Unlikely Verbs

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]

Mistral, that's funny yesterday I was

going to say I had always loved the verb defenestrer for going out of a

window.  But before posting I checked in the dictionary and the

translation was defenestrate.  What do you mean by you can even

use it reflexively?

 

[/quote]

Je me defenestre - I throw myself out of the window. As opposed to Il

me defenestre, I suppose. I am delighted with a verb that means to

remove sand, though. That is my favourite to date. All I have to do now

is try and find some casual way of slipping it into conversation.

[Patf]

There are some strange anglicised verbs eg in the current Rustica " Relookez vos pots".  Pat.

[Loiseau]

I have never quite managed to work out a snappy English equivalent of "désenclavement". The Vendee's Conseil General is always trumpeting about how this and that new bit of motorway/dual carriageway/TGV line will "désenclave" the département - i.e. drag it out of the dark ages, transportwise.

Angela

[Christine Animal]

That's a good one Angela.  It says in my dictionary "opening to outside influences"... "to open to the outside world".

Hope they will soon finish the roads so that you will be able to join us all !

 

[Teamedup]

I like this, and as enclave is in common use, it is a good way of saying that one is now opening ones horizons.

[Mistral]

thinking of désenclavement, one of the fashionable words in teaching is décloisoner (it took me a while to work out they weren't talking about walls) It means teaching techniques accross the range of subjects as opposed to everybody teaching his little bit in his own corner

 

[Opalienne]

So the opposite of what UK management-speak would call 'silos'.......

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Loiseau"]

I have never quite managed to work out a

snappy English equivalent of "désenclavement". The Vendee's Conseil

General is always trumpeting about how this and that new bit of

motorway/dual carriageway/TGV line will "désenclave" the département -

i.e. drag it out of the dark ages, transportwise.

Angela

[/quote]

I'd never really thought about our being an evclave before, but now you come to mention it the CG do rather go on about it....

[Loiseau]

The use of "se faire ..." gets me. 
I can just about cope with "se faire coiffer", and "se faire accompagner" for to get one's hair done and to get a lift, but "se faire agresser" for to be mugged always conjures up the idea of "to have oneself mugged".  Bizarre.

Angela

[Mistral]

[quote user="Loiseau"]The use of "se faire ..." gets me. 
I can just about cope with "se faire coiffer", and "se faire accompagner" for to get one's hair done and to get a lift, but "se faire agresser" for to be mugged always conjures up the idea of "to have oneself mugged".  Bizarre.

Angela[/quote]

I agree. The first time I came across it was "elle s'est fait violer" It was a bit of a shock. Just an example of how the French try to get round using the passive.

 

[Opalienne]

What about 'se suicider'?   Tautology or what?

[Loiseau]

Good one, OP!  [:D]

At least it's not "se faire suicider" (well, not unless it's really murder!)

A

[Christine Animal]

Yes, like when someone is killed accidentally in a car accident, they say "il s'est tué en voiture", as if it was deliberate.

Another one is "mortellement blessé".  Aren't you either blessé or tué, but mortellement blessé, I always find that one strange.   [8-)]

 

[Opalienne]

But you would say 'mortally wounded' in English, wouldn't you?

[Christine Animal]

... maybe (I can't remember!), it just seems funny to me.