I can’t resist: This week blossoms bloomed in my garden as the weather finally begins to warm up.

So I’m dedicating this post to the lovely flowers I see outside of my window, the dogwoods, tulips, bluebells, magnolias, and pansies that make me want to step outside of my dark office and enjoy this spring weather.

Alors, vous voulez faire du jardinage? Il y a quelques conseils en jardinage qu’il faut suivre, le plus important, bien sûr, c’est de se rappeler que les plantes ont besoin de trois choses primaires: du sol, du soleil, et de l’eau. C’est tout. Le reste, c’est la cerise sur le gâteau!

Courtsey of hardworkinghippy at Flickr.com

Voici quelques mots en français qui peuvent être utiles si jamais vous faites un jardin en France (et pourquoi pas!):

le jardin — garden

le potager — vegetable garden

le parterre — flowerbed

les plantes — plants

la terre — topsoil

le sol — soil

la plante vivace — perennial plant

bisannuel/annuel — biannual/annual

l’arbre — tree

les mauvaises herbes — weeds

la plante en pot — potted plant

l’herbe — grass

l’arbuste à fleurs — flowering bush

les outils de jardin — gardening tools

le balai à gazon — lawn rake

la houe — hoe

la bêche — spade

le râteau — rake

la brouette — wheelbarrow

la tondeuse — lawnmower

le terreau — compost

l’arrosoir — watering can

l’herbicide — weedkiller

l’engrais — fertilizer

cueillir — to pick

récolter — to harvest

désherber — to weed

arroser — to water

tailler — to trim

semer — to sow

tondre — to mow (this can mean to clip hair, as well, but in this case it means to mow the lawn)

pailler — to mulch

Alors, je vais utiliser ce vocabulaire à faire un petit texte en français:

Si l’on veut faire un jardin, il faut d’abord acheter quelques besoins, surtout les outils de jardinage. Il faut avoir au moins une bêche, une houe, et un arrosoir. Il faut peut-être acheter de l’engrais et de l’herbicide aussi pour tuer les mauvaises herbes. Après avoir semer les graines, il faut arroser le jardin et mettre de la paille. Quelques semaines après tout ce travail, les plantes seront prêtes à être cueillies!

Now it’s your turn: Can you write up a simple paragraph from the gardening vocabulary listed above?

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

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

Au Sud de la France (In the South of France) there is a famous drink that isn’t wine. It often brings up thoughts of the Mediterranean sun for les Français. C’est le pastis! Un apéritif à base de réglisse parfumé à l’anis (an anise flavored licorice based apératif, or pre-dinner drink).

Photo by cyclonebill on Flickr.

The name pastis vient d’un mot provençal (comes from a provençal word), and means mixture. En fait, il faut ajouter de l’eau (in fact, you have to add water) to le pastis if you want to create the potent mixture.

When I first tried la boisson alcoolisée (the alcoholic drink) I knew to regarder dans les yeux (look into the eyes) when toasting, but I still had a lot to learn about le pastis. Not knowing that you have to ajouter de l’eau (add water), I poured myself du pastis sans eau (without water) and after one sip I had to spit it out.

The strong taste was too much for mes papilles (my taste buds). I went in to try another sip, thinking it’s just une question d’habitude (a matter of habit). Malheureusement, ce n’était pas le cas (unfortunately, that wasn’t the case). Je pensais que le pastis n’était pas mon truc (I thought that pastis wasn’t my thing).

Then one day mes amis français m’ont invité au bar (my French friends invited me out to a bar) and asked me a question:

“Alex, tu veux du pastis?”

Alex, do you want some pastis?

I quickly told them ma histoire d’épouvante (my horror story), which was met with a round of laughter. Mon ami looked at me and said:

“Il faut ajouter de l’eau!”

You have to add water!

I was still sceptic, but I wanted to go in with an open mind. Surprisingly, il m’a plu (I liked it)!

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

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

A few weeks ago we talked about the colour Green and the many shades there are to help you describe things in French, we called it "Fifty Shades of Green" but today we look at Pink so let us call this blog La Vie en rose!

Image courtesy of Krystal Blck on Pinterest.

This week’s post’s title comes from a very famous song by French songstress Edith Piaf. This song has known international success – I would say in part to its catchy chorus. I chose the title because we’re going to continue with colorful expressions. Last time, we looked at le vert, and this time, we’re going to study expressions and shades of le rose (pink) — not to be confused with la rose, the flower by the same name. Let’s study a few expressions with this word.

