French Word-A-Day

empreinte de pied

The closest thing to a sleigh that I could find in my photo album. Photo taken in the Piedmont.

The next word goes out in 2009. "See you" then!

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French Word of the Day:

empreinte de pas (soundfile follows...) noun, feminine
    : footprint

Audio File: Listen to my daughter, Jackie, pronounce the French word for footprint: Download Une empreinte de pas . Download Une empreinte de pas
 


Good morning, good day, hello and happy holidays! If I am up and chirping (in English...), it is because the sun is shining and the extended French family is arriving and I am about to fire up a new household appliance, one that my husband and children presented me with, just this morning: une yaourtière!*

Our family goes through a lot of yogurt (it's a French thing, not a hippy-granola thing--and even if it were a baba cool* thing: qu'est-ce que ça vous fait? What's it to you?). It finally occurred to me that we are throwing out over a 1000 plastic yogurt containers each year. With a yogurt maker (which comes with 8 reusable glass jars) we won't have to do that anymore. (Though, one day, we will have to dump the machine itself).

Strange things have been happening this past week and now, this side of forty-one-years-old, I am trying to make up for lost time. I find myself sewing odd garments (using "holey items" from the give-away clothes pile), making home-made notebooks from my children's old cahiers* (a chichi* store-bought notebook will never again have the same charm!), and trying to erase... erase... erase! the years of "hard living". Only, this time around, not with age-defying creams...

I am trying, finally, to erase my environmental footprint. On second thought, it may be too late to erase it--but it is never too late to lighten it.

Just as I begin to question my sanity (having ripped apart yet another old t-shirt and refashioned it into a new "alternative garment") I stop for a reality check.
"Jackie," I say to my daughter, having had a light and friendly mother-daughter chat about what the age of twelve has in store for her (...), a chat in which I explained all of the options, environmental and not, available to her... "Jackie," I say, "tu dois croire que je suis complètement cinglée!"* I look down, at all of the scraps I've stitched together, and realize that I cannot tell my daughter what to do, but I can be an example--however poorly-stitched!

"Of course, you don't have to wear these things. It's just an experiment... perhaps even a foucade.* I don't know!"

My daughter picks up one of the items. "This one is well sewn," she says of the odd-shaped "experiment". Her encouragement continues.

"Maman, ce que tu fais--c'est bon. Ce n'est pas "crazy"! Même la femme la plus riche au monde aimerait bien faire ça."*

And there, amidst piles of rags, I feel like the richest woman in the world.

*    *    *

This week, it's back to the bercail* for us. We'll be taking time away from email and paperwork (apart from the notebook-making kind) to spend time with family and friends.

Thank you for reading this French word journal, whether via email or online. "See you" in 2009. Until then, may we dance forward into the future together... leaving feather-light footprints in our wake.

If you would like to respond to today's story, or share a story of your own, please send your words via the comments box. Thank you!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~French Vocabulary~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
une yaourtière (f) = yogurt maker; un baba cool = hippie; le cahier (m) = notebook; chichi = fussy, formal; tu dois croire que je suis complètement cinglé = you must think I'm completely nuts; une foucade (f) = a passing fancy, whim; Maman, ce que tu fais--c'est bon. Ce n'est pas 'crazy'! Même la femme la plus riche au monde aimerait bien faire ça = Mom, what you're doing is good. It isn't crazy. Even the richest woman in the world would like to do that; le bercail (m) = fold (sheep), home


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avocat

Our friend, témoin, avocat, son's parrain, and more, in today's story. (The cute guy is Matthieu, my husband's godson).

avocat (avo-kah) noun
    1.  avocado
    2.  lawyer, barrister, counsel

The feminine of avocat is "avocate"

Do you have a funny, language-learning (or other) story about an avocado/avocat or lawyer/légume? Wait a minute; an avocado is a fruit... Never mind, share your fruity, law-abiding story with us today--or share any terms and expressions missing from today's edition... in the comments box.

