– filtre = filter = ffilter, hidl
– chargeur (de piles) = (battery) charger = gwefrwr (batri)
– le public = audience (cinema, theatre) = cynulleidfa
– l’audience, les auditeurs = (radio) audience, listeners = gwrandawyr
– les téléspectateurs = (TV) audience = cynulleidfa (teledu)
– le spectateur = member of the audience, spectator, onlooker
– l’icône (f) = icon = eicon
– l’éditeur (m) = publisher (company) = cyhoeddwr
– la maison d’édition = publishing house = cwmni cyhoeddi
– le nombril = navel = botwm bol, bogail
– le nombrilisme = navel-gazing, omphaloskepsis = bogailsyllu
– il pense qu’il est le nombril du monde = he thinks the world revolves around him – (dw i ddim yn siŵr sut i ddweud hyn yn Gymraeg)
Category: French (français)
Free online language course to give away
I’ve been given free access to the online courses offered by Online Trainers to give them a try, and have one course to give away.
The languages available are English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch.
If you’re interested, just drop me an email at feedback[at]omniglot[dot]com and I’ll send you an access code that gives you three months’ free access to a course of your choice.
[addendum] This course has now been claimed. If I’m given any other free courses, I’ll let you know.
Clwb Uke Bangor Uke Club
Neithiwr yn y Vaynol Arms yn Nant Peris fel rhan o Ffair Nant, mi wnaeth y Clwb Uke Bangor perfformio yn gyhoeddus am y tro cyntaf. Mi wnaethon ni chwarae cymysgedd o ganeuon yn gynnwys Country Roads, House of the Rising Sun, Dark Moon Rising, Cockles & Mussels, Go West, I Wanna Be Like You, ayyb. Yn Go West mi waethon ni canu North Wales yn lle Go West, ac roedd y cynulleidfa yn hoffi hyn, ac fel encôr mi wnaethon ni canu Delilah unwaith eto. Ro’n ni’n argraffu y trefnyddion ac mi wnaethon nhw ein gwahodd ni dod yn ôl i’r ffair y flwyddyn nesaf.
Last night in the Vaynol Arms in Nant Peris as part of the Nant Fair, the Bangor Uke Club performed in public for the first time. We played a mixture of songs, including Country Roads, House of the Rising Sun, Dark Moon Rising, Cockles & Mussels, Go West, I Wanna Be Like You, and so on. In Go West we replaced Go West with North Wales, which went down well with the audience, and we sang Delilah again as an encore. The organisers were impressed and have invited us back for the fair next year.
Les mots de la semaine
– les boule Quiès = earplugs (to keep out noise) = plygia clust
– les protège-tympans = earplugs (to keep out water) = plygia clust
– le tympan = eardrum / tympanum = pilen y glust / drwm clust
– le bouffon / le fou du roi = jester = cellweiriwr
– le plaisantin / blageur = joker = cellweiriwr
– farceur = practical joker
– emballer / faire (la valise) = to pack = pacio
– deballer / défaire = to unpack = dadbacio
– l’avantage unique / l’argument clé de vente (ACV) = unique selling point (USP) = pwynt gwerthu unigryw
Les mots de la semaine
– le portail = gate = gât / porth / llidiart
– la critique = review (of book, film) = adolygiad
– le cours = lesson, course = gwers / cwrs
– faire un stage = to do/go on a (training) course = gwneud cwrs (hyfforddiant)
– le petit bâtiment préfabriqué = Portakabin
– aiguisser / affûter = to sharpen (knife) = hogi / awchlymu / minio
– tailler = to sharpen (pencil) = hogi / awchlymu/ minio
– le poignet = wrist = arddwrn
– la ronce = bramble = miaren
– la ronceraie = bramble patch
– la mûre = blackberry = mwyaren
– la cardère = teasel = cribau’r-pannwr gwyllt
– carder = to card (wool) = cardio
– la moisissure / les champignons = mould = lwydni
– la Tamise = (River) Thames = Tafwys
– tamiser = to sieve, sift = gogru / rhidyllu / rhidyllio
– lumière tamisée = subdued lighting = golau isel
Les mots de la semaine
– bouchon (m) / embouteillage (m) = traffic jam = tagfa drafnidiaeth (f)
– descendre en rappel = to abseil = abseilio
– rebondir = to bounce = sboncio / bowndio / tampio
– rebond (m) = bounce = sbonc / bownd
– être refusé = to bounce (a cheque) = gwrthod
– videur = bouncer = dryswr
– squelette (m) = skeleton = (y)sgerbwd / esgyrn sychion
– être aigri / en voulour à tout le monde = to have a chip on one’s shoulder = sglodyn ar dy ysgwydd
Best languages to study
According to an article I came across in the Daily Telegraph today, the best / most useful languages to study, for those in the UK, are:
1. German
2. French
3. Spanish
4. Mandarin
5. Polish
6. Arabic
7. Cantonese
8. Russian
9. Japanese
10. Portuguese
The reasons why each language is useful vary quite a bit. For example Brazil is the sixth largest economy in the world and will be hosting the next (football) World Cup and Summer Olympics; apparently Russia is the UK’s fastest-growing major export market; and Poland is the largest consumer market in the EU. Languages valued by UK employers includes German, French, Spanish, Polish and Mandarin.
