Tuesday, April 15, 2014

fait la pluie et le beau temps à Paris

While watching TV5France, I came across this phrase:

"La chanteuse Indila fait la pluie et le beau temps à Paris…"

Naturally curious, I looked up idioms and "fait la pluie".

fait la pluie et le beau temps à Paris - "powerful"

So, the singer Indila who makes it rain and brings the good times to Paris is powerful.

One other example:

Elle fait la pluie et la bon temps dans cette maison.
She calls the shots, she is the master of the house.

Indila on TV5France

Five Thousand French Idioms

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

coup de pouce

Nous leur pourrions ainsi donner un coup de pouce.



We could thus give them a helping hand.



Sometimes idioms take thought. This one, coup de pouce, literally translates as a blow or hit by an inch, a teeny-tiny blow, a nudge in the right direction. That makes sense, doesn't it?

"Alors," you say, "pouce, is French for thumb."

That is true, but it is also the word for inch. In the old days, before we had tape measures, a craftsman or tailor measured wood or cloth by the thumb.

Want more idioms using the word coup?

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Ne me quitte pas - Jacques Brel

Ne me quitte pas is a 1959 chanson Francaise by the Belgian chansonnier Jacques Brel.





              


Ne me quitte pas
Il faut oublier
Tout peut s'oublier
Qui s'enfuit déjà
Oublier le temps
Des malentendus
Et le temps perdu
A savoir comment
Oublier ces heures
Qui tuaient parfois
A coups de pourquoi
Le cœur du bonheur

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

Moi je t'offrirai
Des perles de pluie
Venues de pays
Où il ne pleut pas
Je creuserai la terre
Jusqu'après ma mort
Pour couvrir ton corps
D'or et de lumière
Je ferai un domaine
Où l'amour sera roi
Où l'amour sera loi
Où tu seras reine

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas
Je t'inventerai
Des mots insensés
Que tu comprendras
Je te parlerai
De ces amants-là
Qui ont vu deux fois
Leurs cœurs s'embraser
Je te raconterai
L'histoire de ce roi
Mort de n'avoir pas
Pu te rencontrer

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

On a vu souvent
Rejaillir le feu
D'un ancien volcan
Qu'on croyait trop vieux
Il est paraît-il
Des terres brûlées
Donnant plus de blé
Qu'un meilleur avril
Et quand vient le soir
Pour qu'un ciel flamboie
Le rouge et le noir
Ne s'épousent-ils pas

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas
Je ne vais plus pleurer
Je ne vais plus parler
Je me cacherai là
A te regarder
Danser et sourire
Et à t'écouter
Chanter et puis rire
Laisse-moi devenir
L'ombre de ton ombre
L'ombre de ta main
L'ombre de ton chien

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas.

Do not leave me
Let us forget
All we can forget
The past
Let’s forget the times
The misunderstands
And the lost time
To learn
To forget these hours
Which sometimes kill
The blows of why,
A heart full of happiness.

Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me

I will offer you
Pearls of rain
From a land
Where it never rains
I will cross the world
'Til after my death
To cover your body
With gold and light
I will create a kingdom
Where love is king
Where love is the law
Where you will be queen

Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me

Do not leave me ,
For you, I will invent
Foolish words
You’ll understand
I will tell you
Of lovers who
Were seen twice
With hearts ablaze
I will recall
The story of a king
Dead, for not having
Encountered you.

Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me

One often recalls
Flames light anew
From an old volcano
Thought to be lost.
It seems
The scorched fields
Can give more wheat
Than the best of springs.
And when evening comes
In this blazing sky
The red and the black night
Marry nevermore.

Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me

Do not leave me
I will cry no more
I will talk no more
I will hide there
Just to look at you
Dance and smile
And to hear you
Sing and then laugh
Let me be become
The shadow of your shadow
The shadow of your hand
The shadow of your dog

Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me
Do not leave me

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Allez vous-en

Allez vous-en!