Meantime, here are some related words and expressions:
  avocat du diable = devil's advocate
  avocasserie (f) = pettifoggery (in French "mauvaise chicane d'avocat")
  un avocassier (une avocassière) = un mauvais avocat / a bad lawyer
  un avocaillon (m) = pettifogger, small-town lawyer
  un avocatier = an avocado pear tree

... and this verb, from my grandfather's 1928 Petit Larousse: avocasser: to obscurely exercise the lawyer profession.
 
AUDIO FILE: listen to the French word "avocat" and hear the expressions, above:Download Avocat .  Download Avocat



Jean-Marc and I rolled into town last night, after 2 a.m., having spent "une soirée gastro"* with an old friend and his old potes.* When I say old, I'm referring to the age of a friendship and, bien sûr,* to the number of years that one friend recently tacked on to his birth date: quarante!* Of course forty isn't old, but we won't tell that to the birthday "boy".

Today, meet our friend Fred Chollet and, in the process, "meet" a slew of French vocabulary.

"FRED"

Fred is... Jean-Marc's cher ami d'enfance*

and the parrain* of my son, Max (quelle chance!).*

He is époux* to Corinne Chollet
a lovely woman who makes a mean chocolate cake.

Fred has traits that most of us have to pay for: curls and long lashes.

Fred is a part-time père Noël* and full time avocat.*


He is témoin* to my marriage with Jean-Marc
(a marriage not done on a lark... but, partly, in a park
after Fred got us a special lawyer
...to deal with those illegal alien "sharks"...)

Fred is a proud père* to Clémence and Matthieu a.k.a. "Pioupiou".*

Fred's favorite birthday gift was a giant jar of Nutella, a gift from his girl and from his little boy.

Fred is fiston* to Michel and has a very funny frèrot* named Antoine.

Fred is beau-frère* to Gwen, that funny guy's wife, and oncle* to Alice and Julien.

Fred's mom, Marianne, is also an avocat--and if her eyes were any greener they'd be avocado vert.*

Fred's got an aunt named Michelle (who rivals Tina Turner for legs si belle!).

Fred is a faithful ami* to a former illegal alien (nommé* Kristi).

Fred has law-abiding and not-so-law-abiding friends: like Pinpin and Astrid (law-abiding) and Guillaume & Isilde (not-so-law-abiding mountain folk). He also has formerly not-so-law-abiding friends, who we mentioned earlier.

Fred is the patron* and friend of Ouahida.* You must read about her grandfather sometime.

Voilà! Just a few things about our friend Fred. Here's one more addition:
Joyeux Anniversaire,* Fredo!

photo: Fred with Max, in 2005

FRENCH VOCABULARY
une soirée (f) gastro = a gastronomic evening; un pote (m) = friend, pal; bien sûr = of course; quarante = forty; un ami (une amie) d'enfance = childhood friend; le parrain (m) = godfather; quelle chance! = what luck!; un époux (une épouse) = spouse; le père Noël = Santa Claus, Father Christmas; un avocat (une avocate) = lawyer; le témoin (m) = witness (best man); le père (m) = father; le pioupiou (sounds like "pyou-pyou") = little soldier; le fiston (m) = son, young man; le frèrot (m) = little brother; le beau-frère (m) = brother-in-law; un oncle (m) = uncle; vert (verte) = green; un ami (une amie) = friend; nommé = named; le patron (m) = boss; Ouahida = read a story about Ouahida ; joyeux anniversaire = happy birthday

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order.

regle

I don't know why I want "straight" to always be the rule when, in fact, I often admire what is off-center. Read on, in today's story column.

règle (regl) noun, feminine
    : rule, ruler; rule (of conduct, grammar); (règles = menstruation)

[from the Latin, "regula"]

(see a list of "règle" expressions at the end of this letter)

Audio File: listen to today's word and hear Jean-Marc read a passage (that is: (a list of rules) from today's story  Download Regle . Download Regle

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Somewhere in Provence, on a little crooked farm, beyond a few crooked walls... and a crooked Christmas tree... four off-kiltered kin sit 'round a table.

"We need to STRAIGHTEN UP around here!" one of the crooked ones says.

