French, anyone?

Hiya Folks,

I trust you’re all dandy. Do you remember my list of words? I’m working on a list of words – a sort of vocabulary bank with sample sentences, sometimes an explanation, and an opportunity for you to practice the words. Well, I’m still working on it. This one will weigh in at over 100 words, from A to Z.

Anyways, another list of words that I have and that will turn into a booklet of sorts one day is French terms that are used in English. You may or may not have heard of them, but without further ado let me present today’s contestants (Aha! You did not know there was a contest going on, did you?).

If you speak French, it might be a little bit easier to understand these terms. But then again, maybe not. They don’t quite mean the same thing, so they might just confuse you. What you will get out of knowing French is that you’ll remember how to spell them right and you’ll know how to pronounce them.

Ok, that was a lot of ado. Let’s go on.

Enfant terrible

“Enfant” means child and “terrible” is the same as in English, just pronounced differently.

Ah, we’d better learn to pronounce what we are saying. The “n” sound is a bit tricky because we don’t have that sound in English. The best I can come up with is: try to hum through your nose rather than your mouth. Hopefully you’ll get a soft “n” sound coming out of your nose. The “t” in “enfant” is silent. We won’t go into why there are all sorts of letters thrown into French words that aren’t pronounced. At least not today. If you want a headache, try learning Scottish Gaelic. You’ll see even more letters that appear to be thrown in just for fun, you have to remember them for spelling, but they aren’t pronounced either. Wowzer.

Ok, getting back to “enfant terrible”. So “enfant” is pronounced something like: o’n’fo’n’. Nobody spells words like that, so let me explain. The “o” is like English “on”, as in “on top of spaghetti all covered with cheese…”, only you don’t pronounce the “n” like in English. The ‘n’ is to remind you to let it out through your nose (just the ‘n’ and nothing else). Are you with me? o’n’f’o’n’

Now let’s move on to “terrible”. It’s pronounced nothing like its English equivalent, so let’s break it down. The “t” isn’t as aspirated as in English. Otherwise, you’ll just sound like an English native speaking French! So try to swallow the “t” a bit, if that makes sense. Just don’t try spitting or blowing out a candle, the way you might with an English “t” (I bet you’re all trying this now). The first “e” is a cross between an English short “i” as in “in” and the “e” in “hen”. The double “rr” sounds like “gh” at the back of your throat when you’re trying to gargle, the “i” is “ee” and the ending “e” is usually skipped. Phew.

Are you ready to throw the towel in yet? No, please. We haven’t even got to what it means!!

Ok, so “enfant terrible”, if you wanted to spell it out would be something like “o’n’f’o’n’ tegheebl”. You know what? Maybe you can just go to Google Translate or something, and see if it will pronounce it for you and be your voice coach.

Meaning: enfant terrible does not mean terrible child, as you might expect. It could be a child, but could be a young person or even an adult. In a child, it’s someone who comes out and says shocking or embarrassing things in front of guests. You know the one. I think every family has got an enfant terrible. Spill all the family secrets and mortify the parents. Come to think of it, I think I might have had a few episodes of being an enfant terrible back in the day.

In someone older, it comes off as unconventional behaviour, eccentric, like a child who hasn’t quite grown up and likes to speak their mind. There’s another meaning related to a young adult “enfant terrible”. This person is unorthodox, likes to think outside the box, and is surprisingly successful. So “enfant terrible” in an adult is an admirable thing.

Ready for the next one? I promise we’ll go faster. You work on pronouncing the words, I’ll work on explaining their meaning. Deal?

Bons mots

You already know that the “n” should come out your nose. The “s” in “bons” is respectfully silent. The “t” and “s” in “mots” both take a backseat and refuse to utter a sound. How do you like that? If we were to spell them out, they would be something like: bo’n’ mo.

Of course, the “o” in “mots” isn’t like in English. Hey there, Moe, how ya doin’? Nope, we’re not having any of this farmer Moe and Joe stuff. Purse your lips a bit as you say it, as though you’re about to kiss someone (now you know why French is the language of love), and cut the “o” sound before it gets very far, like maybe a millisecond. “Mo” – there, I’m sure you’ve got it. If in doubt, go find yourself a nice Frenchman or Frenchwoman, or lacking those, an online pronunciation guide.

“Bons” means good and “mots” means words. Good words? Umm, not quite. More like witty. Maybe French people are witty in English. So the first Frenchman to crack a joke in English, got this reaction: Oh, well said! Bons mots! Bons mots!

Probably because they didn’t know how to say “witty” in French. Come to think of it, I don’t either. If you know, do tell.

Repartee

Here’s a fun one, and I promise my explanations will get shorter rather than longer. Remember how I taught you to pronounce the “r” at the back of your throat for “enfant terrible”? Well, good news. You can forget it here. Just put on your ordinary English accent, try to pronounce “repartee”, and you’ll do just fine. /rep art ee/

A Frenchman might cringe, but we’re not bothered about that now – we’re speaking English. Do you know what a repartee is? It’s a conversation where you go back and forth trying to get one over on the other person – trying to be funnier, cheekier, get the last word in. And when you go back and forth, it’s called a repartee. Fun! Now you know what to call it when you and your mom or dad are in a (good-humoured) verbal battle.

Pied à terre

I love this one. You can go back to pronouncing the “rr” at the back of your throat. Ignore the “e” on the end. Normally you would ignore the “d” on the end of “pied” too, but because of the “à” after it, the “d” is pronounced. The “ie” is pronounced quickly, with the “i” getting a millisecond of attention. I know, things aren’t always fair. Not only that, it comes out sounding like a “y”. Does the “i” feel cheated? Probably. And the “e” is that cross between an “i” and “e” again. Hey, you’re getting good at this. The “à” has an accent on it, not for pronunciation but for meaning. It’s pronounced pretty close to “a” in English as in “a hen, a person”.

Pyedategh

Oh, if we had the spelling of words…!!

So, “pied” means foot, “à” means at or on, and “terre” means ground or earth. Foot on the ground. Hmm… good guess, but no. As the saying goes, close but no cigar. Actually, forget that. It isn’t even close. All right, my friend. You are out in left field.

Pied à terre means a second, smaller home. So you’ve got your main house that you live in, and then you’ve got an apartment in town or something like that. The apartment is your pied à terre. My dream place for a pied à terre? London. Now you know.

But really, isn’t it just fun to say? Pied à terre, pied à terre, pied à terre, pied à terre.

So, your double task this week is to:

1) Learn to pronounce enfant terrible, bons mots, and pied à terre so you don’t make a native French speaker wince. With repartee, you can have all the fun you want.

2) Use them, use them, use them! Write about them, say them, make your listeners say: Say, what? Sorry, what was that? Gezundheit!

And that’s a wrap.

See you around, and hope you’re enjoying these blogs.

P.S. Remember the contest? Which French term won? Let me know in the comments. Tell me just why you like it so.