7 French Words the English Language Lacks
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ต.ค. 2024
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Bonjour !
There are some words in French that are missing in English... which could have been useful! For instance, the Inuit word “Iktsuarpok” means “to keep looking outside with anticipation for a guest that hasn’t arrived yet.”
And it’s a shame it doesn’t have a neat translation! So what are these words in French that do not exists in the English language?
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One simple word that exists in French that doesn't exist in English is the contradictive "si," which tends to give English-speakers (me included) a lot of trouble. It's so common that when sometimes French-speakers would not understand me if I say "oui" or "non" when I should have said "si." It's almost instinctive and it takes time to be able to use it on the fly.
There is no way to contradict a negative statement or question in English like in French without having to add a verb as well. For example, in French if someone were to ask you "tu n'aimes pas le fromage?" ("you don't like cheese?") and you want to contradict that statement, you'd simply say "Si," whereas in English you would have to say "Yes, I do." And nowadays, people are starting to say "No, yeah" in similar situations which is not grammatically correct and really doesn't make sense at all.
that's so true... it's strange, that, in french we borrowed (long time ago...) the italian affirmation 'Si', to answer in this context.
"Si" can be used as if, whether or yes.
"Si"as Yes is always use as the beginning of the sentence for replying. And we use the "si" to reply at the sentence that was thinking about a negative answer.
For example:
If I ask you, if you have done your homeworks. And you have done it.
I can ask you
1 Have you done your homeworks?
2 You have done your homeworks? (with an asking tone)
3 Don't have you done your homeworks?
4 You don't have done your homeworks? (with an asking tone)
Because you have done, you will reply "OUI" if you guess I was thinking you have done it. And you will reply "SI" if you guess I was suggering you have NOT done it.
So
1 OUI or SI, it depends of what you think about my guessing
2 OUI, because it is an affirmative question (or if you think I am very sarcastic, you can answer SI)
3 SI because it is an negative question
4 SI because I am guessing you have not done it.
3 is simple, but the other are very tricky if you are answering an ironic question.
we have the si in swedish which made it a bit easier to understand than just translating it to english. we say "jo" instead of "ja"
This word exists also in German : doch
My favorite is the french verb 'bouder' which is when you're sulking at someone and refuse to talk to them.
A french guy once asked me over text message when I was ignoring him: 'Tu me boudes?' I looked it up, and goddammit he was right.
Apprivoiser is my favorite French word. It's beautiful!
Mon mot préféré en français, c'est "flâner", c'est plus utile quand je décrit un voyage en France!!!
I was familiar with "apprivoiser" from the 'Habanera': "L'Amour est un oiseaux rebel que nul ne peut apprivoiser.." Thanks for the great video!
You could semi-translate 'râler' as 'to rail at' although it's a bit literary and old-fashioned nowadays. All the same, it's how I'm going to remind myself of 'râler' :)
The year I spent in Besançon, I tried to say to someone, "Tina Turner rocks!" It took a while, but we figured it out in the end. This may have been my favorite video yet. I'm starting Le Petit Prince with my students after spring break. I plan to show them this for your excellent explanation of apprivoiser.
"Bromance" would be a word that I think would be very hard to translate into another language.
Is that a word or a portmanteau?
A portmanteau of 'brother'/'bro' and 'romance'
je connais déjà ces expressions, telles que "apprivoiser", "dépaysement", et "mal du pays". mais j'ai jamais entendu les autres expressions dans cette vidéo. Merci de m'avoir fait part.
saudade, in portuguese
Merci bien pour la vidėo. J'aimais bien les expressions qui m'ont fait penser aux autres. Je recommande souvent votre chaîne. Continuez le bon travail de nous apprendre de la belle culture française!
I love your take on "yogurt"..... pie'ce de resistance!!!! (Kissing fingers, magnifico!!!!!)💕
Râleuse incoming : I have ras-le-bol when I can't express simply that I want a tartine abroad (no I don't want an open/flat sandwich). Makes the dépaysement turn into mal du pays.
J'adore votre exemple du mot "apprivoiser" dans le Petit Prince!
If you want an English expression which has a similar meaning as ras-le-bol you can say that something is 'the final straw'. It comes from the expression 'the straw that broke the camel's back,' meaning a small thing that pushed you over the edge. I had this same conversation with my French boyfriend just the other day :)
Our equivalent of the final straw is "La goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase" (the drop of water that makes the vase overflow). Ras-le-bol comes just before =)
Titemaud we have a similar expression in English "the straw that broke the camels back"
@DarthMaud In English, I would probably suggest "I've had it up to here!" for "J'en ai ras-le-bol. And yes, la goutte d'eau qui fait deborder le vase would be when all hell broke loose!
