

:: Mtabal ::

[or la purée d'aubergine (a.k.a. "caviar d'aubergines")]

-- one or two eggplants
-- one small carton of yogurt (one-half cup...)
-- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
-- cumin powder to taste
-- salt, pepper and one crushed garlic clove
-- lemon juice
-- sesame oil to taste

Roast the eggplant in the oven until insides are soft; let cool, then scrape out the "meat," discarding the skin. In a food processor, or with a hand mixer, combine the roasted eggplant with the rest of the ingredients on the list above. Serve chilled.

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Words in a French Life: "...a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."
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                           The Bar de la Marine in Marseilles...

For those of you who like to photograph people, today's popular French word will be a nice change from the predictable "Say cheese!" approach.

le ouistiti (we-stee-tee) noun, masculine

  1. "cheese!"* (not the kind you eat!)
     [as in  "Souriez sur la photo"-or-"Smile for the photo]*
     --from the way the lips form a smile when pronouncing the word

  2. a petite South American monkey

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Pronunciation: Download wistiti2.wav

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Expression:
un drole de ouistiti = a bizarre person

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Citation du Jour:

Se taire, prier, travailler, sourire.
Be quiet, pray, work, smile. --Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer

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A Day in a French Life...

At half past three
dimanche après me-dee*
We--
along with many an attendee
witnessed our cousine*
blush
and say
OUI*

The question, see
(posed by the future ma-ree*)
left other demoiselles whispering
why not me?

To which
lui, lui and lui*
sped
direction la sortie.*

Past the photographer who offered
"Ouistiti?"
and across the street
to the Bar de L'Oubli

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References: dimanche après (midi) = Sunday afternoon; la cousine (le cousin) = cousin; oui = yes; ma-ree (le mari) = husband; lui = him; la sortie (f) = exit; le ouistiti (m) = (smile and say) cheese; l'oubli (m) = oblivion

    
         My son, Max, who was recently in a school play...

       
                                    A café in Nice

Don't forget about the new feature at French Word-A-Day: a sound clip! Just click on the link under today's definition to hear the word pronounced.

le truc (trewk) noun, masculine
  1. way, trick
  2. thing
  3. thingamajig, hootenanny

Hear the word "truc": Download Truc.wav

Terms and Expressions:

Monsieur Truc = Mr what's his name
les trucs du métier = the tricks of the trade
C'est quoi, ce truc là? What's that thing (thingamajig)?
trouver le truc (pour faire quelque chose) = to get the hang of something

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Citation du Jour
Il n'y a rien de nouveau sous le soleil, mais il y a aussi tout un tas de vieux trucs que nous ignorons.
There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know. --Ambrose Bierce

A Day in a French Life...

...in which I fear I am like the proverbial housewife (or the settled expatriate) that has let herself (her French pronunciation) go.

                               * The Language Lolitas *

I listened to my American friends converse with my French friend Stéphane. Up
till now, I had not heard them utter one French word.

"But, you are French!" Stéphane said.
"No," they insisted.

Though they live 'over the pond,' their command of la langue française* is impressionnante.*

Lolita et compagnie...*
And then, a few weeks back, I met up with two Anglophones in Aix-en-Provence. I followed the women into a magasin* and listened to them ask the store owner for information. I fully expected to hear that familiar American accent roll right off their tongues... indeed I cringed in anticipation. Instead the women rolled their French r's like a couple of natives.

      * The Housewife (or language slacker in robe and slippers) *

After a dozen or so years in France, I am like the proverbial housewife that has
let herself go. "Hitched" for some time now to the Hexagone* I have become a
little too comfortable in the language, a little too sure of my savoir parler.*
It is only when a French Language Vamp steps in, with his or her stiletto-heeled
tongue that I am forced to recognize my own dowdy diphthong.

After receiving my French residency card (and uttering a ceremonial "with this
card I thee reside"), it seems I've taken off my high heels and replaced them
with fuzzy French slippers.

Like a frumpy femme au foyer* who spends less time on her appearance to attend to a needy baby--I spend less time primping over pronunciation; my "needy babies" are my French vocabulary.

Just like the mother who must give up time for herself to nurture her child, I have stopped preening my pronunciation and gotten on with feeding and burping my lexicon: in with exact words, out with the air-packed substitutes ("machin," "truc," "chose"... or "thingy" "thingamajig" "thing") that I used to rely on for words I did not know.

Every cozy housewife's nightmare is the sultry vixen (or Language Lolita) who
threatens her marriage. Perhaps language is one place where there is room for a word mistress. For the French language--the object of our affection, frustration and bouts of jealousy--surely has enough love to go around.

So the next time a Language Lolita hip-sways into your suburb, menacing your
relationship with your partner, Pronunciation, instead of closing your shutters and locking your doors, you might just invite him or her in for tea and conversation. (Wear your speech stilettos just in case.)

