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Useful French Phrases

Useful French Phrases

Old Mar 23rd 2009, 6:46 pm
  #106  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by annabella
What about:

Je ne peux pas le/la voir dans une peinture.
.........Can't stand him or her even in (as) a painting.
C'est kif kif
------It's six of one and half dozen of another.
C'est du bonnet blanc et du blanc bonnet.
.........Six of one and half dozen of another.
Je pedale dans la choucroute. (Should be a acute (accent aigue) accent over the e in pedale but can't find it.)
...........I am getting nowhere.
Ca vol bas!
...........Means literally that it is flying low. Would say that about perhaps a poor TV programme; bad taste; the IQ of somebody even, meaning that they are intellectually challenged.
............C'est a ras les paquerettes. Means it's something at the level of the daisies. Again low level.
Plus ca change.....
............The more it changes the more it stays the same..
Could say that of a politican after hearing yet another of their speeches saying the same thing...

Sorry about the lack of accents.

The exact phrase is : je peux pas le/la voir en peinture (as it's usual language the "NE" you should have after "je" is dropped)
Kif kif comes from arabian language. The french living in north africa (called by the french from france the "pieds noirs")brought it back on the continent after the algerian war and the local french start to use it as well (you might find another word quite typical: kawa which means café, arabian too)
The french equivalent is "c'est du pareil au même" or as it said further down, c'est du bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet


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Old Mar 23rd 2009, 7:11 pm
  #107  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by Bel de la bourre
some banlieue additions:

ca gaz/ ca roule - Everything is rather well with me, Sir.
Tu kiffes? - Would that be your kind of thing?
Ouais, je kiffes! Oh yes, very much!
T'veux fumer un pet/un bedot/un tarpe? Would you care for a cannabis cigarette?
Casses-toi conard! - Leave the area, rascal
Niques ta race/ta mere - Your nation/mother is rather unpleasant
Tu t' fous de ma gueule? - Are you being unfriendly
gros/frere - top man/bro (as in eh, frere, c'est a toi la bagnole ou tu l'as empruntee?
Cramer - to set alight (as in, la voiture a crame toute seule, j'ai rien vu...)
Les keufs - the Bobbies

Hummmmdid you choose your user name knowing perfectly what it meant? Are you english? I hope so...dear me
Never mind...
Niques ta race doesn't mean that. It 's much more f*** your race/your mother. Using "race" is much more violent and racist

I think the right translation of "tu t'fous d'ma gueule" is more something like "are you taking the p*** out of me?

... enough for now... "j'ai l'estomac dans les talons" i'm dead hungry! and after diner i'll be able to say: "j'ai les dents du fond qui baignent" my stomac is ever so full that my food comes up over my back teeth(literal translation... sorry don't know the equivalent in english) "personne n'est parfait"! nobody's perfect


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Old Mar 23rd 2009, 7:52 pm
  #108  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Great phrase this:

T'est con ou quoi?

roughly translates as:

I think you missed the irony.
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Old Mar 23rd 2009, 8:12 pm
  #109  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by treskillard
Great phrase this:

T'est con ou quoi?

roughly translates as:

I think you missed the irony.

Hummmm let me think... didn't i say at the end ...british humour? Didn't i use by the way, another phrase so french and at the same time using an english VIP "et moi jsuis la reine d'Angleterre"?It was "pil poil" the right place to use it! Don't you think so? that is called in french: rebondir Oh come on....you talk too much french obviously ... forgetting your own british humour, attention... "tu vas finir par avoir un balai au Q"... rather nice expression too!

Said the old lady...

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Old Mar 23rd 2009, 8:21 pm
  #110  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by sssplendid
Hummmm let me think... didn't i say at the end ...british humour? Didn't i use by the way, another phrase so french and at the same time using an english VIP "et moi jsuis la reine d'Angleterre"?It was "pil poil" the right place to use it! Don't you think so? that is called in french: rebondir Oh come on....you talk too much french obviously ... forgetting your own british humour, attention... "tu vas finir par avoir un balai au Q"... rather nice expression too!