Hello Geraldine. One word that exists in Farsi language and, as far as I know, in no other language but French is: "quantième". By the way I like your videos very much. Thank you for making them. Feri.
A word in French that has no direct translation to English is “frileux/frileuse”, which means “someone who gets cold easily”. Coincidentally, that word also exists in Spanish: “friolento/friolenta”
Iktsuarpok. Nice one. Inuit has a lot of words English lacks.
This is great! Love your videos.
Thankyou I loved this. Could you please peruse your local paper and find some more common things that we should know about? Merci.
"Amour propre" and "Amour de soi" both translated in English as "vanity". Sometimes hard to track when reading Rousseau in translation.
English should have 'chanter en yaourt'!
Une leçon fascinante. Merci
Ras-le-bol is very similar to the English expression "(to have) reached boiling point".
Isn't ras-le-bol the equivalent of "the last straw" in English?
Or “final straw” - yes, the same thing; the one that finally broke the camel’s back.
Yeah, or fed up I guess
In finland our version of chanter en yourt is, villejä rubiineja. Rubis sauvages :)
Chanter en yaourt = scat singing.
This English expression was first quoted in the 1920-30s, so it's very much a term that exists but long ago fell between the cracks.
You know what word doesn't exist in French though? A one-word term meaning 'cheap' (i.e. costing very little, inexpensive). In French we complicate the matter and say that something is 'not expensive' (pas cher) or bon marché... abordable (affordable), à bas prix (low priced), etc.
Beurre de cacahuète = beurre d'arachide (in French Canadian).
Scat singing is using the voice as an instrument, especially in jazz, but not using words, as in "boo doo doo liablia be-bop"....or some such. :-) Yaourt is using unfamiliar words in a song that you know but hopelessly mispronouncing them. Especially in karaoke.
I feel like a good translation of râler is to bitch about something in English though the word isn't particularly polite. And the English equivalent of les retrouvailles would probably be a reunion.
I think there are plenty of verbs in English to convey the meaning of 'râler'. Gripe about, grouse about, grump about, kvetch about, sound off, yammer about, bend someone's ears, rant and rave.
maltliquor87 to rant ?
'Rant and rave'. It is a fixed expression.
Thanks
Le ras-le-bol i believe would translate as "the straw that broke the camels back."
;)
Ross McIntyre or you could say "the last straw"
Yes but there is no no that means that in English.
The word ‘Reunion’ in English is used same way as ‘Retriuvailles’ in French.
J'en ai ras le bol = I've had it, or (with a gesture at whatever level of your head you feel appropriate) I've had it up to here. 2 French words English lacks are "promenade" and "coup", nearly always inadequately translated as "walk" and "blow". But "une promenade à cheval/en bateau" are definitely not walks, and there's no one word for "coup" as in "coup de grâce/foudre/état/théâtre/fouet/dés/etc. etc."
My French friends tell me that there isn't an exact translation for "awkward."
How about "mal à l'aise"
I always thought "maladroite" more or less meant awkward or clumsy.
actually my language has most of these words so i found a good translation already¨my first language is Arabic ..
ty Géraldine
I remember when I was in france my host mom would often say "ra la la" (je sais pas comment ecrire ca) because things were always going wrong for her lol. I understood what she meant just by the tone of her voice, ya know? But now it makes even more sense after learning of the world raler. On peut dire "Je tartine mon crepe avec la confiture de framboise" ?
oui, on peut dire "je tartine" avec tout ce qu'on veut, ça fonctionne pour des tas de choses : une crêpe, une baguette de pain, le mur (de peinture), mon visage (de maquillage), mes bras (de crème solaire)... Mais le sens initial est celui dont Géraldine parle. :)
lovedance971. Je tartine MA crêpe. Crêpe is a feminine word.
😉
I always found flâner/flâneur/flâneuse to be rather unique.
hipster?
Bonjour Géraldine,
En Anglais, on dit "I like you" et "I love you" et il y a une nuance entre ces expressions. En Français, on dit "je vous aime" dans les deux cas. Comment pourrais-je m'exprimer dans l'un ou l'autre cas.
En attendant votre réponse, je vous aime et j'aime vos vidéos. :)
M EK. I like you = je t’aime bien, or je vous aime bien.