If a language is useful or in demand by employers, that’s quite a good reason to study it, but if you that’s your only reason for choosing a particular language, studying it might seem like hard work. If you also have an interest in the language itself, the culture of those who speak and/or the places where it’s spoken, you’re more likely to enjoy your studies and became proficient in the language.
Have you studied any languages solely because you thought they might be useful?
One of the comments on the article suggest that it is better to study a vocational subject such as science, medicine or law and to study a language as a secondary subject, rather than just focusing on a langauge. Another comment states that a university in a language or languages isn’t particular useful if you don’t have other skills.
Les mots de la semaine
– asticoter = to wind up (annoy, provoke) = pryfocio, cythruddo
– fermer = to wind up (a company) = dirwyn i ben
– faire marcher qn = to pull sb’s leg (tease) = tynnu coes rhywun
– la (future/jeune) mariée = bride = priodferch
– le marié = (bride)groom = priodfab
– se casser le col du fémur = to break one’s hip = torri clun
– directeur (-trice) = warden (institution) = warden
– contractuel (le) = traffic warden = warden traffig
– barboter / faire trempette = to paddle (in water) = padlo / rhodli
– pagayer = to paddle (boat/canoe) = padlo
– (faire la) nage du chien = (to do the) doggy paddle = padlo ci
Scottish adventures
I’ve been in Scotland since last Saturday, mainly at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye. I’m doing a course in Gaelic mouth music (puirt à beul) and waulking songs (òrain luaidh) with Christine Primrose, and am having a wonderful time.
There are eight of us in the singing class – some from Scotland, some from England, one from Japan and one from Sardinia. The ones from Japan and Sardinia are both professional singers, and earlier today we were treated to some lovely songs from Okinawa, which sound quite similar to Irish traditional songs.
I’ve been speaking quite a bit of Scottish Gaelic, and find that I can now understand most of what I hear in Gaelic and have relatively complex conversations – so my Gaelic has improved a lot since I was last here four years ago. When I don’t know how to say something in Scottish Gaelic I try saying it in Irish and it’s usually understood, though not always.
I’ve also spoken some French, German, Czech and Welsh here, and quite a bit of Japanese. My Japanese is very rusty, but it’s starting to come back. It’s great to have opportunities to speak so many languages 🙂
Menhirs, dolmens and cromlechs
The word menhir come up in discussion yesterday and I posted it on Facebook today along with the the Welsh translation maen hir, which is what I found in this dictionary. This provoked further discussion about whether the two terms mean the same thing. So I thought I’d find out.
A menhir is a standing stone of the kind that Obelix delivers in the Asterix books. According to the Dictionary of Word Origins and the OED, menhir comes from Breton mean-hir (long stone), which is what the Welsh term maen hir means, so it seems that they are the same. The usual Breton word for such standing stones is peulvan, however.
The word dolmen (a prehistoric structure of two or more upright stones surmounted by a horizontal one), comes via French from Breton: the men part means stone, and the dol part either comes from the Breton word tōl (table), a borrowing from the Latin tabula (board, plank), or from the Cornish tol (hole). So dolmen either means ‘stone table’ or ‘stone hole’.
The word dolmen also exists in Welsh, and another word for such structures is cromlech, which exists in Welsh and English and comes from the Welsh words crwm (bent, stooped) and llech (stone), and is related to the Irish word cromleac (‘bent stone’).