un arc
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Jackie's column "Pensées d'une Petite Fille de France" (Thoughts of a Little Girl from France) is back. My seven-year-old talks about rainbows, or "les arcs-en-ciel." The English translation follows.
un arc (ark) noun, masculine
1. bow, arc, curve, arch
Also:
le tir à l'arc = archery
un arc-en-ciel = a rainbow
une scie à l'arc = a bow saw
l'arc des sourcils = the arch of the eyebrows
un arc roman/brisé, aigu = a semicircular/gothic arc
l'Arc de Triomphe = The Arch of Triumph
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Expressions:
avoir plus d'une corde à son arc = to have more than one solution; to have many resources to succeed
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French Proverb:
Il faut avoir plusieurs cordes à son arc.
One must have more than one string to one's bow.
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Pensées d'une Petite Fille de France
As-tu jamais vu un arc-en-ciel? Il y a presque toutes les couleurs dans l'arc-en-ciel.
As-tu vu les couleurs dans un arc-en-ciel? Il y a le bleu, le jaune, le rose, le rouge, le vert et le violet....
Les arcs-en-ciel viennent après la pluie, je pense.
Des fois je m'amuse à dessiner les arcs-en-ciel. Ce n'est pas difficile de les dessiner. On fait un pont et c'est tout!
* * In English * *
Have you ever seen a rainbow? There are almost all the colors in the rainbow.
Have you seen the colors in a rainbow? There is blue, yellow, pink, red, green and purple...
Rainbows come after the rain, I think.
Sometimes I like to draw rainbows. It isn't hard to draw them. You make a bridge and that's all!
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Post Note: More pronunciation soucis* for Jackie's mom. Here's what happened this week when I reread Jackie's story aloud, for her to edit:
Moi: un 'ark en syel'
Jackie: Non! It's 'ar KON syel'
Moi: (reading last paragraph) "difficile de dessiner...."
Jackie: "Not 'DE dessiner'! Ça ne veut rien dire! (That doesn't mean anything!) C'est: 'A dessiner'!"
*References: un soucis (m) = a worry
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