Clair, are you paying attention? Useful expressions!

[mint]

[quote user="ericd"]

Goes to prove that women are so shallow..... and men are to the point ! I love it !

[/quote]

And how do you draw that conclusion, eric?

Or has something been lost in translation.................?

[ericd]

I was referring to Moliere's quote cited above (Let me explain) .... Woman: Monsieur, you won't get my heart Man: I wasn't aiming that high

..........[6]

[mint]

Actually, Eric, all that tells me is that it IS true that men have only ONE thing in mind, ggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhh!

Onto something else aujourd'hui.

I had an email from someone today, explaining that she hadn't been able to do what I requested because she had something cropped up:

She says j'en suis sincerèment navrée.

So, can one use navré instead of désolé or is there some obcure rule that tells you when to use one or the other?

[ericd]

Same same ....je suis vraiment désolé, j'en suis navré.

[woolybanana]

You will doubtless have noticed, Nimt, in the vegetble section of the supermarket that there is a vegetable called a navre. The expression comes from this and literally translates as 'I am a big turnip' for not, for example, being able to do what you wanted.

Oh well.

[Patf]

Wooly - you obviously don't do much cooking - a turnip is a navet!

Here's my question:

I can never remember the difference between a poule and a poulet. To the french it's easy, and very important.

So which is which, and how do you remember?

[NormanH]

I think that un poulet is a young cockerel which is still tender enough to roast and une poule is a old boiling fowl that has laid a few eggs in her time, but I am open to correction.

Un chapon is the capon or castrated cockerel traditional at Christmas

[Patf]

Thanks Norman.

I know about chapons because we've bought a few live ones from a local producer and he explained the procedure.

I suppose I could remember that words ending in "e" are more likely to be feminine therefore still laying eggs.

And poulet is similar to the english "pullet" which is a young chicken.

[ericd]

[quote user="NormanH"]I think that un poulet is a young cockerel which is still tender enough to roast and une poule is a old boiling fowl that has laid a few eggs in her time, but I am open to correction.
Un chapon is the capon or castrated cockerel traditional at Christmas
[/quote]

Correct Norman but both can be young too and have the same name.

Poule = female

Poulet = Male

Chapon is a castrated poulet.

If you let a poulet grow, it becomes a Cockerel. Hope this helps.

[andyh4]

I have just learnt a new French expression on Meteo.fr. I had always thought "rares averses" meant occasional showers, but twice this week this has been accompanied by strong thunderstorms. We are forecast rares averses again this afternoon, so I will be unplugging the phone and livebox shortly!!

[mint]

[quote user="andyh4"]I have just learnt a new French expression on Meteo.fr. I had always thought "rares averses" meant occasional showers, but twice this week this has been accompanied by strong thunderstorms. We are forecast rares averses again this afternoon, so I will be unplugging the phone and livebox shortly!![/quote]

So us Brits aren't the only ones to employ the understatement then?[:D]

[andyh4]

Indeed

26 hour rares averses that have put down around 10cm rain and have indirectly killed one of my freezers that did not like the semi-continuous power interruptions - mind it must be 40 years old.

So the next couple of days will be spent converting frozen fruit into jam and chutney.

[mint]

OK, new day, new question.

I haven't thought about this one until a few minutes ago when I had to use it.

Is it true that remplacement as in the replacement part (whatever it is) is feminine and is therefore la remplacement but the ACT of replacing something is masculine and is le replacement.

Do you think that this is even credible? [:-))]

OTOH, I have learned a catch-all and easy to remember word for anything to describe distortion, crooked, bent, twisted, out of kilter etc.  This magic word is surely déformé(e)?[:D]

[Loiseau]

Mint, I don't think that can be true, as I am sure I have been told that the only feminine word ending in -ment is "jument".

Thank you for pointing out the usefulness of "déformé". I feel a bit that way myself after having cleared out the shed yesterday!

Angela

[ventodue]

[quote user="mint"] Is it true that remplacement as in the replacement part (whatever it is) is feminine and is therefore la remplacement ... [/quote]

No.  I think you're getting yourself confused here, Mint.  If you were to try to use remplacement in the sense of  'a replacement part', it's being used as an adjective and would therefore take the gender of the noun it's describing.  And since that noun is most likely to be pièce, which is feminine, it too would be feminine.  BUT ...

