Archives des Speak Easy Puzzles - 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 …

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…

Speak Easy: Flirting with French

This Speak Easy game is based on expressions found in the book Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me and Nearly Broke My Heart by William Alexander. Mr Alexander is an IT guy with obessions. One of his obessions was to learn French.

He realizes learning a language as an adult is a frustratingly hard, dreary, lonesome experience. He is easily distracted from this studying by exploring how and when language is acquired. He’d rather ponder the seemingly illogical gender assignments of French nouns, or his digressions meander to try to understand how the General Commission for Terminology and Neologisms decides what words can and can’t be officialy part of the French language. He revels in idiom translation. He would have liked our Speak Easy puzzles. Read more about the book here. And try an idiomatic expression brain twisting flirting with French Speak Easy below.

You can purchase a book of Speak Easy Puzzles and lea…

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 …

Sh… A Speak Easy puzzle of expressions

"Sh!" in English, but "chut!" in French. Expressions certainly do not simply translate from one language to another, they are also transformed. Here's a Speak Easy collection of "sh" words in English (many of the these English words are of Yiddish origin and they are fun to say outloud due to their rather odd combination of sounds), up to you to find the French equivalents in the list. In French the Sh and sch sound are not very much used. The English section of my Harrap's has 8 pages of words beginning with these letters whereas the corresponding French section has just 25 entries. Those 25 French words are frequently derived from English: schéma, schématique, schisme, schiste, schizophrène, schlinguer, schnaps, schnock, schuss, shaker, shakespearien, shampooing, shampoiner, shampouineur, shérif, shetland, shiatsu, shinto, shit, shoot, shooter, shopping, short, show and show-business. Enjoy the this puzzle of expressions and prick up your ears to the colorful expressions o…

14th of July in Paris: La Marseillaise and where to watch the fireworks

Did you know? The French call their national holiday, the 14th of July, NOT Bastille Day.

The 14th of July Military parade is back, the theme this year is "Share the Flame".

There will be lots of folks lining the Champs-Elysées for the event, so bring a mask or better yet for a safer, better view, with commentary watch on TV.

Read more about the day's events on Secrets of Paris.

Where to watch the fireworks on the 14th of July fireworks with slightly smaller crowds and a panoramic view Paris west: Pont du Garigliano (as well as many of the other bridges) Paris east: The intersection de la rue Piat and de la rue des Envierges or the Parc de Belleville Paris north: Montmartre Suresnes: Mont Valérien, Terrasse du Fécheray Meudon : Terrasse de l’observatoire Saint-Cloud: Parc de Saint-Cloud, rond-point de la Balustrade also known as La Lanterne The top of the Montparnasse tower: 5…

Avoir les portugaises ensablées

In making this Speak Easy puzzle I very much enjoyed learning the origin of "Avoir les portugaises ensablées" via the wonderful website Expressio. The expression means to be deaf, so indeed I was intrigued to know how deafness and Portugal are related. The origin goes back to the a slang term for ear (oreille) from the middle of the 20th century which was "portugaise". Portugaise simply refers to a type of oyster called portuguese which is shaped like an ear. From there to the idea of the oyster full of sand making you hard of hearing is just a short stretch. Next obvious question then is why do we call huitres creuses "portuguese" oysters? 1868 - the ship called The Morlaisien, was delivering oysters from Portugal to France (some stories say to northern France some say to the Arcachon bassin) when the ship was forced to hold over in the Gironde Estuary. The oysters spoiled and the captain decided to dump them overboard. Apparently not all of them had expired, some even thri…

Birds in Paris and Speak Easy

A few years ago I started noticing birds and now the city is full of nature. Birds are everywhere, including in the city, if you just look and listen a little more closely. Here are a few of the birds you can see in Paris. Two of my favorites are the tiniest and busiest. The European robin and the wren. The European robin is the one you see on greeting cards all over the place, he is an artist's favorite with his bright orange-red face and neck. When you see him you'll recognize him right away by his color and shape - he looks like he just ate a ping pong ball - just that size and nicely round. The Wren is even smaller, multi-shades of brown has a stubby turned up tail. The wren makes a noise bigger than most bigger birds. Once you learn their song (listen here) you'll start hearing wrens everywhere. Another big talker is the Magpie. This bird is a little smaller than a crow, has a long thin tail and is iridescent black and white. When the sunlight glints off his…

Funny poems about learning English

Learning a language is fun and funny, but difficulties lurk when not done with honey. English is notoriously difficult because it is very irregular in pronunciation and spelling. Thousand years of external influences amongst which the imposition of French in the middle ages and a huge importation of foreign words resulting from exploration and colonialism turned English into a mishmash. Enjoy these poems about learning English that we have gathered from various online sources. The first of these poems about learning English dates from at least 1896! We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes; But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes. Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men, Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? The cow in the plural may be cows o…

A Bon Speak Easy is a good Speak Easy

A Bon Speak Easy Why make a bon Speak Easy? One of the most used words in French must be bon. It is used is wish everyone a good day, week, weekend, trip, courage, luck and more. It also has a negative meaning at times. This puzzle includes as many bon phrases as we could find while not repeating the ones we all know from the get go such as bonjour, bon anniversaire, bonbon. I once heard a server in a restaurant wish someone a bon début de fin de soirée. And just yesterday was reminded of another good "bon" phrase when an exasperated mother said "bon sang!" to her kids. Post your translation of bon sang in the comments below this article. The best translation will win a copy of Volume 3 (from which this puzzle is extracted) of the Speak Easy Puzzles book (contest ends 31/12/2021). Bon Speak Easy! This puzzle is included in the new Speak Easy book. Volume 3 is now available with fifty new puzzles to challenge your French and English. Copies may be purchased at the FUSAC …

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