19 observations on the French language
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 794 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2018
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we have Ben and Adeline, the brains behind a new French-learning company called Ilini, and they share some truly interesting things about the French language.
This is an episode for you language lovers and language learners out there.
Oh yes, and Ilini is a website that helps you learn real life French via videos that are a mix of entertainment and news. Check it out if you want to improve your real-life French skills.
The 19 observations:
Small talk
1. You can respond to "how are you" ('ca va') with "The peach".
Yes, if someone asks how you are and you're in good form, you can respond with "La peche". It means you're feeing good. Try it.
2. … You can also respond with "the potato".
How are you? The potato. Yep, you can also say "la patate" if things are going well.
3. If you're having a good time, you've "got the banana"
Yep, if you've got a big smile on the face, you've got the banana. Why? Well, it's the same shape as your smile.
4. You can answer "how are you" with "always".
Oui, if someone says "ca va", you can respond with "toujours" meaning that things are always good. It's quite a pleasant response, give it a shot.
5. Or you can respond by just saying ca va in response.
In fact, you can even have a whole conversation using ca va six times in a row. More on that in point five in this list.
6. And it's not uncommon to say 'meh' in response
Or, in French, it's just 'bof'. And apparently it's a totally acceptable response to ca va.
Complaining
7. If you want to complain, you can say you're bowl is full.
If you have le ras le bol, you're saying your bowl is full, and you've had enough. There's not really a good translation for it in English - but the French use it all the time.
8. You can complain by saying "it makes me defecate myself".
In French: Ca me fait chier
9. And in the same style, the French don't "piss you off", they "shit you off".
In French: Faire chier quelqu'un
Funny French expressions
10. If someone's lying, they're "Telling salads".
Or as the French say: Tu me racontes des salades
11. If you've got the blues, you've "got the cockroach".
Or as the French say: Jai le cafard
12. If someone's annoying you, they're "breaking your feet"
Or as the French say: Tu mes casses les pieds
English Words that don't exist in French
Yep, lastly, here are seven common English words that don't have a good, single word translation into French.
13. Healthy
14. Cheap
15. Hug
16. Siblings
17. Successful
18. Sleepy
19. Abroad
That's the list. Listen to the full episode if you want to hear these ideas explained a bit more. And once again, sign up for Ilini here. It's free to get a taste.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Airful Tower listeners, it's another Monday in Paris, and we have got a language-based episode for you today. |
| 0:06.0 | So we've got Ben and Adeline, these guys are the brains behind a language learning company called |
| 0:12.4 | Illini, I-L-I-N-I. And they're here to share some truly interesting things about the French language, |
| 0:18.0 | 19 things in total, I counted. We just had a chat about, you know, weird things in French or things in English that you |
| 0:24.7 | can't find in French, a whole bunch. |
| 0:26.5 | And Ben's from Toulouse, Adeline's from Leon originally, so we had a little chat about |
| 0:29.8 | other parts of France as well. |
| 0:31.7 | And hang around at the end when Lena, my fiancé comes in to discuss the latest in the |
| 0:36.6 | honeymoon season of the Earful Tower. We are going |
| 0:39.0 | to reveal week one of the six weeks, which is essentially peeling off into the northwest |
| 0:44.8 | of France. Anyway, let's get into the episode. One man, one country, one red scooter. Here's the Earful Tower with Oliver G. |
| 0:57.5 | Ben and Adeline, hello. |
| 0:59.5 | Hello. |
| 1:00.6 | Well, bonjour, wow, we get straight into the French. |
| 1:03.5 | So I'm sitting here with two French people from two different corners of the country. |
| 1:08.1 | How does it feel to be in Paris? |
| 1:09.5 | Great. |
| 1:10.2 | It's nice. |
| 1:11.8 | Yeah, we love Paris. You know, I've never be in Paris? Great. Yeah. We love Paris. |
| 1:17.6 | You know, I've never lived in Paris, actually. Right. But I always visit Paris as a tourist, |
| 1:25.0 | and I love it. French people as tourists in Paris. Yeah. Weird. Cool. Pretty cool. But Adeline has lived in Paris, so she knows more all right so you should have been around |
| 1:28.0 | yeah well i try to and when do you guys find from being from outside of parisians to be rude |
... |
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