This phrase comes from Cole Porter's song of the same name from the musical Can Can, written in 1953. The 1960 film of the musical starred Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier and introduced Juliet Prowse. Can Can, bien sur, is the French dance with high kicking women in skimpy outfits that was often performed in the night clubs of 1890 Montmartre on the outskirts of Paris.

The curious Francophile wonders why -en is attached to the pronoun vous. Normally -en is used as an adverbial pronoun meaning "some," "any," or "one," but here it must mean something a little different. Cole Porter writes the phrase to mean "Go Away!"

 

French Object Pronouns Word Order

Why, the curious reader wonders, is word order so darned important in French? In English we pretty much stick direct and indirect objects anywhere depending on how we want to make the point.

I gave him the ball.
I gave the ball to him.
I was standing in the middle of Yankee Stadium, and I gave him a ball signed by Babe Ruth while a crowd of thousands cheered on.

The French, it seems, are sticklers for word order, reminding me of the oft repeated phrase:
"It is not so much what you say in French, but how you say it."

The word order for French object pronouns, both direct and indirect, is as follows:

Subject, direct object, indirect object, verb.

  Je le lui donne, Je le lui donnais, Je le lui ai donné -
  I am giving it to him, I gave it to him, I gave it to him.

With dual construction verbs, put the object pronouns before the second verb.

Je dois lui parler. - I have to talk to him/her.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Direct Objects & Indirect Objects


"Why," the curious reader asks, "do we have direct and indirect object pronouns?"

To avoid repetition, to get to the point faster, to simplify life. Direct and indirect pronouns shorten our sentences like a text message by referring to previously stated people and things as objects.

I ate the cake. I ate it at once, quickly and greedily, not wanting to share it with my friends.

Direct Objects

Direct objects receive the action of the verb. Thus, I hit the ball. I is the subject, hit the verb, and the ball, the direct object which receives the action.

The direct object can be a person or thing.

I hit Bob with the ball.

But, fait attention, mes enfants, if you change the action slightly, a direct object becomes an indirect object.

I hit the ball to Bob. Bob is now the indirect object, the ball the direct object. And, notice that in English, we don't always let you know that Bob is an indirect object. We delete the preposition "to".

I hit Bob The ball.

 Oh, gentle reader, don't we love grammar?

Ne pense pas trop de la grammaire, juste di la.

Direct objects in French are me / m', te / t', le, la, nous, vous, les.

Direct objects precede the verb in a sentence.

I drink beer, Je bois

I drank it, Je la bois.

In a compound verb sentence such as passe compose, the verb agrees with the gender of the direct object.

He saw Marie.  Il a vu Marie.

He saw her. Il l'a vue.

Indirect Objects

French indirect objects are me / m', te / t', lui,  nos,  vous, leur. 

Indirect objects are people or things for whom the action occurs. Thankfully, in French the preposition à is always used before an indirect object.
don't think about grammar too much just say it.
I gave (to) Paul the book. J'ai donné à Paul le livre.
I gave him the book. Je lui ai donné le livre.

If there is both a direct object and indirect object pronoun, the direct object pronoun precedes the indirect object pronoun. It is the same as in English, if that helps.


 Je le lui ai donné. I gave it to him.

Note. Unlike the direct object, the past participle does not agree in number and gender with the indirect object.

In negative sentences, the ne comes after the subject, and the indirect object precedes the verb whether singular or compound.

Elle ne m'a pas téléphoné.

If there is an infinitive, then the indirect object is placed before the infinitive.

Je ne vais pas lui écrire. I am not going to write her.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Dans ma Rue - Zaz



Dans ma rue, une vieille chanson d'Edith Piaf, mis à jour par Zaz. Voici la traduction en anglais.