You can't use remplacement like this anyway because, in French, it's a noun not an adjective!  However, what you could say is a pièce de replacement - NOTE: no first 'm' in replacement.  But much better anyways would be une pièce détachée or une pièce de rechange.  Because replacement really means a substitute part/thing, not a replacement part/thing  (I hope you're following this ... [6]).

[quote user="mint"] ... the ACT of replacing something is masculine and is le replacement.[/quote]

Yes .. and no.  It IS masculine, but it's reMplacement.

Aïe, aïe, aïe .....

P.s  Sorry if reading this isn't too clear.  I've put the French words in italics in my draft, but this italicisation doesn't appear in the posted message.  Don't know why ...

[NormanH]

1) You will see  le remplacement which is the act of replacing something, and this is always masculine

2)  You will also see  la remplaçante (the substitute) when the person concerned is a woman (a Doctor or teacher for example)   Note this is a different word!

There is a well-known book which has been made into a book (this clip shows her bullying her class mercilessly)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVMJtowsuxE&html5=1    (the original was in Danish, but this shows the use of the word in the translation)

on the other hand this can also be le  remplaçant if the person is male (as in an understudy in the theatre or a substitute in football.

For your other point I would also suggest tordu(e) which has both literal and figurative senses of 'twisted'

[mint]

Merci, everyone!

I think I must have been smoking some of that stuff that Wools has accused me of.

One error of my previous post was a typo and the other mistakes were ..............er.......mistakes, no excuses[8-)]

Angela, I think there is more than just the one feminine ending in ment but I can't think of them en ce moment!  I will come back if I find that I can remember after all[:D]

Don't hold your breath but I promise to be back plaguing everybody again[:)]

PS, Norman, I'm going to tell you about something else but on the listening thread, as it may not be to everyone's taste or interest.

[mint]

Angela, you are right; the only exception is la jument.

[mint]

How do you say "there is a church at one end and a cemetery at the other"?

No, my senility is not so far advanced that I don't know the word for church or cemetery[:P]

I just need the words for "at one end and at the other end", svp.

I sometimes say dans le petit chemin, entre l'église et le cimétier and that works for some but not for others.  To be fair, I wonder if they think that our house is somehow squeezed into some little nook on the side of the church.

Our area is not on GPS so an accurate description is necessary.

[idun]

instead of petit, couldn't you say mi-chemin entre l'eglise et le cimetier. The church should be easy enough to see and cemeterys are usually indicated too.

[mint]

Thanks, id, I'd try that next time.  Just had a radiateur delivered today and, fortunately, the people across the road are having a new roof and so there are tractors, workmen's vans, fork lift thingies etc and I told the man that if he looked out for the plant and equipment, then we were just opposite.

I must have been in the shower when he came because he'd put the box just inside the front door.

[YCCMB]

Etiopathie...who knew?

There it was, slap bang in the middle of an amendment to an industry mutuelle agreement that I'm working on.

Much googling later and I'm only moderately the wiser.

Not a word I can nonchalantly chuck into the conversation, but another one of those weird medically thingies that haven't crossed the channel.

Seems this mutuelle covers everything from ingrowing toenails to withch doctors with chicken entrails....

[mint]

 Can't begin to guess and not even moderately funny but how about the illness of getting thinner?

 

As in lengthening..............OK then, an eating disorder, voilà!

[YCCMB]

No, mint, it's a treatment, not an illness. And I am relieved you didn't know, not because I wish you to look silly, but because I was thinking that no doubt everyone who lives in France would instantly come back and say "Why, yes, I have regular etiopathie treatments every week. My etiopath comes to the house on the instructions of my medecin traitant. Doesn't everyone's?"

From what I have been able to establish, it's like Osteopathy. Only different. It seems like a sort of Feng Shui Osteopathy.

[Pickles]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Etiopathie...who knew?

There it was, slap bang in the middle of an amendment to an industry mutuelle agreement that I'm working on.

Much googling later and I'm only moderately the wiser.

Not a word I can nonchalantly chuck into the conversation, but another one of those weird medically thingies that haven't crossed the channel.

Seems this mutuelle covers everything from ingrowing toenails to withch doctors with chicken entrails....[/quote]

The chap who has the office beneath our apartment started off as an etiopathist, and a couple of years later he's become a chiropracter and osteopath (partly because so few people recognise etiopathy and what it can do for them). I have had long conversations with him and I am frankly none the wiser.