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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4696 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 657 of 766 06 December 2014 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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So far I've chosen 2 categories: idioms and words not in my dictionary. I'm writing a note when I come across either in my current French novel, Les orpailleurs by Thierry Jonquet. I've only read about 15 pages today, and I've already come across 10 idiomatic phrases, and 7 words that aren't in the Collins French dictionary on my kindle. I've endeavoured to translate them using Google translate.
Idioms "Szalcman n'avait parlé à la légère" = Szalcman hadn't spoken lightly. (Ok, not a tough one). "c'est assez coton"- According to Expressio.fr "c'est coton" means "C'est difficile, pénible". "moulue de fatigue" = "ground down with tiredness" (ground as in the act of grinding). "Sans être dupe de cette ficelle grosse comme une courde"- "ficelle" means "string" or "twine", but according to french.about.com, "la ficelle est un peu grosse" means "you can see right through it". So the phrase I found means something along those lines, playing a bit more with the idea of a fat string. "foutre le camp" I'd translate it something like "buggered off". "se livre à", the full sentence is "Nadia se livra à ce qui était presque devenu un rituel..." "Se livre à" can mean "to confide in", "to give oneself up"or "to indulge in". So this sentence means something like, "Nadia indulged in what had almost become a ritual..." "pince-sans-rire"- my kindle dictionary says "deadpan", Google translate gives "tongue-in-cheek". "les carottes sont vraiment cuites" = something like "the game is up"? "par simple acquit de conscience" = "to set one's mind at rest" according to my kindle dictionary. "Puisque c'est le cirque, autant respecter le folklore." This one has stumped me, although the sense is clear. It is said by a judge as she puts on her flashers while driving off to a crime scene. Not in my dictionary "fluo" - "Toujours vêtu de façon très voyante. Vous savez, ces trucs fluo qu'on fait maintenant." I gather "fluo" is short for "fluorescent". "clin" - "un clin d'oeil" = a wink. "d'apache" - "Encouragé, Montagnac poursuivit, désormais solidement installé dans son rôle d'apache." I think this must mean "Apache", i.e. the native American tribe. "tapine" and "calanché" - "Pasqu'y voulait qu'elle tapine, elle a calanché sur le coup !" Both words have me stumped, and variations of "tapine" occur about 7 times in this book. "populo" = "populist" "bipeur" = "pager" As I said, all of these are from about 15 pages of my novel, but this rate of idioms and words not found in the dictionary are about usual for this book. I am really enjoying the book, but it is tough at times! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3793 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 658 of 766 08 December 2014 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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tapiner = work the
streets, faire le tapin, to work as a prostitute calancher = to die. Thanks for sharing these, neat phrases that I hadn't run into before. Edited by evilado on 08 December 2014 at 4:47pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4676 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 659 of 766 10 December 2014 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I found all these in a free b.d on Izneo, Le langage des jeunes expliqué aux moins
jeunes (The language of the young explained to the less young). Five French-English slang words chiller (v.) Ex: <<Ce soir on chille entre potes et on boit un coup.>> (Tonight we chill with friends and we drink) weed Ex: <<T'es foncedé t'as pris quoi, genre de la weed?>> (You're high, you took something, like weed?) It's hard translating slang!!! It just doesn't sound smooth at all in English lover and OMG (Two in one sentence!) Ex: <<OMG c'est trop un lover!>> (OMG, he's such a lover!) I wonder if the kids pronounce OMG like American kids (oh-em-gee) or like Parisians (oh-may-jhay)? swag Ex: <<Il est trop swag Pharrell Williams, toujours avec son chapeau, trop beau gosse!>> (He's so stylish, Pharrell Williams, always with his hat, such a good looking guy) We use this different from the French - swag in the U.S. is the free stuff that you get at fundraisers and major parties from designers who are trying to get their name out there. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4676 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 660 of 766 10 December 2014 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||||||||
No way, солнце! - you can listen in on conversations in Russian, I'm sure that you would recognize slang if you heard it! For Italian I've been listening to Italian songs on youtube, and reading the comments. They are full of little nuggets, though I don't understand a lot of it. My logic is going to be: that doesn't look like the Italian in my books, I bet it's slang. Rusiška muzika has thousands of comments, most in Cyrillic writing. It also has some pretty cool songs on the playlist. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4696 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 661 of 766 10 December 2014 at 8:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I suspect you're just getting too old. To the youth of this world, swag is short for "swagger" and is pretty much a synonym for cool. This might help: the old person's guide to swag. Also, isn't "M" pronounced "ehm" in French, more or less the same as in English? Edited by Jeffers on 10 December 2014 at 8:16am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4452 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 662 of 766 10 December 2014 at 9:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I don't read youtube comments much, but if FB and usenet are anything to go by, quite a lot of Italian slang is written in text-speak (and there's plenty of dialect mixed in too, although that may just be my relatives ...). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4676 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 663 of 766 10 December 2014 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Where's the 'dislike' button when you need one???
Kids these days ... I was sure that I heard RuPaul talking about her swag way before L'il Wayne started to #swag , and looked into the history. It turns out the word is older than all of us. Swagger is an old verb, and Shakespeare used swag-bellied to mean fat (Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander - Drink ho! - Othello), but swag as a slang noun doesn't make an appearance until the early 1800's: 
That first bump is when swag makes it's debut as thieves' cant for plunder and booty: 1829, Memoirs of Vidocq: I never thought to have made such a haul at my frater's death; I am only sorry he's not here to have his share of the swag. 1829, Noctes Ambrosianae: All with the swag, I sneak away. 1838, Dickens, Oliver Twist: It's all arranged about bringing off the swag, is it? It looks like swag and swagger aren't even related: A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant (1890): Swag (old cant), a shop. (Costers), a large collection of miscellaneous goods. (Thieves), booty, plunder. (provincial) quantity or lot, a portion of property. Scottish swag or swack from old German sweig, a flock. The Columbian cyclopedia (1890): Swag [Norw. svaga, to sway, Ger.schwanken, to stagger, totter, falter: Sw. svag, weak, bending; Swiss, schwabben, to stagger like a drunken man; Bav. schwadern, to bluster]: to sink down by it's own weight; to move as something heavy and pendant. I can't wait to tell my nephews that they're weak, pot-bellied, and drunk when they say they've got #swag.
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| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4696 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 664 of 766 11 December 2014 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I wrote that one with my tongue firmly in my cheek. I think I'm older than you, but since I'm a teacher I'm "down wif tha kidz"... or something like that. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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