Archives des The French Language - FUSAC Paris Classifieds

Speak Easy: Siamese Twin Words

Speak Easy: Siamese Twin Words All the English words in this Speak Easy puzzle are «Siamese Twin Words» or «Irreversible Binomials», in other words a pair or grouping of words used together and joined by either «and» or «or» and in which the order of the words cannot be inversed. Many of these phrases are rhythmic or alliterative making them catchy. Some word combinations have become so widely used that their meanings surpass the meaning of the constituent words and are thus inseparable and permanent parts of the English lexicon. Many of them are also clichés, thus should be used with caution. Some of them translated to French by another set of Siamese Twins. Please make a comment below if you know what the equivalent French linguistic term is! Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of Speak Easy puzzles can be purchased on store.fusac.fr. The term Siamese Twin Words was first used as a linguistics term by H. W. Fowler, a renowned lexicographer who worked on A Dictionary of Modern English …

Myths and Misconceptions about the French

Myths and Misconceptions about the French (and France) and Where (at least) Some of Them Come From

Paris! France! Ooh-là-là! The most visited country in the world must have done something right to merit that kind of attention. And of course it has. But there are many other things that it hasn’t done-or kind of does but not in the way we think-or used to do but doesn’t any more. Détrompez-vous! (roughly: Think again!), by checking out the following (incomplete) list. The first misconception is that the French say “Oooooooh-là-là”! Oo is pronounced “oh” in French (alcool [alcohol], for instance, sounds like “al-cole,” not “al-cool”), so at worst the expression should be transcribed and pronounced as “Oh-là-là” and at best not transcribed or pronounced at all, as it’s rather passé. Some similar French and English expressions have totally different meanings: Anglophones say “There, t…

French postage stamps including the baguette

French Postage Stamps are a view of the history of the country, they also tell you what is going on currently as various events are commemorated. In 2024 obviously there are several sets of Olympic and Para-olympic stamps. There are also two collector sets for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the 150 years of Impressionism. But did you know that 2024 is also the 500th anniversary of the European discovery of New York? And to commemorate the baguette, listed on the intangible heritage of humanity of UNESCO since 2022, a Scratch 'n sniff stamp was released. A great way to highlight artisanal know-how and the traditional French baguette.On May 16th, the day of Saint-Honoré, patron saint of bakers, the national printing works in Boulazac, near Périgueux, began printing 594,000 copies of a stamp decorated with the French baguette swirled in a bleu blanc rouge ribbon. Created by La Poste in collaboration with the National Confederation of French Bakery-Pâtisserie, this stamp wa…

La Dictée and the Spelling Bee, Two traditions

Two spelling traditions: the Spelling Bee versus La Dictée It is quite ironic that the most often misspelled word in English is: "misspell"! Spelling is important in English and part of learning it. English speakers remember spelling bees from grade school. Classroom competitions right up to nationals! The first national United States Spelling Bee* was in 1925. Soemtimes it is part of the country fair along with 4H. The word "bee" is usually used to describe a get-together for communal work, like a quilting bee or a husking bee during harvest time. The word probably comes from been or bean (meaning "help offered by neighbors"), from Middle English bene (meaning "prayer", "boon" and additional service to one's lord). A spelling bee or test is based on single words being spelt properly! https://youtu.be/thfb9PK_tQQ?si=oxhllqW9gl76kHdm In France a similar exercise is in fact a much harder one called La Dictée . It has caused plenty of trauma amongst les écoliers as it is…

The history of Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day - When Cupid’s bow is fired… As far back as the early fourth century B.C., the Romans had celebrated an annual rite of passage for young men in honor of the god Lupercus. The names of willing young women were placed in a box and drawn at random by the young men. From this lottery each man was matched with a woman companion to share in mutual entertainment and pleasure (often sexual). In a year’s time a new lottery was drawn with new partners. Needless to say the early Catholic Church fathers were determined to put an end to this practice. They decided to find a « lover’s » saint who could usurp the popularity of Lupercus. They found Valentine. In Rome in A.D. 270, Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, had performed the sacrament of matrimony for lovers in secret. Valentine was violating a law issued by the mad emperor Claudius II who believed that married men made poor soldiers because they were loath to leave their families for battle. Since the Empire needed s…

Christmas Poem

A Christmas poem, how about two ! To wish our readers a “Merry Christmas to all et Bonne Année à tous!” One is two centuries old and the second a contemporary piece that shares the same rhythm.

