Clair, are you paying attention? Useful expressions!

[Cendrillon]

marrant-adjective Idun you beat me to it!
		funny	drôle, amusant, comique, curieux, bizarre, marrant

[Gardengirl]

I hear marrant a lot, but nickel seems to be really in here at the moment, mainly with a younger than us generation. And yes it still had the meaning of a really good thing.

[NormanH]

Nickel seems to mean 'brilliant   (or 'brill' in out dated UK slang) ' as in 'everything is fine'  I have also heard ' Nickel Chrome ' where the shiny connotations are even clearer..

[YCCMB]

Reminds me of The Fast Show....[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgMgkl-gRxk[/url]

I know what "nickel" means, I just never understood how it popped up from nowhere and ended up being everywhere...

[NormanH]

I think I have met him..he reminds me of the  cowboy 'builder' who does odd jobs for the Brits round here who prefer him because he speaks English...[6]

[mint]

I hadn't understood that nickel was slang.  When I asked the teacher what it meant, she said, imaculate, excellent quality, just so.

However, going by the examples that Betty has given, I must conclude that it is indeed familiar.

What confuses me a bit is neuf (and all its variants, neuve, etc)

I think it was explained to me once as new but not necessarily brand new, if you know what I mean!  For example, you might have une voiture neuve but it needn't have just come off the production line.  It could be a second-hand car but it is new to you.

So, there is new and new and, even more intriguingly, quasiment neuf!

I have tended to use neuf when it's new only to me and nouveau (nouvelle and all its variants) as brand spanking new.

Can someone please confirm that I have understood this concept of new but not actually new correctly, svp?[:D]

 

[idun]

I cannot remember not knowing 'nickel'. Maybe it is a regional thing?

I remember a lovely lovely lady I know well, saying that her niece was a 'lunatique' and as I knew the niece, must have looked shocked as I asked what it meant in french. Not as 'mad' as it would mean in english, that is for sure. I would never dare use it to be honest, as it would feel 'wrong' to me.[blink]

[Gardengirl]

[quote user="NormanH"]Nickel seems to mean 'brilliant   (or 'brill' in out dated UK slang) ' as in 'everything is fine'  I have also heard ' Nickel Chrome ' where the shiny connotations are even clearer..

[/quote]

Nickel chrome - heard it earlier this week. I was trying to remember what other bright shiny word I'd heard attached to nickel when I posted earlier. Thanks Norman - can't say I can see me putting those two together. I think I'll ask my English class about it tomorrow - I learn quite a few things from them, a good exchange!

[Frecossais]

I'm just trying to imagine how a French person would pronounce nickel chrome. I've never heard it before, c'est marrant, hein?

[mint]

OK then, just a couple of tricky expressions that we call "reflexive" (spelling?) and the French call "pronominal".

"se remettre en question" means something like "asking oneself" and "se vanter" means something like "to boast of".

So.... je me vante souvent de ma vie en Dordogneshire means just as it  sounds though, nowadays, I am less likely to do that since I have had that con across the road for a neighbour.  Believe it or not, he's even put up twinkly lights for Christmas this evening.

I mean, talk about lowering the tone of the neighbourhood!!!!!!!

So now, can someone please contribute something that we can all learn from?

I find all this such fun and I hope enough people would share my enthusiasm [:D] 

[Chancer]

[quote user="idun"]I cannot remember not knowing 'nickel'. Maybe it is a regional thing?

I remember a lovely lovely lady I know well, saying that her niece was a 'lunatique' and as I knew the niece, must have looked shocked as I asked what it meant in french. Not as 'mad' as it would mean in english, that is for sure. I would never dare use it to be honest, as it would feel 'wrong' to me.[blink]
[/quote]

Was it perhaps maniaque?

It shocked me for the same reason when I fist heard it but it means houseproud, perhaps obsessively so.

 

[Chancer]

How about these transitif verbs that are more or less synonyms of each other.

Baratiner.

Embobiner.

Enberlificoter.

 

[mint]

Can't say I have ever heard of any of those, so will rechercher them. 

[NormanH]

Ne t'en fais pas...

"Don't worry..."

I suspect it is from ne te  fais pas de souci..

But heard alone it can be confusing

Very similar is ( ne) t'inquète pas. again dont you worry  at its briefest t'inquète

..which becomes rather defensive in ne t'inquète pas pour moi  don't you worry about me.. (I'm managing)

[idun]

Chancer, no definitely, lunatique.

Maniaque was  in common use, for such tasks as you mentioned.

nickel chrome, well ni kel, with an empasis on the 'i', as the french say it. And chrome, well, krom with a rolling 'r'.

[Frecossais]

From the other side: What is the expression in French for the very pejorative "Rubbish!" in English?

[NormanH]

Well it depends what 'Rubbish' means..

Je suis nul (at doing something)

C'est bidon ton truc  you think that an idea or project is rubbish..

un ordure  (les ordures are  the rubbish) is better avoided...applied to a person it is something like 'un unspeable sh1t) [:)]

[Chancer]

N'importe quoi!

Pronounced like namporta

Nul or bidon also as mentioned.

On the French dubbed version of Mythbusters when a myth is deemed to be busted they say it is bidon.

Anyone heard royal(e) used to describe something a cut above the rest?

[Chancer]

Still hoping to one day find a word or phrase that carries the same weight as the wonderfull exclamation"bull***!" uttered on its own, the closest I have got are poor descriptions of someone who is a bull*****r but not the act itself, mythomane and baratineur.

[Frecossais]

[quote user="NormanH"]Well it depends what 'Rubbish' means..

Je suis nul (at doing something)

C'est bidon ton truc  you think that an idea or project is rubbish..

un ordure  (les ordures are  the rubbish) is better avoided...applied to a person it is something like 'un unspeable sh1t) [:)]

[/quote]

The meaning I was looking for was the bidon one, thanks Norman. I've been explaining it as "poubelle". No wonder nobody understands me.

[mint]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Anyone heard royal(e) used to describe something a cut above the rest?

[/quote]

Yes, also royalement used just like we would in English. Though only in a positive sense:  so, I ate royally.  Not really heard it used as in "I was royally p****d off".

[Tancrède]

[quote user="sweet 17"]Though only in a positive sense:  so, I ate royally.  Not really heard it used as in "I was royally p****d off".[/quote]

Oh no SW17, it is often used negatively. 

I was going to propose Je me suis trompé royalement, but out of interest I did a Google search and Je m'en fiche royalement swam to the surface without me even fishing for it.

I first remember noticing the expression (and enjoying it) in duper royalement…

[mint]

[quote user="NormanH"]Ne t'en fais pas...
"Don't worry..."

I suspect it is from ne te  fais pas de souci..


But heard alone it can be confusing

Very similar is ( ne) t'inquète pas. again dont you worry  at its briefest t'inquète

..which becomes rather defensive in ne t'inquète pas pour moi  don't you worry about me.. (I'm managing)
[/quote]

Strange how you learn something one day and the something then crops up the vey next day.  In this case, the something is ne t'en fais pas, thanks Norman.

Tonight, on a programme about cinema, I watched a film called "Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas".  Very atmospheric and very French.

Anyone else watched it?

And did you find the dialogue easy to understand?

[dwmcn]

Norman,

My last name is McNickle.

David

[Raza]

oh interesting discussion. Must read back.