If you are planning a family in France and have had pregnancy and birth on my mind a lot lately, then read on. I’ve always loved the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s use of birth and pregnancy in his writings to denote giving birth to ideas in philosophy. In one famous example, Nietzsche wrote, "What saved me then [from madness]? Nothing but pregnancy. And each time after I had given birth to my work my life hung suspended by a thin thread."

For Nietzsche, philosophy was the process of giving birth to ideas.

This got me thinking about expressions in French that similarly play on the meanings of pregnancy and birth.

In French, birth is l’accouchement and pregnancy is la grossesse. It might be somewhat easy to understand how la grossesse denotes pregnancy, as it references "largeness," or the growing belly of a pregnant woman. For the word accouchement, the term developed from women in labor being accouchée, or lying down in bed during childbirth.

Indeed, in Old French the verb accoucher just meant to lay down in bed or to put in bed.

Here are three French expressions that play upon notions of pregnancy and childbirth:

1. La montagne a accouché d’une souris

This expression, which literally means “the mountain gave birth to a mouse,” comes from a fable by Jean de la Fontaine called La Montagne qui accouche, which goes:

Une montagne en mal d’enfant

Jetait une clameur si haute

Que chacun, au bruit accourant,

Crut qu’elle accoucherait sans faute

D’une cité plus grosse que Paris.

Elle accoucha d’une souris

A mountain in the pains of childbirth

Threw out a high a clamour so high

that everyone, with the sounds of running,

thought that she would give birth without a problem

to a city even larger than Paris.

But she gave birth to a mouse.

This expression—and the proverb it comes from, simply means when something large or impressive is expected or promised, but in actuality something small is delivered instead.

2. Accouche!

Very simply, accouche!, which literally means "give birth," is a popular expression that means "Out with it!" or "Spit it out!"

3. Accouche, qu’on baptise!

This is a Québéçois expression, which literally means "give birth, so we can baptise [the child]," means something like the French expression "accouche!" It is used when someone is taking too long to say something or to tell a story, and is used with humoir to urge someone to “spit it out.”

Like other Québéçois expressions, it is based on French Catholic belief.

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

Counting In French Helped Me Remember Les Nombres.

Les nombres (numbers) are difficult for me to remember in French. If I’m not forgetting the words for chaque nombre (each number), I’m trying to figure out if we’re talking about four twenties or eighty!

I have a hard time remembering les nombres in any language other than ma langue maternelle (my native language). I think it is related to how les nombres lack any context that helps me remember them. It feels like nothing but a list of random sounds to memorise!

It is also frustrating when most of the time numbers are not written out so you can see how they are pronounced. You are much more likely to see 80 than you are eighty or quatre-vingts.

This only gets worse if you’re dealing with des grands nombres (large numbers):

1 577 289 393,31

Un milliard cinq cent soixante-dix-sept millions deux cent quatre-vingt-neuf mille trois cent quatre-vingt-treize virgule trente et un

One billion five hundred seventy-seven million two hundred eighty-nine thousand three hundred ninety-three point thirty-one

Being able to understand a large string of numbers that sometimes use words milliard and billiard is un casse-tête (a headache). On top of that une virgule is used instead of un point for the decimal point.

C’est tellement difficile à retenir !

It’s so hard to remember!

The solution for me was to find a way to make les nombres so embedded in my brain that I knew them par coeur (by heart). I would never have to remember les nombres, I would just know them.

In order to have les nombres solidly placed in my memory I began counting anything I could en français. Les pages d’un livre, mes crayons, mes pas, etc (the pages of a book, my pencils, my steps, etc).

Where I made the most progress was during mon entraînement matinal (my morning excercise). Compter (counting) would keep my mind distracted and help me practice les nombres en français!

Un, deux, trois…

One, two, three…

It wasn’t easy and I would often get lost, repeat numbers, or skip numbers, especially with the 70s and the 90s:

Soixante-huit, soixante-neuf…. Euh… sept… soixante-dix, soixante-onze…

Sixty-eight, sixty-nine… uh… seven… seventy, seventy-one…

Eventually that daily practice made it easier to remember les nombres en français. I could remember les números de telephone and follow mes cours de comptabilité (my accounting classes) without any problem!

I wasn’t doing un milliard de pompes (a billion push-ups), but the practice made it easier to remember all French numbers!

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

Une Visite Chez Le Coiffeur

Here’s a short story in French (with it’s English translation below) about my son’s monthly trips to the barbershop. Following these three paragraphs, you can find the vocabulary used in the story as well as additional vocabulary you can use for your own trip to the hairdresser.

Chaque mois, mon mari amène notre fils chez le coiffeur, où notre fils s’assoit dans une petite voiture rouge faite de plastique et où il se fait tailler ses cheveux.

Normalement, mon mari demande au coiffeur une coupe de footballeur, ce que veut dire qu’il coupe les cheveux très court sur les côtes et les laisse longs sur le dessus.

Si notre fils reste calmement, il va avoir une sucette!

English Translation:

Every month, my husband brings our son to the barber, where our son gets to sit in a little, red plastic car and have his hair trimmed.

