tourterelle
Monday, March 13, 2006
les tourtereaux
(tohr-tewr-elle)noun, plural
lovebirds
Had you been one of the two turtledoves coo-cooing up high on the French telephone fil, you might have spotted another couple, sans plumes, on the patio below.
There, under an old tuile-roofed terrace, just beneath the sleeping bignonia vine, a man and a woman sat, close as the tourterelles on the line above, sharing a small patch of soleil at the end of a long rectangular table, on which their coffee cups rested.
"Tu n'as pas trop froid?" said he.
"No, and you?" said she.
Comme ça, they softly spoke, cooing to one another, each in his (and her) own language.
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French Vocabulary
le fil
wire, cable
sans plumes
without feathers
la tuile
tile
le bignonia
trumpet vine
la tourterelle
turtledove
le soleil
sun
tu n'as pas trop froid?
you're not too cold?
comme ça
like that
The following text will not be included in the book.
Listen to eight-year-old Jackie, pronounce the word 'tourterelle': Download tourterelle.wav
Synonyms for tourterelle: le pigeon, la colombe (dove), la palombe (ring-dove), le ramier (woodpigeon)
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