Here are some more fantastic and funny French facts!
Para? Us?
The prefix para tends to mean “guard against”. So parachute means “guard against the fall”, parasol means “guard against the sun”, and parapluie means “guard against the rain”. Makes sense, n’est ce pas?
Cover your sensitive ears!
Ever wanted to know how many ways you can say “I don’t care” in French? Well there are heaps, from the least offensive to the rudest. Here are just 3; Ca m’est égal (mild) – Je m’en fiche (mid-range) – Je m’en fous (crude) Which one will you use today?
We (f)rock!!!
Oh yes indeed, French is the second most studied language in the world after English with approximately 100 million students and 2 million teachers – 20% of whom are outside of francophone countries. Look into our eyes. Look into our eyes. Your eyes are getting heavy. You are getting sleepy;-)
What a racket!
Many people sing in the shower, and often think they sound angelic, oui? If you need to tell someone that they sing horribly and must not give up their day job, tell them ; “vous chantez comme une casserole!” (you sing like a saucepan) and stand back, they may be holding one!!!
Keeping the beast out
Did you know that quarantine is derived from “quarantaine” which means fourty-ish? 40 days was the original amount of days foreign creatures /people were isolated for before they were deemed safe to be let out into the public. This word goes back to the 17th century.
Sir what?
Cedilla? Cedilla? What on earth is a cedilla? Well the letter c in French sounds mostly like a hard KKK (cravate/capotte/carotte) Turning a c into a ç often softens it to an SSS sound (garçon/façon/maçon) Easy as une deux quatre! Sort of…
No swearing please
Ever catch yourself about to swear and end up using another word just in time? “shhhugar” instead of “shhh**” for instance? We have something similar in French, instead of exclaiming “putain!”(whore!) when we’re angry we may say “punaise!”(tack!) Not quite so offensive;-);-)
H thief…
Have you noticed how words like hungry and angry, said by a French speaker, sound the same? This is because someone stole our Hs, and so even if it’s on the page, we still struggle. I’m not ‘appy coz I’m ‘ungry and ‘angry! If you really want to be CRUEL, get a French person to say hedgehog
Bottoms down
”Cul-de-sac”. You’ve heard this before? Sure you have… It means a residential road that comes to an end with houses crowded in a loop, yes? Well, word for word, this actually means “bottom of the bag” implying the end of the line. Sounds a little less appealing, somewhat….
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