Anonymous asked: Hello. This blog is awesome. I'm very grateful of what you are doing. :) But there's something I wanted to ask. Since French words' pronunciations are very hard to guess, could you please also provide pronunciations next to the verbs? Thanks a world.
Thanks :) I actually just kind of noticed that I haven’t been keeping up with this blog. I will be sure to provide some pronunciations with the words I post.
Thanks for reading!
Dépaysement:
The sensation of being in another country.
La douleur exquise: The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can’t have. Even a Sex in the City episode was named after it!
Chômer: To be unemployed, but because it’s a verb, it makes the state active.
Profiter: To make the most of or take advantage of.
Flâneur: As defined in the book Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals, it’s “the deliberately aimless pedestrian, unencumbered by any obligation or sense of urgency, who, being French and therefore frugal, wastes nothing, including his time which he spends with the leisurely discrimination of a gourmet, savoring the multiple flavors of his city.”
Esprit d’escalier: The literal translation is staircase wit, but it means to think of a comeback when it’s too late.
Retrouvailles: The happiness of meeting again after a long time.
Sortable: An adjective for someone you can take anywhere without being embarrassed.
Voila/voici: It’s so necessary that we use it all the time. “Voila” literally means “there it is” and “voici means “here it is.”
Empêchement: An unexpected last-minute change of plans. A great excuse without having to be specific
“That’s life!”; or “Such is life!” It is sometimes used as an expression to say that life is harsh but that one must accept it.
“I-don’t-know-what” : an indescribable or indefinable ‘something’ which distinguishes the object in question from others which are superficially similar.
a type of motor racing, literally “Great Prize”.
Origin mid 19th cent.: French, literally ‘great or chief prize.’
accueillir to welcome
accuser to accuse/acknowledge, to blame, to charge (de with) [law]
acheter to buy
a small exclusive group of friends without morale; always used in a pejorative way in French.
Origin early 18th cent.: from French, from Old French cliquer