She pounds her fist on a crooked surface. The table is nicked, scratched, and sullied from enough errant knives and fourchettes* that the surface looks, on second glance, like a wall of faded hieroglyphics. The only thing not carved into the wood are the amorous initials of the man and woman who call this place home.

"Home!" the woman points out. "...is a cozy respite from a crooked "outside". In here, there is order... or should be!" she announces, pulling an errant sock out of her bathrobe's pocket. "And just whose is this? And where does it belong?"

Three other members at the tilted table look into their bowls, trying to conceal crooked smiles, but the speaker can see their reflections on the steamy surface of their soup.

Out comes The Book. The title, written in long hand, reads:

"The Little Book of Simple Rules"

With a crooked, self-satisfied smile of her own, the woman straightens up in her chair and reads the subtitle (which is, simply, a reflection of the words above it):

"Le Petit Livre des Règles Fastoches"

"Can I read?!" the kids at the table ask and their excitement has the speaker thinking up a new rule or two (see rule numbers "Six" and "Seven," below...).

The older child begins to read the rules which are written down simply, if a bit crookedly--like chicken scratch or like the scratches beneath their soup bowls, on the surface of the table. They state, in no uncertain terms, that WE SHALL:

One:
Take off our shoes at the front door.
(Enlever nos chaussures à la porte d'entrée.)

Two:
Put on our slippers.
(Mettre nos pantoufles.)

Three:
Change the empty toilet paper roll.
(Changer le rouleau de papier toilette quand il est vide.)

Four:
Not lean back in our chair.
(Ne pas se balancer sur notre chaise.)

Five:
Not throw clothes on the floor.
(Ne pas jeter les habits par terre.)

Six:
Take turns.
(Chacun son tour.)

Seven:
Not interrupt (the speaker).
(Ne pas couper la parole.)

Eight:
Return borrowed objects.
(Rendre les objets empruntés.)

Nine:
Not drink more than three cups of coffee per day.
(Ne pas boire plus de trois cafés par jour.)


With this last rule, the reader interrupts himself.
"Mom... how many cups of coffee have you had today?"
"No one follows these rules!" the woman answers, and the caffeine puts that much more "edge" into her response. With that, she sniffs, narrows her eyes and pulls from her other bathrobe pocket a cardboard cylinder. "Nobody ever changes the roll of toilet paper!" she laments.

The woman gets up from the table, walks across a room of crooked tiles, and pitches the empty roll of papier toilette into the fire. The cardboard goes up in flames, sending out a wave of warmth: a cozy respite from rigidity. She looks back at her family, listens as they laugh and share the events of the day. The "Book of Simple Rules" has been tossed aside, a safe distance from the soup splotches that now color the table with life lived.

However crooked, the woman decides, we all seem to line up here each night, 'round a square table. Maybe it's time to "join 'em," quit trying to control everything--except for the knife: this, in time to carve our amorous initials, encircled within a crooked heart, into the table's wobbling wooden surface.


*     *     *
What were the rules that you grew up with? Share them, and your story (in French if you like), in the comments box.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
References: la fourchette (f) = fork

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Expressions~~~~~~~~~~~~
la règle d'or = the golden rule
les règles de route = rules of the road
les règles du jeu = rules of the game
mettre quelque chose en règle = to put something in order
se mettre en règle avec Dieu = to make things right with God
la règle de la maison = the rule of the house (establishment)
en règle générale... = as a general rule...
avoir ses règles = to have one's period (menstruation)

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epargner

That's my daughter, freshly-picked flowers hidden behind her back, trailing behind on a school field trip back in 2005. The goal of the "sortie" was to learn how to use a compass. Looks like our girl will need that information these days, in order to navigate the range of information, sometimes conflicting... that she receives from her trusty parents. Read on, in today's story column.

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Today's Word: EPARGNER
(If this word looks familiar, that's because we featured it last June... New are the verb's conjugations and idioms section... as well as the story!)

