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

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?

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

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.

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.

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.