la pomme, noun:

apple

falling into the apples (tomber dans les pommes) = the French expression for "fainting"

la pomme de terre (earth-apple) = potato

Aux pommes (with apples) = first rate, A1

Pomme d'Adam = Adam's apple (anat.)

pomme de pin = pine cone

How in the world did they get "falling into apples" to mean fainting?

good question! are we to imagine standing in an orchard and being overcome by the fragrance of fallen fermenting apples?

Notre amis Francais, aidions nous, s'il vous plait! (and excuse my french if my spelling or grammar is off)

Probably the same way that feeling sick to one's stomach is to have "mal au coeur" (lit-sick to the heart)

le chat m., la chatte f. noun

cat

Le chat tombe dans les pommes. The cat is fainting .)

Ma petite chatte (literally - "my little cat" (f.), for "darling" ). Or if speaking to a man say: Mon petit chat.

Ma petite chatte, tombes dans les pommes. (Darling, you're fainting! )

The following text is from the book: The Complete French for Cats

When I meow, it means . . .

Hello . I am hungry . I want food in my bowl . I want food in my bowl right now . I am not dying-do not put that goo on my food . Here comes a furball . I want to go out . I want to come in . I just put a mouse in the bureau drawer . I did not break that vase . Why did you get out the cat carrier? . I do not want to go to the vet . Please kill the dog next door. . . .

Bonjour . J'ai faim . Je veux qu'on remplisse mon bol . Je veux qu'on remplisse mon bol tout de suite . Je ne suis pas en train de mourir-ne mettez pas cette chose gluante sur ma nourriture . Voici une boule de poils . Je veux sortir . Je veux rentrer . Je viens de mettre une souris dans le tiroir de la commode . Je n'ai pas cassé ce vase . Pourquoi avez-vous sorti le porte-chat? . Je ne veux pas aller chez la vétérinaire . Je vous en prie, tuez le chien de la maison d'à côté. . . .

fuguer (feuh-gay), verbe intransitif

to run away, to run off

Sens Faire une fugue. Anglais to run away


An easy verb for musicians to remember! Think of a fugue. One of Bach's or Shostakovich's. The theme/subject is stated simply in the tonic key and then it runs off, flees, absconds through the dominant key, and other keys like jumping over so many fences all the while being chased or accompanied by episodes and countersubjects!

Présent:

je fugue
.tu fugues
il fugue
nous fuguons
vous fuguez
ils fuguent


PARTICIPE:

Présent Passé
fuguant fugué


There is also the French word fugue.

la fugue, nom féminin

1. flight, the act of fleeing
2. a musical form

Sens 1 Fait de fuir de son domicile familial. Synonyme escapade Anglais flight, (faire une fugue) to run away

Sens 2 Forme musicale où différentes parties reprennent le même motif [Musique]. Anglais fugue

le fruit (frwee) mas. fruit

too easy? then have another:

la graine (grehn) fem. seed (of plants)

Dans la graine, la vie est cachée dans la mort ; dans le fruit, la mort est cachée dans la vie.
- Claude de SAINT-MARTIN, Le Ministère de l'Homme-Esprit

In the seed, life is hidden in death; in the fruit, death is hidden in life.

To memorize nice sayings like this would be a good way to strengthen your French if you already know some.

grand (grahng) .mas. adj.; pl. grands
grande(grahnd) fem. adj.; pl. grandes

english= big, large, tall, grown-up, great

the word is also used as a noun meaning - a person of size, a grown-up, an adult, or an important personage.

C'est dans les grands dangers qu'on voit un grand courage. - Jean-François REGNARD, Le Légataire universel, acte IV, scène 1
It's in the great dangers that one sees great courage.

*********************

"Ce sont les grandes occasions qui font les grands hommes." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Great occasions (or circumstances, causes, opportunities) make great men.

*********************

Aux grands maux, les grands remèdes." Caton d'Utique
With great maladies, great remedies.

manteau (mahn-toh), noun, mas. sing.; manteaux, plural

coat

J'aime beaucoup la capuche de ton manteau.
I love the hood of your coat.

1. Vêtement à manches que l'on porte par dessus les autres vêtements pour sortir [Couture]. Synonyme: caban; Anglais: coat
2. Partie en saillie construite au-dessus du foyer d'une cheminée.

