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.
The French saying “faites chauffer la colle !” means literally “have the glue heated up!” or “heat up the glue!” It is used in an often joking way when something has just been broken, or you see or hear something being broken. Unless modern glue, which usually comes prepackaged in a tube, old fashioned glue…
Most French learners know that adjectives normally agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. For colours, that means changing the ending: But there’s a twist. Sometimes, even if the noun is feminine or plural, the colour adjective stays in its masculine singular form. When colours are invariable: compound adjectives When a colour…
“mettre les écureuils à pied” means “to cut down trees.” Literally it translates as “to put squirrels on foot,” meaning that if you cut down the trees that the squirrels live in, they will then be obliged to move around on foot, on the ground This saying is rarely used these days but dates back…
In French, a direct object is a noun that receives the action of the verb directly, without a preposition. The French term is complément d’objet direct, often abbreviated as COD. To avoid repeating the noun, we use direct object pronouns to replace it. A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun (ie a naming…
Many English nouns ending in -ism correspond directly to French nouns ending in -isme. This is one of the most stable and predictable conversion patterns between English and French. The words are usually shared international terms, often built on Greek or Latin roots that entered both languages through scholarly, political, or scientific use. Examples such…
The French word proche is an adjective and sometimes a noun. It describes closeness in space, time, or relationships. A related phrase, près de, also indicates physical or figurative nearness, but it is not exactly the same. Understanding the difference helps choose the right expression in context. 1. Physical closeness or nearness Proche can describe…
