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."