Synonymes: burnous, caban, cache-misère, cagoule, cape, capote, chape, chasuble, douillette, gabardine, houppelande, imperméable, raglan, redingote

Check out the French Audio Word of the Day. Click on the speakers to hear French pronounced. Trés cool!

fermer (fehr-meh), verb

to close

fermant, closing; fermé, closed

intransitive (without an object):
example: Le magasin ferme à demain.
The store (shop, warehouse) closes tomorrow.

transitive (with an object):
example: Ils ont fermé la route.
They have closed the road.

"Le secret du bonheur en amour, ce n'est pas d'être aveugle mais de savoir fermer les yeux quand il le faut."
Simone Signoret

Translation: "The secret of happiness in love, is not to be blind but to know how to close your eyes when necessary."


promo photo of Simone Signoret,(March 25, 1921 - September 30, 1985), was an Academy Award-winning Jewish-French actress. Her memoirs, Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be, were published in 1978. She also wrote a novel, Adieu Volodya, published in 1985, the year of her death. Notable films: Room at the Top, 1959, won academy award for Best Actress;Ship of Fools, 1965, nominated for academy award Best Actress.


Check out the French Audio Word of the Day

à demain!

soi (swah)

the third person indefinite stressed pronoun. It is used only for unspecified persons; i.e., with an indefinite pronoun or impersonal verb. It is the equivalent of one or oneself.

On va chez soi. Everyone is going (to his or her respective) home.
Chacun pour soi. Every man for himself.
Il faut avoir confiance en soi. One should have confidence in oneself (in him/herself).
Tout le monde doit le faire soi-même. Everyone has to do it him/herself.

Some French students get confused between soi-même and lui-même. If you remember that soi can only be used for unspecified persons, you should be ok.

Il va le faire lui-même. He's going to do it himself.
On va le faire soi-même. We/You/They are going to do it our/your/themselves.

Check out the French Audio Word of the Day! S'il vous plait.

à demain!

Le Mot est "désolé" ,adjectif, participe passé du verb désoler.

1.describing a feeling of being 'upset,' or saddened
2.describing a place as being deserted, desolated.


Je suis désolé
I'm sorry

désolé is the masc. form of the adj. the fem. is désolée.
Il est désolé. He is sorry (saddened.)
Elle est désolée. She is sorry (saddened.)

Related:
désolant present participle of désoler
désoler infintive, to sadden, to upset

Pres. Ind. conj. of the verb désoler
. je désole
.tu désoles
.il/elle désole
.nous désolons
.vous désolez
.ils/elles désolent

Basic French Surivival Phrases

You may hear these (and more) pronounced by a French speaker at This Site.

Oui. Yes.
Non. No.
S'il vous plaît. Please.
Merci. Thank you.
Je vous en prie. You're welcome.
Excusez-moi. Excuse me.
Je suis désolé(e). I'm sorry.
Bonjour. Good morning.
Bonsoir. Good evening.
Bonne nuit. Good night.

joie (zhwah) feminine noun (French is so beautiful: la zhwah!!)

Joie is in English, joy. But it sounds much more zesty in french.

"Le silence est l’interprète le plus éloquent de la joie."
William Shakespeare - Beaucoup de briut pour rien

There is one idiom, or expression which the french use and you need to be sure to know it - so that you do not embarrase yourself (nor anyone else)!! Here it is:

Fille de joie

Une fille de joie, my friends, is a prostitute. So be careful! If one were to say, 'Ah, ma petite, fille de joie!' it would be saying 'Ah, my little prostitute!' No, no that would not do at all. So, remember, OK?

One more expression is: S'en donner à coeur joie

to do something with a heart of joy; to do something gladly, with pleasure.

épater, (eh-pat-TAY) verbe, inf., transitif

to astonish

"épater les bourgeois" (eh-pat-TAY lay boor-JWAH) to deliberately shock people who have conventional values. Literally, "to astonish the middle class."

Teenagers love to do this! If your teen daugher shaves her head and tatoos a pink rat thereon, don't act shocked. That would only be fufilling her expectations. Act blasé!

la moue (mu), noun, feminine

The French pout is a classic French facial gesture which expresses discontent, disdain, disgust... just about any negative emotion beginning with "dis."


To faire la moue (to pout), push your lips out and bring them back in, kind of like a quick pucker up to a kiss. A bored expression on the face is a common accompaniment.

Dave, an interesting point concerning another moût...