Said the old lady...

sssplendid
Too right.
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Old Dec 12th 2009, 9:11 pm
  #111  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Je ne suis pas superstitieux. Ca porte malheur.
- I'm not superstitious. That brings bad luck!
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Old Feb 17th 2010, 4:11 pm
  #112  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

My grandad often used to say "san fairy ann" I'm gessing the spelling he never wrote it down.
I now know where the expression came from..... from the trenches in france He heard it so often from the froggies "ça ne fait rien" - it doesn't matter.

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Old Feb 17th 2010, 4:16 pm
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

a funny expression from down here (Perpignan) Je suis esponté.... means I am flabbergasted

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Old Feb 22nd 2010, 10:24 am
  #114  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by treskillard
Great phrase this:

T'est con ou quoi?

roughly translates as:

I think you missed the irony.
I would say it translates as:
Are you stupid or what?

Now it pretty hard to find a straight translation for con... Con can be idiot, stupid etc... Usually find that con is often everyone....

We also say "Y'a des cons partout" Cons are everywhere...

Me n my friends used to "Putain, t'fais chier con!"
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Old Feb 22nd 2010, 1:34 pm
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Careful, "con" in the Longuedoc Rousillon serves as a "fin de phrase" or apostrophe and is not intended to be offensive to the person one is talking to.
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Old Feb 22nd 2010, 6:23 pm
  #116  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by geoff3
Careful, "con" in the Longuedoc Rousillon serves as a "fin de phrase" or apostrophe and is not intended to be offensive to the person one is talking to.
Geoff
Ah bon? French OH and I have lived here for 18 years and haven't noticed!

But "connard" and "connasse" are real insults. There are two villages in the Hérault called "Caunas" and "Conas" (s pronounced) where I wouldn't fancy living. Rather like "Montcuq" in the Lot (the q not being pronounced)...
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Old Feb 22nd 2010, 7:32 pm
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

extract from Wiki...
Dans le Sud de la France, en particulier à Toulouse où il se prononce cõ ͊ŋ, con ou son dérivé bouducon est utilisé de manière impersonnelle comme interjection. Il est utilisé fréquemment dans le registre familier en début ou fin de phrase, à l'instar de putain ou putain con. On résume souvent : « Putain, con, c'est la ponctuation[28]. ». Il existe d'ailleurs cette drôlerie racontée à Toulouse: « Qu'est-ce qui commence par un F et termine avec un N et tombe à l'automne? » - « Des feuilles, con! »

À Marseille, l'interjonction « Oh ! Con ! » est utilisée de manière non injurieuse entre amis ou collègues. Certaines expressions composées avec con, comme les plus connues Le con de ta/sa mère !, Le con de ta/sa race ! et Le con de Manon (ou Le con de Madon, pour exprimer de l'agacement, de l'irritation), peuvent s'y employer de manière exclamative, en l'absence de personne à injurier[2

if you need a translation?....
Geoff
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Old Feb 22nd 2010, 7:38 pm
  #118  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by geoff3
if you need a translation?....
Geoff
No, I don't need one, thanks!

But I'd point out that Toulouse and Marseille aren't in the L-R...
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Old Feb 28th 2010, 2:19 pm
  #119  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

Originally Posted by dmu
No, I don't need one, thanks!

But I'd point out that Toulouse and Marseille aren't in the L-R...
Living as I do, in the same part of L-R as dmu, I confirm that I have never seen "con" used in that way here either...

Wiki is not necessarily the source of all knowledge...
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Old Feb 28th 2010, 3:41 pm
  #120  
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Default Re: Useful French Phrases

[QUOTE=karunia;8381818]Living as I do, in the same part of L-R as dmu, I confirm that I have never seen "con" used in that way here either...

(Hi, neighbour!)
---------
It isn't a phrase, but here's a faux ami that might be new to some:
Some one who is "suffisant" isn't sufficient, but "conceited" or "self-important".

(Maybe some one could start a Faux Ami thread?)
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