épargner (ay-par-nyay) verb

    : to save (up) ; to spare, to be sparing with

[from Frankish "sparanjan", from Germanic "sparōn" (spare, frugal)]

Terms & Expressions: (Don't miss the French idioms section that follows the
sponsors' message, below)

~~~~~~~~~~Audio File and Verb Conjugation~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Listen to Jean-Marc conjugate today's French verb: Download Epargner2 . Download Epargner2
J'épargne, tu épargnes, il/elle épargne, nous épargnons, vous épargnez, ils/elles épargnent => past participle: épargné



When my Francophone daughter asked for help with her French homework, I put aside self-doubt and told myself to give it a try. Usually, it is my husband who helps with le français* (and I, with l'anglais*...), but this time Jean-Marc was occupied with a telephone call. After offering a quick (and distracted...) answer to her question, he sent our daughter on her way.

That's how Jackie ended up in my home office.
"Maman," my eleven-year-old asked, "what does "épargner" mean?"
"Epargner?..."

After an initial hesitation (épargner can mean anything from "to save" to "to spare"), it occurred to me to ask about context.

"Can you give me an example sentence?"
My daughter looked at her workbook and read the assigned question.
"Pourquoi est-ce que Dieu a décidé d'épargner Noé?"

(Whoa!) Once again, I put aside meekness and went to work, translating first the sentence "Why did God decide to spare Noah?" (I'd worry about the answer later). Next, I wondered how best to explain the verb "to spare," an English verb that my kids have probably never heard before. After all, I've never asked them, "Baby, can you spare a dime?" Likewise, they've never heard me ask about a "spare tire", and I don't ever talk about "spare time," for, even here in the countryside (and no matter what outsiders imagine about "the slow and sweet life in France") "spare time" is a luxury that only a Frisbee-chewing French dog can afford. Finally, as I don't like to be sarcastic in speech (i.e.: "Oh, spare me!"), you might say my children have been spared of the verb "épargner".

And so it was now up to me to define a new word, both in English--and in French--for my daughter.

"To spare..." I began, thoughtfully. "You know, to spare... TO... SPARE..." At a loss for a translation, I remembered that Jackie had received some sort of answer from her dad, who had been busy on the phone when he offered it.

"Well, what did your dad say?"
"He said 'épargner' means 'to put money aside'."

Oh, I chuckled, inserting Jean-Marc's distracted answer into the equation: "Why did God 'put money aside' for Noah?"

I imagined God, up there in splendid Heaven, beyond those pricey golden gates, nervously tucking aside his money--savings for a rainy day; speak of rain! What with the predicament that he put Noah in, what good was it to lend the sea-swept survivor cash? What good was currency, to Noah, when the earth, and all that money could buy, was being submerged? Just WHO was Noah going to pay now? The giraffes?

"Pourquoi tu rigoles? Why are you giggling?" my daughter wanted to know, still waiting patiently for the correct definition of épargner.

"Jackie," I said, more to myself that to my daughter, "God doesn't need to put money aside for anybody!" I was going to add (in the spirit that "God is everything" i.e.: grass, the water, a rainbow, forgiveness, hope...): "He IS money!" but that seemed sacrilegious.

All that said, I still couldn't answer my daughter's question and so we set about reading the chapter on Noah's Ark. I admit, it seemed strange to be reading a section of the Bible from a French school textbook--since my daughter attends a public, or laïque* school... and especially since her previous school (also laïque) had sent her home with a swift warning after she wore a cross necklace to class. If ever she returned to school, the principal had warned, wearing that crucifix, the necklace would be confiscated! (See "French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools."*) After my initial shock and confusion, I could begin to understand the unfairness of one child being able to wear a crucifix while another might be prohibited from wearing a religious headscarf.

But back, now, to the biblical flood... I was happy to re-read the story of Noah's Ark in my daughter's (secular?) school book. And, I must say, the text certainly confirmed my beliefs: nowhere in Genesis does God say "Baby, can you spare a dime?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~References~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
le français (m) = French (language); l'anglais (m) = English (language); laïque = secular (non-religious) state school, secular (education); French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