We’ll start with the title of the post. La vie en rose has been translated as “life through rose-tinted glasses.” Still doesn’t help much with the meaning, does it? To see things rose simply means you see the bright side of things! It’s a wonderful viewpoint to have, but for some, tout n’est pas rose (not everything is pink). This just means that things aren’t looking up for you. You could also translate it with the flower’s name in it: it’s not a bed or roses.

Le rose has a very feminine and floral idea behind it, and this extends to scent, too. Can you guess what ne pas sentir la rose means? It’s a familiar way of saying something smells horrible or rotten.

Do you practice a healthy lifestyle and work out? Besides all the added health benefits, you get to be compared to a flower in French. Quelle chance (what luck)! Etre frais comme une rose means to be as fit as a fiddle! A bit of a difference in the English counterpart, but the idea behind it is the same. Part of being fit means eating well, but attention: ne mangez pas trop de carrotes (be careful: don’t eat too many carrots)! Why not? Vous auriez les fesses roses (you’ll have pink buttcheeks)!

In English, boys are born “with snips and snails and puppy dog tails,” while girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice.” Well, I like dogs, so I won’t take offense to this.

But French kids have it a little different: Les filles naissent dans les roses et les garçons dans les choux (girls are born among the roses, and boys are born among the cabbages). Again, no offense taken. I like cabbage.

Un carnet rose is a list of celebrities (les people) who have recently given birth.

Vous aimez boire (do you like to drink)? If someone drinks to the point of hallucinations, they’re said to see les éléphants roses. Want to find them? Maybe you can see them in la ville rose, the nickname of Toulouse. It has this name because of the colours of the bricks on the buildings.

Vous aimez lire (do you like to read)? Are you fans of sappy love stories? If so, you’re a fan of les roman à l’eau de rose. If something is à l’eau de rose, it means that it is sentimental.

Le rose also has a sexual connotation both in terms of anatomy and its use as an adjective to show that something is sexual.

Below you will find 12 shades of pink and their English counterparts.

rose - pink

cuisse de nymhe - literally “thigh of a nymph,” but this is referring to the color of Alba roses

rose bonbon - candy pink

rose corail - coral pink

magenta - magenta

rose tendre - baby pink

vieux rose - old pink

fuchsia - fuchsia

rose dragée - pastel pink

rose vif / rose fluo - hot pink

rose saumon - salmon pink

incarnadin - incarnadine

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

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

I hesitate to use the word “untranslatable” here because, frankly, there is no perfect translation between languages. Words and concepts have different shades of meanings in different languages based on particular linguistic cultures and histories. But non-native speakers can have an idea of a particular word, even if they don’t know all shades of its meanings.

“Le Spleen de Paris” by Marisa Ficorella

Here is a list of ten French words that have no English equivalent. Some of these words have been adopted into the English language, even though their meanings have changed slightly in translation:

Flâneur (nm) – This word has been adopted into the English language, particularly in literary studies. Literally a “stroller” or a “lounger”, in the 19th century this word came to mean a literary man of a certain social class, who would spend his time exploring Parisian streets. Of course, the leisure to stroll around Paris habitually meant that flâneurs did not have any money problems! The poet Charles Baudelaire often used this figure in his poetry.

Dépaysement (nm) — This interesting word can mean anything from disorientation to culture shock. The word is formed from the word pays or “country” and would literally mean something like “to be uncountried”. Dépaysement is the feeling one gets of not being in one’s own country, of being a foreigner.

Retrouvailles (nf plural) — I love this word. Literally meaning something like “refindings”, this word refers to the reunion you would have with someone you care deeply for but whom you have not seen in a long time. The English word “reunion” just doesn’t do this word justice.

Terroir (nm) — I’ve written a blog post on this word before. Terroir is a notoriously tricky word to translate, although it is often used in the international wine and cheese industries. Terroir describes the combination of climate, labor, geology, and geography of a certain place that contributes to its distinct agricultural products, including wine and cheese.

Bricoleur (nm) — A bricoleur is a handyman who makes use of whatever materials are available to him to create a construction (or bricolage). Perhaps the closest equivalent in English would be something like a DIYer, although this doesn’t quite convey the meaning of using a variety of  available materials to create one unified thing, like taking the old wood in your shed to create a nice bookshelf.

Savoir-Faire (nm) — This word is, of course, ubiquitous in English. In French, it is similar to “know-how”, or how to solve certain practical problems. Once adopted into the English language, however, this French word took on a different meaning: knowing how to act appropriately in social situations.

Spleen (nm) — Ah, spleen. Another 19th century, Baudelairian word. In French, spleen means melancholy, profound boredom and dissatisfaction. In fact, its synonymous with another French word that the English language has adopted: ennui. In English, spleen (not the anatomical definition) is bad temper or spite.