The word "moût" is the French word that describes grape "must". This is the fresh grape juice as it is in the grape.

This is interesting because in English the Bible uses the word "wine" to describe both fermented and fresh grape juice. This has led to some confusion at times about which wine was being referred to. The French makes it clearer.

Now I forget which verse I discovered this in, but I came upon it by chance when using my French bible for study one day.

So, le moût (grape juice) sounds just like la moue (pout)?

Also if la moue is made masculine, le mou, it means softness!

moût
moue
mou

do three mus make a herd?

btw I think it is amusing that in French 'raisin' means grape as in jus de raisin non fermenté.

And that's not all!

A cluster of grapes is called une "grappe"!

So instead of a bunch of grapes you have "une grappe de raisins"!!!

poil (pwal), masculine noun

hair, fur

Expressions:
à poil (familiar) stark naked
Au poil Très bien, very well, just fine!
Avoir un poil dans la main , to be lazy. (lit. to have a hair on the hand.)

There is a geste, gesture which can go with that expression. To say that someone is lazy, hold out your hand, pull on an imaginary hair growing out of it, and say, "Il a un poil dans la main."

Cool actions! You know in Latin languages, hand signals are very important!!

I like that one!

"Etre de bon poil" literally "to be of good hair" meaning "Etre de bonne humeur."

To be in a good mood.

-de mauvais poil, (of bad hair) ; -de méchant poil (of nasty hair)

to be in a bad mood, a nasty mood

1 il n'a pas l'air de bon poil, ce matin - 1969
2 Elle était revenue, mais pas de bon poil, je vous l'assure. Elle n'a pas arrêté de râler - 1985 [1946]
3 Le fait d'être tiré du lit à cette heure incongrue l'avait mis de fort méchant poil - 1968

Yeah, their bad hair days are one level up from ours, I reckon!

The origin of the expression is in the XVI Century. They used to say "avoir la queue marquée de mauvais poil" (to have a tail with very bad hair) meaning "to be in a bad mood." They would also say at that time "changer de poil" meaning a change of attitude. Today "etre de bon poil" means to be in a good mood.

amour , masculine noun

love

"On ne badine pas avec l'amour."
Alfred de Musset

"One does not trifle with love."

The verb badiner is to jest, trifle, make sport of, or to tease. It is close to bantering, in making light talk, badinage.

distrait (dees-streh) adjectif, participe passé du verbe distraire, Féminin distraite

absent-minded, distracted, inattentive, listless

"Etre sur un petit nuage"
"to be on a little cloud" The American equivilent is to have ones 'head in the clouds.'

related:
distrayant (dees-streh-yahng), participe présent de distraire

diverting, entertaining

gonfler, verbe intransitif, to swell, puff up

Sens 1 Augmenter de volume. Ex Le gâteau a bien gonflé(the cake has risen nicely). Synonyme grossir(to get bigger) Anglais to swell

gonfler, verbe transitif, to blow up, to swell, to exagerate

Sens 1 Remplir une chose d'air ou de gaz (to fill something with air or gas). Ex Gonfler un ballon. Anglais to blow up
Sens 2 Faire augmenter de volume. Ex La pluie a gonflé le bois (the rain has swelled the wood). Synonyme grossir Anglais to swell
Sens 3 Exagérer. Ex Les résultats ont été gonflés (the results have been exaggerated). Synonyme accroître(to increase) Anglais to exaggerate


Qu'est-ce qu'un adulte ? Un enfant gonflé d'âge. -Simone de BEAUVOIR, La Femme rompue, L'âge de discrétion
What is an adult? A child filled with age. [or swelled, puffed up, blown up with age! ]


sources:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gonfler
http://www.linternaute.com/dictionnaire/fr/definition/gonfler/
http://french.about.com/library/quotes/bl-quote-feb.htm

pouce , nom masculin

1. thumb Le plus gros et le plus court des doigts de la main, opposable aux autres doigts [Anatomie]. Synonyme doigt
(The largest and shortest of digits on the hand, opposable to the others.)
2. big toe Gros orteil [Anatomie]. Synonyme gros
3. inch Ancienne mesure de 2,54 cm de longueur, encore couramment utilisée dans les pays anglo-saxons .
("Ancient measure, 2.54 cm. in length, still currently used by anglo-saxon countries.")
4. a very small amount of something Très petite quantité [Figuré]. Ex Céder un pouce de territoire. Synonyme quantité
(Ex. "To yield 'a thumb' of territory.")

idioms, locutions:

mettre les pouces

Sens Céder après avoir résisté longtemps. Synonyme abandonner
(meaning: "to yield after having resisted a longtime. synonym to abandon, (give up, withdraw).")

