| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| le conflit d’intérêt | conflict of interest | gwrthdaro buddiannau |
| bâfrer; siffler (drink) | to guzzle | llowcio; claddu; awffio; lleibio |
| minable; crade | grotty | sâl; gwael; salw; tila; da i ddim |
| le vote; le scrutin | ballot | pleidlais (ddirgel) |
| le bulletin de vote | ballot paper | papur pleidleisio |
| l’urne (f) | ballot box | cist pleidleisio |
| la fraude électorale | ballot rigging | pleidlais anonest / wedi’i rigio |
| faire qch par la voie des urnes | to do sth through the ballot box | gwneud rhywbeth trwy’r cist pleidleisio |
| asticoter; agiter | to wind up (annoy, provoke) | herian |
| remonter | to wind up (clock, car window) | weindio; ceirsio |
| fermer | to wind up (company) | dirwyn (cwmni) i ben |
| remuer | to stir | troi; rhoi tro |
| attiser; provoquer | to stir up (tension, trouble) | codi (helynt); cynhyrfu |
Category: French (français)
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| le rouget | red snapper | brathwr coch (?) |
| saler | to cure (by salting); to salt | halltu |
| fumer | to cure (by smoking); to smoke | cochi; sychu mewn mwg; sychu trwy fwg |
| sécher | to cure (by drying) | sychu |
| traiter | to cure (leather) | cyweirio; barcio; cwrio |
| guérir | to cure (illness, problem, habit) | gwella; iach’au; mendio |
| le terrain de football | football pitch | mas/cae pêl-droed; cae ffwtbol |
| l’invasion de terrain | pitch invasion | ymosodiad ar faes |
Curing, cleaning and caring
Yesterday I discovered that there are quite a few different French translations of the verb to cure, depending on what kind of cure you’re talking about.
If you’re curing food by salting, the French equivalent is saler (to salt); curing by smoking is fumer (to smoke), and curing by drying is sécher (to dry). Curing leather is traiter (to treat), and curing illnesses, problems or habits is guérir (to cure, heal, recover).
The equivalents of these words in Welsh are:
– halltu = to cure (by salting)
– cochi (“to redden”); sychu mewn mwg; sychu trwy fwg = to cure (by smoking)
– sychu = to cure (by drying)
– cyweirio; barcio; cwrio = to cure (leather)
– gwella; iach’au; mendio = to cure (illness, problem, habit)
Do other languages have separate words for these?
The English word cure comes from the French curer, which means ‘to clean out’ in Modern French, and meant ‘to take care of, to clean’ in Old French, and comes from the Latin cūrāre (to care for, take care of, cure), from cūra (care, concern, trouble), from the Old Latin coira-, from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷeis- (to heed).
Sources: Reverso, OED, Online Etymology Dictionary, Wiktionary
Producing oneself
I came across an interesting expression in a French newspaper article I read today – se produire – which means to produce, occur, take place, perform, appear, and appears in such phrases as:
– devoir se produire = to be bound to happen
– se produire sur scène = to appear on stage
– ce qui risque de se produire = what could well happen; what might happen
– laisser se produire = to allow to happen
– se produire en concert = to play in a concert
One literal translation of this expression is “to produce oneself”, and I like the idea that I produced myself (as if from a hat 🙂 at a gig last week.
Source: Reverso
Les mots de le semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| fin | thin (layer, cable, wire, fingers, paper) | tenau; main |
| maigre | thin (person, animal, smile) | tenau; main |
| mince | thin (face, argument, evidence) | main |
| léger | thin (fabric, coat) | tenau |
| peu épais | thin (soup, sauce) | tenau; dyfrllyd |
| clairsemé | thin (hair) | tenau; moel |
| désépaissir | to thin (hair) | teneuo; moeli |
| éclaircir | to thin (trees) | teneuo; mynd yn denau |
| délayer | to thin (sauce, paint) | teneuo |
| fluidifier | to thin (blood) | teneuo |
| susceptible | thin-skinned | croendenau |
| épais | thick | trwchus; tew |
| épaisser | thicken | tewhau; tewychu |
| insensible | thick-skinned | croendew |
| bête | thick (person) | twp; hurt; gwirion |
| au beau milieu de qch; en plain cœur de qch |
in the thick of sth | yng nghanol rhywbeth |
| être au cœur de l’action | to be in the thick of it | bod yn ei chanol hi |
| contre vents et marées | through thick and thin | drwy’r tew a’r tenau; doed a ddelo |
| la brochure (gen); le tract (pol) | pamphlet | llyfryn; pamffledyn; pamffled |
Grammatical gender matters
In languages with grammatical gender, like French, you can often get away with getting the genders wrong, although it’s best to try to learn them when you learn nouns. However there are some words that have different meanings in different genders.