French Idioms:
  épargner ses forces = to save one's energy
  épargner sur la nourriture = to save on one's food spending
  épargner pour ses vieux jours = to save up for one's old age
  je vous épargne les détails = I'll spare you the details
  épargner quelque chose à quelqu'un = to spare someone something

Do you know of any épargner expressions or examples that you might like to share with fellow readers? Do you have a story about "saving" or "sparing" that you'd like to tell us? Thanks for adding your savoir-faire to the comments section, for all to see.

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de guingois

The scene was so classic that I wondered, as I snuck up to snap the photo, if it wasn't staged! Notice the underwear: one per "hook"... more laundry tips hidden in today's story. Photo taken in Nyons (just next to a chichi restaurant. Well, that oughta show 'em!).

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de guingois (deuh-gehn-gwah) adverbial and adjectival phrase
    : askew, lop-sided

marcher de guingois = to walk lop-sidedly
tout va de guingois = everything's going haywire

Example:
"The Marais, says Jacob Berger, a film director who lives and works in the neighborhood, is de guingois--that is to say, slightly askew."

--from the National Geographic article:
"Bohemian rhapsody: on the right bank of Paris history and hip embrace..."

Audio file: listen to the French word "de guingois" and to this expression: "marcher de guingois":Download Guingois . Download Guingois



Another odd Christmas tree this year. I should have taken Mom's advice: get an artificial one! Apart from being good for the environment, those faux firs come in perfect shapes: full bodied and symmetrical; especially, they're kilter--and not helter-skelter!

If I weren't such a procrastinator, I'd have gotten the tree I wanted: Super Sapin!* (Not a bird, not a plane.... ) Though our tree may not fly or save lives (it certainly won't save the earth), it does look as if it is set for take off: long and HORIZONTAL like a Boeing 747.

"It's lopsided!" I point out to Jean-Marc, after he has placed the tree. "Wait a minute..." I remark, suspiciously. "Didn't it come with a stand?"
"No, it didn't."
"You mean the nursery didn't have stands for sale?"

"They did, but the stands weren't any good."

They never are... He was just trying to get out of buying a stand! Next, I discover his solution: our umbrella stand. He's swiped our umbrella stand to use for a tree brace. Pas vrai!*

If it weren't so amusing, to see that tree stuffed, de guingois,* into the umbrella stand like a wet parapluie,* I'd scream! But I am learning to laugh at these peculiarities. Take, for example, our bathroom light fixture, the one just above the mirror. When the screw fell out, we might have replaced it. Instead, a box of aspirin was set between the light and the mirror (now, when the box of asprin pops out, all we have to do is pick it up off the floor (easier to see than a small screw) and stick it back in its place). Ta-da!

Chez nous, it's always a balancing act... a regular circus we are! From time to time, I find myself lamenting, "Why... why can't we just be normal?" Why do I have to lean to the side in order to see our tree as it "should" be? Why can't we have a tree stand like other normal French families? Why do we have to treat our pine as a parasol? Still grumbling about my husband's eccentricities, I gather the fresh laundry which I have strewn around the house on every free hook, chair back, or table (any freestanding structure will do). Other housewives may have hung out their clothes on the line to dry today, but I don't trust the northern wind: sacré Mistral!*

Collecting some dry underwear from the fire stoker rack beside the cheminée,* and reaching for some chaussettes sèches*--slung over the candelabra, I notice the look on my husband's face... but I am quick to put him back in his place; after all, HE is the oddball!

However different, there we stand, united in silence, our heads leaning to the same side as we study our Christmas tree.
"It's lop-sided, you know."
"Yes dear," my husband replies. "Il a pris un sacré coup de Mistral!"*


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~References~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
le sapin (m) = fir (tree); pas vrai = it can't be true!; de guingois = lop-sided; le parapluie (m) = umbrella; sacré Mistral = blasted Mistral (wind); la cheminée (f) = fireplace; chaussettes (f) sèches = dry socks; il a pris un sacré coup de Mistral = it was hit by a mighty gust of wind

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