The French expression “faire une frite” literally means “to make a fry” or “to make a French fry.” However it has nothing to do with cooking. Instead it means to use the backs of your fingers to whip someone’s bottom in a downwards direction. This action, often done by kids teasing each other, will leave temporary marks that resemble French fries on the recipient’s backside.
In French, the position of adjectives depends on whether the adjective is normally placed before or after the noun. When a noun is described by two or more adjectives, the rules can seem tricky, but some patterns help. adjectives that usually come before the noun Some common short adjectives come before the noun. These include…
Many English nouns ending in -ncy (usually -ancy or –ency) have close French matches ending in -ance or -ence. All French nouns ending in -ence or -ance are feminine. This is a useful pattern and can help with reading and building French words. In many cases, English -ncy and French -nce come from the same…
“Boire en Suisse” means to drink alone, to eat alone, to do something without inviting friends or even to do something in Switzerland. Literally it means to drink in Switzerland, but “en Suisse” can either mean “in Switzerland” or “like a Swiss person.” It comes from an expression dating back to around 1800. This was…
The French adjective farfelu describes someone or something that is eccentric, whimsical, odd, or unconventional. It can convey a lighthearted, playful sense of strangeness, or sometimes imply impracticality or silliness. The feminine form is farfelue, and it can also function as a noun to describe a person with these characteristics. Meaning and usage Eccentric or…
In modern French, the letters qu most often sound like a simple k. Yet some words keep an older or borrowed kw sound. This is why question and aquarelle behave in different ways, even though both contain qu. Question is said roughly as kes-tyon [kɛstjɔ̃]. Aquarelle is said roughly as a-kwa-rel [akwaʁɛl]. The difference is…
“Avoir d’autres chats à fouetter” means literally “to have other cats to whip.” But in English, this would translate to “to have other fish to fry” or “to have better/more important things to do.” The origin of this expression is unknown. However other expressions involving whipped cats do exist: “éveillée comme un chat qu’on fouette”…