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*References: la langue française (f) = French language; impressionnant(e) = impressive; et compagnie = and company; le magasin (m) = shop; l'Hexagone (m) = France; savoir (to know how) parler (to speak); la femme au foyer (f) = housewife

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Words in a French Life: "...a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."
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                  A little cabanon in Vidauban (Var).

Special thanks to Jean-Marc for recording the pronunciation of "paille". Click on the link below to listen to the word.

une paille (pie) noun
  1.  straw (hat)
  2.  straw (drinking)

Hear today's word: Download paille.wav

Expressions
tirer à la courte paille = to draw straws
être sur la paille = to be penniless
C'est la paille et la poutre = It's the pot calling the kettle black.
un feu de paille = a flash in the pan
un homme de paille "man of straw" = front man in a dishonest affair
le vin de paille = straw wine (sweet white wine from grapes dried upon straw)

Citation du Jour:
L'espoir luit comme un brin de paille dans l'étable.
Hope shines like a wisp of straw in a cowshed. --Paul Verlaine

A Day in a French Life:
The story that originally appeared here and included the vocabulary,* below, is now a part of this book:

Words in a French Life: "...a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."
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*une poignée (f) = a handful; un gâteau (m) = a cake or cookie; un garçon (m) = a boy; une pomme (f) = an apple; Ne rentrez plus dans la cuisine! = Don't come back into the kitchen!; une machine à café (f) = coffee machine; le canapé (m) = couch; un match de foot (m) = football game; Il ne pleut plus! = It's no longer raining; gigoter = to fidget; le terrain de foot (m) = soccer field; le footballeur (m) la footballeuse (f) = soccer player; le maillot (m) = jersey (soccer)

embêter (om-behtay) verb
1. to bother, to worry; to pester; to annoy; to bore

Also: s'embêter = to be bored

Expressions:
ne pas s'embêter =
to have fun
ne vous embêtez pas avec ça =
don't worry about it
s'embêter comme un rat mort =
to bored as a dead rat


Citation du Jour
S'embêter, c'est s'insulter soi-même.
To be bored is to insult oneself. --Jules Renard

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A Day in a French Life...
I went to tuck the kids into bed the other night but discovered their lits* empty. Pushing open the door to my room I found two bedtime bandits burning the midnight oil.

Max and Jackie were seated au lit,* backs to the wall, pillows propped behind le dos* for comfort. A book and a magazine hid their faces from the nose down.

They had parked their pantoufles* bedside before installing themselves à la tête du lit.* The two were dressed in their pajamas; Max in a green and blue plaid ensemble and Jackie in pink from head to toe. A faint scent of bubblegum-flavored toothpaste pervaded the air.

My kids had remembered to turn on the reading lamps atop the tables de nuit* and not the bulb hanging from the ceiling, the one that's shaded with Japanese rice paper for the time being (for the past four years to be exact).

When my little Franco-American bookworms did not crumble into a fit of giggles at the sight of me (as they usually do when I have caught them ditching dodo*) my brain tangled in confusion.

I approached the bed, sure that they'd break down, giving in to the guili guilis.* Preparing for the attack--my fingers curled mid-air and ear level--I approached the readers who remained as nonchalant as when I'd appeared two minutes earlier. When the kids didn't react, my arms froze before dropping to my sides; my shoulders followed suit. Silence.

When I barked like a dog the literati briefly looked up, only to raise their books eye-level, the slightest hint of irritation on their faces. I saw that Jackie was reading a paperback entitled "Max embête les filles" ("Max pesters the girls"). Her brother read the June issue of his favorite soccer review, "Super Foot Mag".

It occurred to me that I might be the dupe of Camera Caché*--that, at any moment, a director would pop in to the room (via the open window) and reveal to me that this was indeed une blague.*

When the camera crew failed to leap over the window frame, I sat silent thinking about the power of words and the joy of reading--witnessing the spell that so many letters, strung together in a line, had cast over my children.

Next, I pulled up a book from the leaning tower beside my bed and remembered the old adage:

Si tu ne peux les battre, rejoins-les. If you can't beat them, join them.
And so I did.

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*References: le lit (m) = bed; le dos (m) = back; la pantoufle (f) = slipper; à la tête du lit = at the head of the bed; le dodo (from "dormir" "to sleep") (m) = (childspeak for bedtime); le guili-guili (m) = tickle tickle; Camera Caché = Candid Camera; une blague (f) = a joke, trick

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Words in a French Life: "...a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."
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French Word-A-Day is a free language journal, with over 3000 posts to help you learn the language in context. It is my fulltime job and a great pleasure to maintain this site.

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Listening to Mr Farjon talk about wild plants.