Normally, my husband asks the barber for a “soccer player’s haircut,” which just means short on the side and long on top.

If our son sits quietly, he will get a lollipop!

After reading that short story in French, here’s some additional vocabulary to help you when you need a trip to the barber or hairdresser:

hair: les cheveux (Remember: hair is always plural (m.) unless you are talking about a single strand of hair.)

haircut: une coupe

trim: tailler

barber: le coiffeur

a lock of hair: une mèche

bangs: une frange

hair part: une raie

crew cut: coupe en brosse

clippers: la tondeuse

hair ends: les pointes

Layered on top: dégradé sur le dessus

dyed: colorés

curly: bouclés

smooth: lisses

fine: fins

dry: secs

thick: épais

thick: gras

normal: normaux

a blow-dry or straightening treatment: un brushing

shampoo: le shampooing

conditioner: l’après shampooing

the sides: les côtes

the top: le dessus.

Blog submitted by: David at The French Property Network - Cle France.

My early trips to l’épicerie were an interesting exercise in how much I trusted my French. I took gambles on whether the bottle I was buying was l’assouplissant (softener) or la lessive (detergent), hoping it wasn’t l’eau de Javel (bleach).

Before having the luxury of un lave-vaisselle (a dishwasher) I used to rely on du liquide vaisselle (dish soap) and des éponges (sponges). That means looking at many different products that even if I know le mot français (the French word), I often don’t know la marque (the brand)!

Cependant (however), before struggling to realise what the difference between French soap brands are, I had to also learn the vocabulary. The difference between la lessive, le liquide vaisselle et le savon (detergent, dish soap, and hand soap) is very important!

Luckily I knew how to say faire la vaisselle (wash dishes) so when I was confusingly staring at the different bottles at l’épicerie, I at least knew how to say what I was looking for.

La Vaisselle – Washing Dishes In French

Excusez-moi monsieur, vous cherchez quelque chose ?

Oui…. J’ai besoin du savon pour faire la vaisselle.

Vous voulez dire du liquide vaisselle ?

Je crois… oui…

Suivez-moi, monsieur, c’est juste ici.

D’accord.

Excuse me, sir, are you looking for something ?

Yes… I need soap for washing dishes.

Do you mean dish washing soap?

I believe so… yes…

Follow me sir, it’s right over here.

Alright.

I will admit I was not sûr à cent percent (one hundred percent sure) that le liquide vaisselle was the right word. I figured if l’employé (the employee) knew it would work with la vaisselle (dirty dishes), it should be the right thing.

I made my way out of l’épicerie and when it came time to faire la vaisselle I was relieved to find out that I bought the right kind of soap!

Voici un vocabulaire de la vaisselle :

Faire la vaiselle – To do the dishes

La vaisselle – Dirty dishes

Le liquide vaisselle – Dish soap

La lessive – Detergent

L’assouplissant – Softener

L’eau de Javel – Bleach

Le savon – Soap

L’assiette – Plate (physical dish)

Le plat – Plate (meal, dish)

La tasse – Cup

Le verre – Glass

Le lave-vaisselle – Dishwasher

Le plongeur – Dishwasher (person).

Blog submitted by: David at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

Most native English speakers are familiar with the eight or nine English parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and articles). All English words fall into one of these general parts of speech.

Luckily, French follows the same basic organisation of parts of speech that English does.

Called les classes de mots, French parts of speech are categorised as follows:

Les noms

Nouns, or les noms, are one of the most important parts of a French phrase. As in English, French nouns identify a person, place, or thing. However, unlike in English, all French nouns have a gender. You can further divide French nouns into les noms propres, or proper nouns (names), and les noms communs, or common nouns (general nouns).

Les déterminants

Determiners, or les déterminants, consist of articles (les articles) and certain kinds of adjectives (les adjectifs non qualificatifs). These words precede nouns and determine the gender and number of the noun that they modify. Les articles include le, la, and les, and les adjectifs include words like mon, ma, mes, ce, cette, ces.

Les adjectifs

As in English, adjectives modify nouns. In French, most adjectives follow the nouns that they modify although this depends on the adjective (For more about adjective word order in French see this post.)

Les pronoms

Pronouns in French replace nouns, just as they do in English. French pronouns include je, tu, il/elle/on, vous, nous, and ils/elles. 

Les verbes

Verbs are another integral part of speech in each French sentence. They must always be conjugated to match with the person or thing (noun) that is performing the action. In French, verbs also change based on gender, number, tense, mood, and voice.

Les adverbes

Adverbs modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb. In French, adverbs do not change based on gender or number and are typically recognisable by the ending –ment. Check out this post for more information about French adverbs.

Les prépositions

Like adverbs, French prepositions are invariable, which means that they do not change based on gender or number. This makes them, along with adverbs, an easier part of speech to use in French. Prepositions link nouns and phrases to other parts of a sentence. They include words like après, à, and chez, among others.

…and finally…

Les conjonctions

Conjunctions in French are also invariable.

As in English, conjunctions are words that link a group of words together.

Conjunctions in French include et, car, mais, or, ou, and donc.

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.