Clair, are you paying attention? Useful expressions!

[mint]

Thanks for the laugh, cajal!

Except, we have never had a postman, only les factrices.

Before I knew that occupation préférée means hobby, I used to say that I'd "prefer" to be a post-lady because after all, what is there not to like?

Drive around the beautiful countryside in your dinky little Snoopy car and chat to old dears in their own homes?[:)]

Sounds like le job idéal, n'est ce pas?[:D]

 This infernally difficult -to -learn-language is full of pitfalls for the unwary, that's for sure.

[mint]

Forgot this one found in a women's magazine last week when I was waiting my turn chez la coiffeuse.

gourou as in gourou de fashion......ha, ha, ha!

Sorry don't know how to do italics as I am in Chrome, having completely lost firefox.

[mint]

2 expressions sent in separate emails and I am putting it here because those reading this thread tend to be diehard francophones[:D]

amenez vos frontales..........in relation to a walk scheduled for tomorrow and she begins by asking whether we could start 30 minutes later on account of the heat and then the phrase as mentioned.

I know amenez vos affaires to mean bring all your own stuff that you need but is "frontales" something else?

Then, I have been invited to an écriture nomade............why nomade and what does it signify, svp?

merci

à@+

[Loiseau]

LOL, mint!

Never heard either of those, so I am all agog for when Eric pops along to tell us.

At first sight, I thought the first one might have been a bit of advice on looking good while walking - a Gallic equivalent of "n*ppl*s first" (which certainly does encourage good deportment!)

Angela

[ericd]

:-) I'm here, I'm here.

Hope you are all doing well.

Une frontale est une lampe de marche que l'on met sur son front (d'ou le nom frontale). Very useful when you want to see in the dark but need both hands free. Cheap as chips in most shops.

You must be off on a night walk. Enjoy

As for "Ecriture nomade" ....nomadic writing or book written by nomadic people or .... ? Never hear of it. Google search comes up with a book from Michel Butor .....

[mint]

Bonjour, Eric, and thanks for the explanation.  Indeed, I was thinking forehead and NOT what that naughty l'oiseau had suggested!

So, what about l'écriture nomade?

Imagine, lamps on our foreheads, nordic pole in each hand, sac banane on les fesses............can't think but that we would frighten the REAL animaux sauvages[:D]!

Edit:  sorry, Eric, you did answer about the écriture nomade; I will ask the person in charge of the atelier and see what she says.

[NormanH]

The only time I have heard the phrase is with reference to métissage..."mixing things up"

Could be varied sorts of writing, or putting one form into another such as re-telling a novel orally or in poetry...

But I am only guessing.

Another which puzzled me when I first heard it was musique savant which in fact is rather like 'classical music' as a general term, rather than referring to the classical period.

[idun]

Never heard just 'frontale' before, always une lampe frontale.

Ecriture nomade .... never heard of that ....and because I have often had to guess things, I would have imagined it was either a map or a book....and asked☺

[ericd]

That's french language for you idun as we sometime avoid to use the full sentence.

Une frontale ..... Une dorsale (dorsal fin and nothing else), comme on, try to come up with a few more yourselves.

[mint]

[quote user="ericd"]That's french language for you idun as we sometime avoid to use the full sentence.

Une frontale ..... Une dorsale (dorsal fin and nothing else), comme on, try to come up with a few more yourselves.[/quote]

un k-way for un imperméable and nothing but a waterproof or mac.

nickel, however, can apply to absolutely anything![:P]

[ericd]

Good start mint .... ! K-way is a make.

But for Impermeable most people will say "Imper" .

For the iconic citroen car 2 chevaux, most of us will say "deuche".

[mint]

ooh............I LOVE deuche...........c'est chouette [:D]

I do use imper and also, of course, impec (for impeccable).

Perhaps we could do with a whole new thread called French as spoken by .......er.....the French?[:P]

[alittlebitfrench]

D'ac o d'ac.

'Truc' is the only word you need to learn in French.

Everything is a truc.

[ericd]

Or a machin .....

Truc, machin (machain) .... tu vois ce que je veux dire.

[idun]

I'm guilty of doing the very same thing a lot of the time. I suppose because I learnt french from listening to people ......street french!

And I must say, I'm partial to saying deux deuche, pleases me more than just deuche. And many say that too.

[mint]

truc.............yes, indeed!  When short of a word just use truc.  Anything that you like doing can, of course, be c'est mon truc, alors [:D]

Eric, I forget to point out that k-way is very little different from using hoover to mean a vacuum cleaner.

Perhaps, albf, the other most useful word could be coup.  I will look up Grand Corps Malade's l'apartement de célibataire where he says that all the apartment needs is "deux coups d'aspirateur".  I'll post it if I can find it!

[mint]

Here you go:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfqQ7AQYwDE[/url]

I'd forgotten how funny it is and how the ending makes you go.................aaahhhhhh.....[:)]

[alittlebitfrench]

I think 'quoi' is the most useful word when learning French.

You can witter on in broken French and not make any sense but as long as you introduce the word 'quoi' at the end of the sentence they will think you are French and that you just have a weird accent, or you did not go to school or more likely you are from the banlieue.

They will nod, be polite and hope you don't mug them.

[NormanH]

Do tell me if I am right or wrong about l'écriture nomade...[8-)]

[mint]

Don't know yet, Norman, as all activities have been cancelled because of lack of attendees on account of the heat.

Someone, PLEASE tell me you like the clip of Grand Corps Malade?

Do listen...............it's funny, true to life and, I think, very well observed[:D]

[suein56]

mint wrote : Someone, PLEASE tell me you like the clip of Grand Corps Malade?

Brilliant, loved it; how observant of some bachelors whilst some others go to the opposite extreme.

Sue

[Chancer]

Excellent clip, as I listened I looked around my appart célibataire and sure enough la table basse Ikea avec les courriers  [:D]

 

Now the money is rolling in I am trying to decide between un lave vaiselle et une meuf [:D] tous les deux sont pratique [:P]

[mint]

Oh, Chance, can't you afford BOTH?[;-)]

[ericd]

Go for the meuf and save yourself cash. She will take care of the dishes.

[mint]

Oh, Eric, spoken like a true Frenchman![I]