Si (conj) — Si can mean multiple things in French (like “if”), but it is also a cool way to answer in the affirmative to a negative question. So, for example, someone asks you, referring to a film perhaps, tu ne l’as pas vu, n’est pas? (You didn’t see it, right?), you would say si (and not oui) in order to respond, si, je l’ai vu la semaine dernière (yes, I saw it last week).

Chez (prep) – This is another classic French word that you probably are familiar with. But it’s such a useful and versatile word. Not only can chez mean that you are at a particular location (chez moi) but it can also indicate the particular state of mind of a person or group of people (chez les français — “among the French”) or to speak about an artist’s body of work (chez Molière). 

Épater (v) — Not to bring up Baudelaire again, but among the French decadent poets of the 19th century, they used the following rallying cry: épater la bourgeoisie! This literally means, “shock the middle class”. But épater also means to wow, to stun, to amaze, and to impress — it packs quite a bit of punch!

Can you think of any other “untranslatable” words in French?

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

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

Le printemps (spring) has officially sprung —  La nature et vos allergies sont revenues à la vie (Nature and your allergies have come back to life). Flowers are blooming, bees are hard at work, and all that was brown has become green.

Le vert (green) is often associated l’argent et les finances (money and finances), l’avidité (greed), la jalousie (jealousy), l’ambition (ambition), la stabilité (stability), and la renaissance (rebirth).

Along with their many associations, colors play an important role in language. When you’re sad, you’re blue. You can be tickled pink. You can be in the red with the bank. If you’re scared, you’re yellow bellied.

To celebrate the return of Spring, we’re going to focus on the use of vert in French. En plus, c’est ma couleur préférée (plus, it’s my favorite color).

Image courtesy of Crafthubs

Noun

Let’s start with the word as a noun. Le vert means green, green light (in traffic), vegetation, and the countryside.

As a proper noun, les Verts is referring to The Greens, a green-ecologist political group that dissolved in 2010.

Have you ever had a penny that had a green spot on it? This is called le vert-de-gris, and it’s just a green tinge that forms on copper. The same thing can be found on The Statue of Liberty in New York.

Verb

“Vert” by itself isn’t a verb, but it’s used in some verbs.

Être au vert has 2 meanings. The first refers to being out in the country. The other is when you’re watching your diet. Both are referring to la verdure (the greenery) – either outside or on your plate.

Se mettre au vert also has 2 meanings. The first is to go out into the countryside for a relaxing rest. The other meaning is less literal: it means to go on the run (from the police, for example).

Mettre au vert without the reflexive pronoun is often presented in the past tense: mis au vert and means put out to pasture. The idea comes from the idea that once a horse is finished with a racing career, he’s put out to pasture (retired). This can be used for humans, though.

Couper en vert means to harvest a plant before it’s ready.

En voir des vertes et des pas mures is an expression that means someone has said something pretty spicy things to someone.

Être vert(e) de rage is used when you’re very, very mad. You can also simply just use vert. (Elle est verte!) Think of The Incredible Hulk, we say purple with rage in English.

Être vert(e) de peur means you are very scared. I think this is interesting because this idea is associated with yellow in English.

Être au temps de sa verte jesunesse and être encore vert(e) both refer to being in the bloom of your youth.

Donner le feu vert à quelque chose/quelqu’un means the same as it does in English: to give someone the green light to do something (to give permission)

Prendre quelqu’un sans vert means to catch somebody unaware.

Adjective

Le numéro vert is a toll-free number. These are nice because in France if you need to call your internet provider, for example, you are charged by the minute.

Thé vert is the same in English: green tea.

Un haricot vert is a green bean, un légume vert refers to a green vegetable in general,    i is a green pepper, and un citron vert is a lime. Are you a successful gardener who can plant all these fruits and vegetables by yourself? You have  i (a green thumb). In France, you have the green hand, but in Canada, you have le pouce vert.

50 Shades of Green

Despite the post’s title, I’m not going to give you 50 shades of green, but here are 19 different shades of green. Below the image, I’ve included the translations.

vert pré/vert gazon – grass green

vert citron – lime green

vert pistache – pistachio

vert bouteille – refers to the color of a standard green bottle

vert mousse – moss green

vert céladon – celadon green

vert methe – mint green

vert émeraude – emerald

vert pâle – pale green

vert sapin – pine green

vert trèfle – shamrock green

vert jade – jade

vert malachite – malachite green

vert printemps – spring green

vert sauge – sage green

vert chartreuse – chartreuse

vert d’eau – sea green

vert olive – olive green

vert caca d’oie – this isn’t in the graphic because nobody wants to see this. It literally means “goose poop green,” and is used to describe a color between yellow and green.

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

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