The first is the famous Christmas poem thought to be written by Clement Clarke Moore "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in a bilingual version. Moore was a 19th century American writer and scholar and is mostly remembered for his Christmas poem which was originally title "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" which legend says he wrote on Christmas Eve in 1822 during a sleigh ride home from Greenwich Village (imagine riding in a sleigh in New York city!) after buying a turkey for his family (no doubt fresh from the farm). The poem is known for having defined our now timeless image of Santa Claus and for naming the eight reindeer! It was published (in English only and anonymously) the first time on December 23, 1823 by a New York newspaper, The Sentinel, one of t…

Au Gui l’An Neuf ou Bonne et heureuse année à vous

Au Gui l’An Neuf is another way, a bit old fashioned, to say Bonne et heureuse année à vous. La saison voulant que le gui abonde, on en cueillit dès le Moyen Âge pour l'offrir avec ce souhait : « Au gui l'an neuf », formule qui fut remplacée plus tard par « Bon an, mal an, Dieu soit céans » (soit dans la maison). Au XIXe siècle on disait « Bonne et sainte année, le paradis à la fin de vos jours », expression modernisée au XXe siècle en « Bonne et heureuse année ». Mistletoe grows all over northern France and on six of the seven continents. It’s those balls in the bare trees that you think might be nests at first glance, but in fact it is vegetal parasite which rarely kills the host trees and thus is not a pest. Ecologically it is an important plant as it provides food and shelter for many species. A study in Australia mentioned in the NY Times compared forest parcels with mistletoe to parcels from which mistletoe had been removed. The study suggests that mistletoe is…

Why is it called? Part 4: Clothing Etymology

Why is it called...? Part 4: Clothing Etymology Have you ever asked yourself why something is called by a particular name? Why are bérets called that? How do clothes get named? There is often a story. Here is a short list of some clothing articles and how they got their names, etymology. We invite readers to add their own favorites or ask about other clothes for which they would like to know the origin in the comments. We'll try to find the answer. Charentaises A charentaise is a general French word for slipper. It refers however to a specific pantoufle usually plaid which came from the area near Angoulême in the Charente region of France about 300 years ago. Hence the Etymology comes from the place. The area had many paper mills. At the time paper was made from rags and leftover felt pieces from the paper making were used to line wooden shoes, making them warmer and softer. A bit later a shoemaker from the town of La Rochefoucaud in the Charente had the idea to add a r…

Learn French! Bear! Espèces d’ours!

Bear! Espèces d'ours! After being charged by an adult male grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park and shouting "Bear!" John and Lisa (read the Yellowstone press release here and listen to John tell the story here) were amused to return to Paris to find an exhibition entitled The World of Bears or Espèces d'ours! at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. So they trotted right over to see what the museum had to say about bears. It turns out there are 8 species of bears in the world. The grizzly bear John and Lisa encountered, called Ursus arctos horribilis in scientific nomenclature, is a subspecies of the brown bear. It is also less commonly known as the silvertip bear. Scientists generally do not use the name grizzly bear but call it the North American brown bear to distinguish it from the European or Asian brown bear. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark called it "grisley". They were notoriously bad spellers and perhaps meant grizzly in reference to lighter tips …

The rooster as symbol of France

Cocorico! says the rooster as symbol of France «Cocorico», the French onomatopoeia for the rooster crowing sound (cock-a-doodle-doo), is also used to express national pride but often with a touch of irony. Why? The cock or rooster has played a role in the symbolism and folklore of many nations for thousands of years. For many people, the rooster symbolizes bravery, boldness and virility as he defends the flock. The connection with the rooster as symbol of France in particular may quite simply stem from the similarity of the Latin words for cock (gallus) and inhabitant of Gaul (gallicus), now known as France. This play on words was known in Roman times, when many Gauls used roosters to symbolize their loyalty to Gaul. In the Middle Ages the cock was widely depicted in French churches and is recorded in 14th century German references to France. Chaucer’s foolish and boastful Chantecleer in the Canterbury Tales may have refered to the French national character. During…

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