French - English Translation

Dans ma Rue

On my Street

I live at the corner of old Montmartre
Every night, my father returns home drunk
And in order to feed the four of us
My poor mother works at the washhouse

When I am sick, I sit at my window
Watching the people going elsewhere
When the day comes, they vanish
These are things that cause me a little fear

In my street, there are people who pass by
I hear their whispers in the night
When I’m sent to sleep nourished by the corny old tunes
Suddenly, I awoke to the cries

Whistles, to stop those lurking, who go and come
Then the silence that makes my heart cold
In my street, there are shadows who walk by
And I tremble and I'm cold and afraid

One day, my father tells me: “ Daughter,
You can not stay here forever
You are good at nothing, this is just family
It’s necessary that you earn your bread

Men find you rather pretty
You need only go out at night
There are good women who earn their living
Swaying their hips on the sidewalk

In my street, there are women who pass by
I hear them sing softly in the night
When I’m sent to sleep nourished
by the corny old tunes
Suddnely, I awoke to the cries

A whistle, to stop those lurking, who go and come
Then a silence that makes my heart grow cold
In my street there are women who pass by
And I tremble and I’m cold and afraid

And when the weeks pass by
I have no home, no more money
I know not how for others
But I didn’t try looking for clients

I asked all the people who passed by for charity
A bite of bread, a bit of warmth
I lacked much boldness
Now it is me who they fear

In my street, every nights I go walking
And they hear me sob in the night
When the wind drops from the heavens, it's a corny old tune
All my body is ice for the rain

But I can’t anymore, I wait ceaselessly
for the Good God to come
For an invitation to be warmed by Him
In my street there are angels to take me away
For ever my nightmares will be finished!
J'habite un coin du vieux Montmartre,
Mon père rentre saoul tous les soirs,
Et pour nous nourrire tous les quatres,
Ma pauvre mère travaille au lavoir.

Quand j'suis malade, j'reste à ma fenêtre,
J'regarde passer les gens d'ailleurs.
Quand le jour vient à disparaitre,
Y'a des choses qui me font un peu peur.

Dans ma rue y'a des gens qui s'promènent,
J'les entends chuchoter et dans la nuit
Quand j'm'endore bercée par une rengaine,
J'suis soudain réveillée par des cris,

Des coups de sifflet, des pas qui trainent
qui vont qui viennent,
Puis le silence qui me fait froid dans tout le coeur.
Dans ma rue y'a des ombres qui s'promènent,
Et je tremble et j'ai froid et j'ai peur.

Mon père m'a dit un jour : ma fille
Tu vas pas rester là sans fin,
T'es bonne à rien ça c'est de famille
Faudrait voir à gagner ton pain.

Les hommes te trouvent plutôt jolie,
Tu n'auras qu'à partir le soir,
Y'a bien des femmes qui gagnent leur vie
En s'baladant sur le trottoir.

Dans ma rue y'a des femmes qui s'promènent,
J'les entends fredonner et dans la nuit
Quand j'm'endore bercée par une rengaine,
J'suis soudain réveillée par des cris,

Des coups de sifflet, des pas qui trainent
qui vont qui viennent,
Puis ce silence qui me fait froid dans tout le coeur.
Dans ma rue y'a des femmes qui s'promènent
Et je tremble et j'ai froid et j'ai peur.

Et depuis des semaines et des semaines
J'ai plus de maison, j'ai plus d'argent
J'sais pas comment les autres s'y prennent,
Mais j'ai pas pu trouver de client.

J'demande l'aumône aux gens qui passent,
Un morceau de pain, un peu de chaleur.
J'ai pourtant pas beaucoup d'audace,
Maintenant c'est moi qui leur fais peur.

Dans ma rue, tous les soirs j'me promène,
On m'entend sangloter et dans la nuit
Quand le vent jette au ciel sa rengaine
Tout mon corps est glacé par la pluie.

Et j'en peux plus, j'attends qu'enfaite
que le bon Dieu vienne,
Pour m'inviter à m'réchauffer tout près de lui.
Dans ma rue y'a des anges qui m'ammènent,
Pour toujours mon cauchemar est fini.