An example in French is loup(e): le loup [lu:] (masculine) is a wolf, and la loupe [lu:p] (feminine) is a magnifying glass – the context will clarify what you mean if you get the genders mixed up, and the pronunciation helps as well.
The following French words have the same pronunciation but different meanings in different genders:
– le boum = bang, explosion / la boum = party
– le bout = tip, end / la boue = mud
– le cave = idiot, sucker / la cave = basement, cellar
– le chêne = oak tree/wood / la chaîne = chain, channel
– le col = collar, neck / la colle = glue
– le livre = book / la livre = pound (curreny/weight)
– le manche = handle / la manche = sleeve / la Manche = English Channel
– le mur = wall / la mûre = blackberry
– le rose = pink (colour) / la rose = rose (flower)
– le vase = vase / la vase = silt, mud
More words like this: http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/dualgender_2.htm
One way to avoid getting your genders in a muddle is to talk about everything in the plural.
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| la (jeu de) boules | bowls | bowliau; bowls |
| jouer aux boules | to play (lawn) bowls | chwarae bowls/powls |
| le terrain de boules | bowling green | lawnt fowlio; grîn fowlio |
| le bowling | bowling | bowlio |
| le piste de bowling | bowling alley | ala/ale/ali fowlio |
| le boule | bowl | bowl; powl |
| la quille | skittle | sgitlen (sgitls) |
| la route de contournement | bypass (road) | ffordd osgoi |
| le pontage | bypass (operation) | dargyfeiriad |
| le domaine; la propriéte | estate | tir; meddiant; tirogaeth |
| le lotissement | housing estate | ystad o dai |
| la ferme | farm; farmhouse | ty fferm; ffarm; ffermdy |
| la fermette | small farmhouse | ty fferm bach |
Les mots de la semaine
Mountains and molehills
I discovered yesterday that the French word for mole is taupe /top/, and I wondered if this might be related to the English word taupe, which, according to the OED, means ‘A brownish shade of grey resembling the colour of moleskin’ or in others words, mole-coloured.
The English word taupe comes from the French, which comes from the Latin talpa (mole), which is of unknown origin, according to Wiktionnary.
Mole-related words and expressions in French include:
– taupinière = molehill
– taupier = mole catcher
– être myope comme une taupe = to be blind as a bat
– noir comme une taupe = pitch-black
The French equivalent of to make a mountain out of a molehill is se faire une montagne d’un rien or faire une montagne d’une taupinière. What is the equivalent of this phrase in other languages?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| la taupinière | molehill | prid y wadd; priddwal; twmpath gwadd |
| le taupin | click beetle; maths student | chwilen clic (?); myfyriwr mathemateg |
| noir comme une taupe | pitch-black | pygddy; purddu |
| myopes comme une taupe | blind as a bat | yn ddall bost; mor ddall â’r nos/garreg/thwrch daear |
| le tableau (d’affichage) | scoreboard | bwrdd sgorio; bwrdd cadw sgôr |
| la cible (de jeu de fléchettes) | dartboard | bwrdd darts |
| le centre (de la cible) | bullseye | llygad (tarw); canol y nod; bwl |
| mettre dans le mille; faire mouche | to hit the bull’s-eye | ei tharo hi yn y canol; sgorio/cael bwl |
| faire un carton | to hit the mark | bwrw’r nod, taro’r nod |