Donner un coup de pouce

to intercede or intervene on behalf of someone; to take action to help someone.

Dîner sur le pouce

to eat rapidly
The expression appeared in the XIXe century and refers to the thumb which one uses alot when a knife and sections of bread are handled, in other words when a fast meal is taken.


Sources: dictionary.com ; http://www.linternaute.com

In English we would use our thumbs to signify the opposite, after we've MADE someone give up!

That could be confusing! oui?

The french also have a one word interjection: pouce! I read on the internet: "Terme enfantin permettant de se mettre hors d'un jeu." I just don't have a good feel for the way it is used. Are you familiar with it? Is it like saying, "pass!" in a card game, meaning "I pass"? Or a kid's big sister asks him to help with the dishes, and the kid says "pouce!"

Nope- new one on me!

I guess it's the player who "a un poil dans la main" who could easily say, "Pouce!"

That makes sense!

I have a book of french idioms around here somewhere... had my hands on it a week or so ago...

Mansion's French-English dictionary says of Pouce! that its a slang or popular word used by students; Pouce! = pax!

This dictionary is at least 40 yrs old and with a term like "pax!" That's gotta be a British school-kid word!

Un coupe de pouce à ceux qui en ont besoin!
That's just what we need. A little thumb-push, some help.
I'm not ready to cry "Pouce!"

Ok,voici! (here it is!) from a forum at http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=780154

5th January 2008, 08:10 PM
archijacq
Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007
Native of: french France
Posts: 6,479

Re: Pouce!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
pouce means "truce", "pax"

"Pax", as in the Latin "peace"? That makes sense, actually more than "pouce" does.

Yes, Latin. Many of those english prep-school kids had to study latin.

French Gesture

1. Un, deux, trois...

When counting on the fingers, begin with the the thumb as the number one, then the index finger for the two, and the middle finger for three, etc.

Also, if you want just one of something just hold up one thumb. If you hold up two fingers you will get three instead of two!

le brouillard (broo-yar) noun, masculine

fog, mist, haze, smog

La mémoire est un drôle de brouillard.
Memory is a strange kind of fog. --Valère Staraselski

"Il fait du brouillard"
It is foggy.

"être dans le brouillard"
to be unaware

These sayings remind me of someone having their "tête dans la lune"...

Since we've just had that lunar eclipse last night, could you provide some phrases using the moon word- la lune?

la lune noun, fem.

the moon

Clair de lune : moonlight

Au clair de la lune : by moonlight

La lune de miel : honeymoon (of marriage)

Pleine lune : full moon

Etre dans la lune : to be wool-gathering, daydreaming

Avoir des lunes : to have moods, to be moody.

Il est dans sa mauvaise lune. "He is in one of his bad moods."

Au clair de la lune
Mon ami Pierrot
Prête-moi ta plume
Pour écrire un mot...

Thank You!

Au clair de la lune,
Pierrot respondit:
"Je n'ai pas de plume,
Je suis dans mon lit;

Lucky Pierrot, dans son lit!!!!

Mais oui, cherie!

I guess that is where you would expect to find him when the moon is out!

bonheur masculine noun:

1. happiness
2. luck

idiom:
au petit bonheur
by chance; at random


Ce qui m'intéresse, ce n'est pas le bonheur de tous les hommes c'est celui de chacun. -Boris IVAN, L'Écume des jours
"What interests me is not the happiness of all men but that of each one."

La beauté n'est que la promesse du bonheur. -Stendhal
"Beauty is only the promise of happiness."

Le bonheur est un rêve d’enfant réalisé dans l’âge adulte. -Sigmund Freud
"Happiness is a child's dream realized in adulthood."

fini past part. of the verb finir (to finish, end); adj.

1. finished,
L'orage est fini."The storm is over"

2. accomplished
Il est un acteur fini. "He is an accomplished actor."

3. finish
Articles d'un beau fini. "highly finished goods"

4. finite

To show that you are finished with something you are doing, cross your arms in front of your body, with your palms out, then move them out, while saying, "C'est fini."

Makes perfect sense! Thanks for sharing this!