      
           My husband, Jean-Marc, and son Max last summer...
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Words in a French Life: "...a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."
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la lunette (lew-net) noun, feminine
  1. telescope
  2. les lunettes = (pair of) glasses
  3. toilet seat

--from the French word "lune" (moon) (due to its shape).

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Related terms and Expressions:

un étui à lunettes = an eyeglasses case
la lunette arrière = rear window
porter des verres = to wear glasses
les lunettes de soleil = sunglasses
chausser mieux ses lunettes = to pay more attention
un nez à porter des lunettes = a big nose (a nose for wearing glasses)
voir les choses par le petit bout de la lunette = to have tunnel vision or a narrow outlook

...and in English there is the phrase "lunette window" for the piece of cloth that covers the eye of an ornery (or lunatic?) horse.

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Citation du Jour
Les lunettes cachent beaucoup de choses--même une larme dans l'oeil.
Glasses hide a lot of things--even a tear in the eye. --Sören Kierkegaard

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A Day in a French Life...

Hand in hand my daughter and I traverse the modern section of our medieval village. When we pass in front of the magasin de lunettes* I slow, turn briefly toward the shop, and wave. Almost as soon as my hand reaches up I quickly tug it back down again.

"Who is that?" Jackie asks.
"A friend."

                                            *   *   *

Originally, "lunette" meant "little moon." The word is now commonly used in French for objects with a crescent shape, such as eyeglasses, and even toilet seats.

Last week I stopped into the lunetterie* to get my shades or "little moons" adjusted. The unbespectacled shop assistant was in the back of the store. She smiled, pointed to the telephone, which was at her ear, and said, "J'arrive! I'll be right there!" I shook my head, raised an arm and waved my hand. She needn't worry about serving me right away. After all, I wasn't going to pay.

The fact that I wasn't going to pay kept me from stepping pied* in an optical shop for the last two years. For my timidity, I put up with sunglasses tumbling down my face or seated lopsided--like a parked teeter-totter--atop my nose. The lenses, which are 'de vue,'* had long ago popped out. How many times had I recuperated les verres* from the sidewalk, only to wrestle them back in again? These same lenses now sat unevenly in the frame's sockets.

Eyeglass boutiques worldwide (it seems) do not charge to adjust frames. I always feel uneasy as the shop assistant puts his or her work aside to tend to my lopsided lunettes.

This time I solved the dilemma by bringing along a pourboire.* I tucked five euros into my pocket and headed for the optical shop. The boutique assistant put the phone down and said, "A vous, madame." I showed her my glasses, apologizing for their tattered état,* then watched her push and mold the frame back into shape.

"Essayez-les," she said now and again. When the glasses were finally adjusted and snug against my face, I promised I would never again push them back as a makeshift hair band (therein lay their demise time after time).

Next, the dreaded question: "Combien je vous dois?"*
And the predictable reply:  "Rien."*
I smiled knowingly and handed her five euros.
"Non. Rien!" she insisted.
I thanked her and mentioned that I would need a few post cards. In a haphazard fashion, I pulled together a half-dozen cartes postales,* trying to get the sum to add up to 5 euros.

The shop assistant counted the cards and said, "Trois euros soixante, s'il vous plaît."* I handed her the five euro note and told her to please keep the change.
"Non." she repeated. Next, she looked me directly in the eyes and said firmly:

"Les bons comptes font des bons amis."
(Good accounts make good friends.)

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*References: le magasin de lunettes (m) = optical shop; la lunetterie (f) = frame maker; le pied (m) = foot; de vue = prescription (lenses); les verres (mpl) = lenses; le pourboire (m) = tip; l'état (m) = condition; combien je vous dois? = how much do I owe you?; rien = nothing; la carte postale (f) = postcard; trois euros soixante = three euros sixty

Today's word is for my friend Alicia, in Angleterre.* She taught me a verb that I felt sure I knew par coeur* (in reality, I knew the half of it). "Asticot" is a French noun that I hear almost daily around our home--what with two children who rarely cease d'asticoter* and their father who continually reminds them to "arretez de bouger comme des asticots!"*

asticoter (ah-stee-ko-tay) verb
  1. to provoke, irritate; to needle, to get at; (Alicia's version: to maggot!)  2. to fidget

There is also the noun "un asticot" which means "maggot," as well as a funny adjective, "asticotable" or "that which can be needled or provoked".

Expression:
gigoter / bouger comme un asticot = to wriggle or wiggle like a maggot, to fidget

Citation du Jour:
...l'égalité, la seule égalité en ce monde, l'égalité devant l'asticot. ...equality, the only equality in this world of ours: equality in the presence of the maggot.--Jean Henri Fabre

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*References:  le timbre (m) = stamp; Angleterre (f) = England; par coeur = by heart; sur terre = on earth

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Words in a French Life: "...a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."
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