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Posts Tagged ‘expressions’

Just ask the French dog!

The French have many expressions that include seemingly arbitrary numbers, such as:

- “les 400 coups” — refers to the number of pranks kids normally play while growing up.

- “il n’y a pas 36 façons de s’y prendre”  – there aren’t 36 ways to go about it.

- “je reviens dans 2 minutes” — I’ll be back in 2 minutes, translated “I’ll be back in a minute” except that you should rather expect the person will be back in 5 to 10 minutes. When the persons is still not back after 10 minute, then you can say :

- “on ne va pas attendre 107 ans”  meaning we’re not going to wait forever (107 years to be precise!)

- “ça coute 3 fois rien” — it costs three times nothing.

Many English speakers have the impression that the French don’t have much of a sense of humor.  In fact, the context in which humor is used differs considerably. The French language is lavishly endowed with funny expressions. One of the most hilarious of these is the expression for pretending to be in a league above your own: “péter plus haut que son cul”. This is the first time I have actually written this slang expression, which can be literally translated (vulgarity removed) “to expel intestinal gas at a level above that of one’s rear-end.”

Money, in particular, provides a “wealth” of slang : “un sac” for 10 euros, “une brique” for 10 000, “une thune” for 5, “un rond” for 1, “un sou” for 0,10. Not to mention the unquantified terms such as “flouze” and “blé”.  Of course, in whatever terms you may choose to count, you’ll be saving on Paris-Sharing.com.

French humor is so embedded into the language itself that it is difficult to experience it in a different language. One stand-up comedian at least gave it a try here in English. When it comes to humor at least, my preference still goes to the British style, a comparative example of which you can watch here.  As you know, the 100 year war was fought over who had the best sense of humor!