For apprivoiser and dompter, could you use "domesticate"? Ex. un renard apprivoise = a domesticated fox. Of course, the extension to friendship wouldn't work here
Domestiquer exist in french too.
Apprivoiser has a really meaning of "raise as a friend".
I think the translation of retrouvailles would probably be reunion
Would there be some mutual derivation between apprivoiser and voisin (neighbour) - As you may get to know and trust a neighbour slowly over time after?
Apprivoiser is kinda like to domesticate or to apprehend i think.
The second word is like culture shock.
The third is like being on someone's last nerve.
So, how is "apprivoiser" different from "befriend"?
Où est-ce que on trouve le video dont vous parlez à 7:10? Checher pour "chanter en yaourt" sert à rien 😐
Géraldine, I wasn't able to find the video for chanter en yaourt. Can you please post the link? Merci !
Imagine you singing a french song with missing words you dont know
I know what it means. I wanted to see the video that she referenced. I'm guessing it's another TH-camr.
Adam Mendoza I already replied with the link.
I don't see it :(
Adam Mendoza In the description there's a link where it says "view the full episode and the comments here" which goes to the blog post, and the link to the singing video is on that blog post, directly below the embedded video. (It seems like TH-cam comments with links aren't shown to other people so you can't see my comments which show the link.)
Le ras-le-bol is a lot like "the last straw" in English
6:19 Confiture is delishit !!!!
jaja delishit
cute dress!
So, ras-le-bol is the situation immediately before the last straw? It's when one has had it up to the neck with something?
All of these French terms have at least one English equivalent if you look hard enough for them in the extremely rich English language, absorbed from all other languages and dialects globally. Some of them were already translated into the English equivalent by Géraldine such as, 'change of scenery.' The last one used in English is a 'mondegreen.'
No, it isn't, you're distorting the evidence to justify that claim. A mondegreen just describes a misheard lyric and refers to the word/s specifically, not the act of singing it/them or the sense of how that sounds, which is what the french expression describes. Neither English nor any other language is comprehensive no matter its colonial reach. What guff.
Géraldine, j' suis curieux quelles langues parler-toi: plus précisement si peux-toi parler l'Espagnol XD
Tu as pas chanté en Yaourt Géraldine :(
Another French word which has no exact English equivalent is "faillir".
When I saw that dress, I thought there was wrong with my screen setting...
Isn't retrouvaille like reunion in English?
DarkShadow I thought that too
True
Well, it's more like a happy reunion between people who missed one another I guess
râler a forcément une traduction en anglais. Je dirais "to grumble".
Can one not translate raleur as a moaner. Because l find it hard to believe that that the English wouldn't have an equivalent to râleur when they moan a lot
R. Chiutsu in English (at least where I live) "moaner" is only used in a sexual context. A moan can be sexual or like whining. Context is really important and quite particular, so I would be careful when translating. whine is a safer option.
z vign thanks for the specifics.Ironically l was reluctant to use whine myself because whining and a whiner (especially in modern lingo) both equally refer to sexual movement. I think our safe bet is whinger or whinging. Either way the idea is that râleur definitely has an English equivalent
R. Chiutsu that's funny. I live in the US and in my region (meaning really changes based on where you are) I have never heard whine being used like that. It's always used for children who complain a lot.
I guess another word would be complainer? People would know what you mean (and not think you are referring to sex), but it's not very common in everyday speech. We use the expression "quit your complaining" and "complain" as a verb frequently, but not in the same way that râleur is used.
z vign You will find a number of modern songs on right here on TH-cam referring to whining as a sexual movement. lf you read my first sentence you will see that l specifically said "the English" because in the UK there's a saying " the English moan about the weather (and pretty much everything really) l agree to disagree on this one but the English seem quite happy to use moan ( Well last l checked) .I think we will go by difference in English by region as you suggest and l will now choose to leave it at that.
what means "couler un bronse"
No, urinate only. bronze means literally bronze (who'd have thunk?). The metaphor works on the colour.
There are lots of metaphors (démouler un cake f.ex) for defecating but "couler un bronze" isn't one of them.
galier2. I don’t agree with you. I’m a frenchman, and couler un bronze means to defecate for me.
Zhaghzhagh - le mot juste pour quand vous bavardez votre dents.
why not the English to French meaning
Râler = to rant ?
Here's one for the dog haters. J'en ai le ras le bol des pitbulls attaquent et tuent des gens
Râler = to whine.
I love The Little Prince!