42 Comments

Ils sont vraiment drôles, et je crois que j'en connaissais deux (ma mère étais francophone)

How about sharing the French sentence too in each example?

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sure, that makes sense

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Thanks. After all my years of French and going to Frrance and Belgium, I just learned/noticed a construction new to me, as in "ça te dit d'aller prendre un verre"?

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I'm doing DuoLingo to refresh my horribly neglected French, and I noticed it teaches the "ça te dit" construction for "do you want to/is it convenient for you to" too! My French used to be decent, but this is not a construction I was ever taught in school (admittedly over 30 years ago...).

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This is marvelous... somehow I feel the phrase, “Sir, I do believe that after Brexit, we will have the butter, the butter’s money and the ass of the dairymaid.” will live on in my brain for all eternity. 😂

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lol

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I have enjoyed these so much! It’s been fun to practice my pronunciation and imagine actually ever using them!

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Actually, next time around I'll put a mp3 of the pronunciation as well :)

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Oh this made me laugh more than a few times. I was just writing about being hit by a tremendous tiredness. Now I can sound more fancy about it.

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I'll come clean, I stole this amazing line from the great Peter Bowles, who I made a film with. And who said this to me as his very first sentence after shaking my hand... I was directing the movie, he'd just arrived in France. I shook his hand and asked how he was he just said with his deep baritone voice 'Well... I have just been hit by a tremendous tiredness.' ...

Quite an intro

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Oh, I love that sort of stark, unapologetic honesty. It sounds quite appropriately cinematic.

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Moi je viens de l'Ontario, et certain de ces expressions, j'ai entendu auparavant, d'autre non. Hahahaha j'ai bien aimer cette poste, celle ci était bien drôle.

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Merci.

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Bienvenue mon ami

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Broyer du noir is so good!

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These are awesome!!!

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Thank you

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These are all solid gold. Thank you.

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You're welcome!

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J’adore! Formidable. ;)

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🥖

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Having been French major in college and a Francophile, I enjoy these expressions so much!

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I'm imagining that you enjoy some level of French cinema?

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Yes of course. The main reason I became a major in French was the French cinema aspect. I had taken so many classes with Professor Caron on film that it wrote itself

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The French film part of me comes out more in the fiction book I’m writing and posting on https://clickingandwaiting.substack.com/ - need some outlet for this

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Hey Remy, can you put either a pronunciation guide or a sound wave? I love these, but I'm hopelessly bad at french pronunciation...I'd love to incorporate a few into my English vocab!

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Yes, you actually told me last time already! Ok I will add this next time around, you are right

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You might enjoy knowing that in Dutch, we have the expression "een houten kop hebben" (to have a wooden head) for that hungover feeling. :)

Also, for that extreme fatigue, particularly in situations involving sports, we have an expression "de man met de hamer tegenkomen," literally: to run into the man with the hammer." Which makes me wonder if that has anything to do with Thor, or his Germanic counterpart Donar...

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The rake one seems almost the opposite of the rather old English term for a womanizer (who I suppose must necessarily be at least somewhat successful to earn the term): A "rake".

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Yes, completely.

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Bahahah. Very rich and funny. I got rolled in flour recently. Don't recommend.

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Such a great post - love these expressions!

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As someone now living life in a second language (French), I love your French expressions posts! Can I make a suggestion for an extra point to put with each expression - eg after Origins, Meaning etc. I would like to have a sense of “register”. That is… who is going to use this? If I said it, would it be appropriate or might someone be shocked or taken aback? Is it bon goût or dans la gouttière?

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