Journal Entries
FWT: "il me gonfle"
Posted May 14, 2005
Translation: he's seriously getting on my nerves.
Can also be used of bothersome things you don't like doing : "ça me gonfle toute cette paperasse" (this red tape is making me crazy).
For advanced students a complex clause, combining two entries : "ça me gonfle toute cette paperasse à la con" (this bloody stupid red tape is making me crazy)
Warning signals: "tu commences à me gonfler" (I'm getting sick and tired of all your nonsense) might lead to a serious falling-out.
The fact that most entries are devoted to expressing negative feelings should not be interpreted in any way, it's just the way the cookie crumbles.
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Latest reply: May 14, 2005
FWT: "c'est quoi ce bordel?""
Posted May 13, 2005
In the same very rich register of everyday language using words with sexual connotations. A "bordel" is of course a bordello. In current French, in this household, it means shambles, mess. It is synonymous with "pagaïe" (mess, untidiness, muddle).
It expresses strong frustration at something that doesn't pan out as expected, when your log-in is not recognised, or when your spaces/posts are lost in the ether.... This is what Peet would have said, while battling with his computer(s).
Thus "mais c'est quoi ce bordel" might be translated as : bloody hell.
When addressed to another person: What do you think you're doing? A row will ensue.
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Latest reply: May 13, 2005
FWT: "il a été très soft"
Posted May 12, 2005
We have stolen this adjective from English and use it in a very specific way, of someone showing moderation and restraint, and lack of exaggeration generally.
I heard this exchange tonight in the RER :
"Il a parlé avec modération. (his speech wasn't too blunt.
- Oui, il a été très soft." (yes he was very moderate)
Oh the joy of listening in to conversations!
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: May 12, 2005
Paris, May 12, 2005
Posted May 12, 2005
Coming back on the Tube from babysitting duties, I am struck once again by the large amount of people who are working late in the Paris area. I get a good cross section since I start from St Germain, westernmost station on the RER line, change at les Halles and then go down south on the Underground. The carriages are full of working people going home, students reading, It didn't use to be this way. Once I felt the tube was not safe after 9 p.m.
I had a thought about Isabel Dalhousie and Applied Ethics when a gang of youths came in at Nanterre. They were not threatening passengers at all, but they were a pack, punching each other, jerky movements, etc and one lit up a cigarette. I fought down the urge to ask him to put it out as I was hopelessly outnumbered. They got off at la Défense so no great harm done. I usually intervene but instinct told me it was not a good idea.
At St Germain a group of young Spanish people had got on the train and they were talking loudly, singing, generally making themselves quite at home. But they didn't feel like a pack of predators like the others. They were just enjoying themselves. You see at once what they are and it's not the clothes they're wearing, it's the body language, the grunts.
Anyway, apart from the exhaustion, it is always a fascinating spectacle to watch and listen to passengers and to feel you belong to the human race in all its variety.
It took me from St Germain to Les Halles to realise I couldn't guess which language the two ladies opposite me were talking.
And so to bed.
Oh no, work first.
Discuss this Journal entry [14]
Latest reply: May 12, 2005
FWT: "saligaud"
Posted May 11, 2005
Slightly dated version of "salaud" (bastard), which nevertheless helps release frustrated anger at someone's malevolent pig-headedness and blinkered prejudices, even better than "salaud" which has been weakened by overuse. The three syllables help : emphasis on first syllable, a long "a", and pursed lips to express contempt.
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: May 11, 2005
martine_s
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