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Do You Feel Like A Million Dollars?

There are countless words and expressions that people use every day without realising how they do not make much sense.  

L’argot (slang) is an important part of every language, but one that is unfortunately hard to find in many textbooks.

Figuring out how exactly to say one million can be hard enough before trying to find a good equivalent to the expression, “to feel like a million dollars“:

Péter la forme 

Péter le feu 

Avoir une pêche d’enfer

Literal Translation: 

To fart the form 

To fart fire 

To have a hell peach

It can be surprising how different expressions are from one language to another and how useless knowing the literal translation is.

Like in the example expression, “To feel like a million dollars“, there is a lot of argot for l’argent (money). Sometimes it’s easy to understand, as in ten grand, but it can be bit harder to understand, par exemple, 50 bucks.

In French, everything became more confusing with l’introduction de l’euro. Some terms were more used when le franc was the currency, and while a few have held over into modern times, especially in older generations, many of them are less used now.

Mais d’abord, une petite histoire (but first a short story):

I was talking about le loyer (the rent) and how expensive it is à Paris when mon ami (my friend) used a word I had never heard before:

Ouais, ça peut coûter plus de 700 (sept-cents) balles par mois. 

700 balles ? 

Ouais…. Euh… 700 euros.

Yeah, it can cost more than 700 bucks a month. 

700 bucks? 

Yeah… Uh… 700 Euros.

I figured out that une balle meant a euro when referring to money, and soon had a similar conversation that led to me learning that le sou also refers to money in a general sense, but more often to les centimes (cents, money less than one euro).

Similar to how in the US bucks are used for dollars, and quid is used as l’argot for pounds in the UK, au Québec they have un mot différent (a different word) for their money - Piasse!

I first learned about this argot from a Bernard Adamus song, one of my favorite francophone musicians. He sings in a very thick accent québécois and uses a ton of argot that people in France would not understand, but it’s still a fun song that uses the unique Canadian word:

La question à cent piasses.

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

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

Hi Sharon,

Thanks for passing on my details to your recommended contacts, two of them have contacted me, which is helpful and has saved me some time, much appreciated.

I wondered what your thoughts are on property surveys in France?

I'm torn between not wanting to spend a lot of money that I don't need to spend on unnecessary surveys, but at the same time I don't want to miss something that will come back and bite me, so to speak.

I'd appreciate any wisdom or advice you can throw my way, if you wouldn't mind, please.

Best wishes, Nicky.

Our preferred partner for all kinds of insurance, Ceri at Allianz helped Nicky with her insurance questions! 

AND we have put Nicky in touch with Nick Warner of "Wellesley House Surveying".

This is just 'all part of the service' that Cle France offer its clients. 

Les nouveaux mots pour 2016 devoilés

Every year, new words are added to dictionaries around the world. Normally, these words are added due to new technological advances or cultural phenomena that describe what life is like in this new year.

In France, it’s not only verbs, adjectives, nouns, and adverbs that are added, but also proper names.

This is an honour that shows that a person has achieved a certain amount of fame and recognition. For 2016, the people to be included in French dictionaries are: the philosopher Bernard Henri-Lévy, the patissier Pierre Hermé, the French actor Pierre Richard, and the British actor Michael Caine.

According to this article, there are two requirements for inclusion in the popular French dictionaries, Le Petit Rousse and Le Petit Robert:

“Chaque nouvelle entrée a dû respecter, comme pour les éditions précédentes, l’un des deux critères suivants: être populaire et souvent repris dans les médias mais aussi être en rapport avec l’actualité sans risquer de disparaître rapidement.”

Here are some more words to be included for 2016 (some are self-explanatory):

selfie

vegan

boloss(e) (slang – an insult meaning that someone is silly or stupid)

baltringue (slang – a coward)

sape (slang – clothes)

And some expressions:

partir en cacahuète (“going peanuts,” means that something is going wrong/badly)

tendu comme un string (“tight as a string,” means someone is very stressed)

This article beautifully explains the importance of and the reason for the inclusion of some of these new words and expressions:

“Ces dictionnaires se veulent aussi le reflet de leur société, parfois même de l’actualité (c’est sans doute pourquoi Le Robert admet désormais le terme de "zadiste")"

"Ils suivent aussi une tendance, comme, par exemple la féminisation des noms. Au sein de ces rédactions du Larousse et du Robert qui se penchent chaque année, comme dans un conseil d’administration, sur l’utilité ou non d’intégrer un nouveau mot, on nous a affirmé que c’est suivre l’usage que de féminiser car il faut tenir compte du fait que de plus en plus de femmes accèdent aux postes traditionnellement tenus par des hommes"

"Tous deux utilisent ce qu’ils appellent une "banque de mots" tirés des journaux ou des livres, et leurs choix sont guidés par les relevés d’occurrences engrangés par leur observatoire de la langue française contemporaine”.

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

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

Firstly, please send our thanks to your agent for spending the day with us and letting us pick her brains! The trip was a very useful exercise and well worth the effort, even though we didn’t find anything this time.

We let you know when we are coming over again.

Thanks Mick.

Cle France will guide YOU through the French Property Buying Process!

And as several of our clients say "Follow your heart and make the move"!

Europe is famous for how easy it is to travel en train. However, les trains are often more expensive than you would think!

Thankfully there are alternatives like le covoiturage (carpooling), and l’autocar (intercity bus).

Until recently it was difficult to take un bus over a long distance in France. However, private transportation companies have created des nouveaux réseaux (new networks) for les autocars with companies like Isilines and Flixbus, and it is now easy and affordable to travel from city to city en bus !

La loi Macron, which aims to open up France’s economy, is what allowed this change. Before la loi (the law), in order for a bus to legally travel through France, it had to be a part of an international route or be a part of la SNCF (la société nationale de chemins de fer français, The French National Railroad Company).

Ceci dit (that said) international bus travel has always been an option from France, even if le train or l’avion are more popular moyens de transport (transportation methods). Eurolines is une entreprise (a company) that focuses on international bus travel in Europe and has routes from and to nearly any city in Europe!

The downside is you have to be on un bus for a very, very, very long time. It’s an experience, but I would not recommend it unless you are willing to be cramped in a small seat for over a day.

The confusing part about all these moyens de transports is how many of them are des faux amis (false friends), and the similarities can easily lead to mistakes.

Un bus or un autobus is a normal city bus or bus that goes throughout le département, while un autocar or un car is an intercity bus that goes between far away cities or even in between countries.

On top of that, blab-la-car is a website that helps you find people willing to share leur voiture (their car)!

Un bus, un autobus 

A local (city or county) bus

Un car, un autocar 

An intercity bus

Blab-la-car 

Website for carpooling (le covoiturage) 

The easy way to remember the differences is that un bus is a normal bus you take to get around a city, un car is like a greyhound or route-master bus, and blab-la-car is about all the talking (blah blah) you have to do when carpooling.

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

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