Musings, Vocabulary
It started as a conversation about spelling.
And, more precisely, about spelling mistakes.
And it drifted onto the word “FAUTE”… oh yes, it was all in French 😉
This is what a lady, an English teacher, said (I translate) :
“Many people mistakenly speak of “FAUTES D’ORTHOGRAPHE” (for faults) while a fault has a strong moral value. And in this context, the person who makes it feels guilty. I think, unsure of it, that it is a legacy of the time when the clergy was engaged in education.
As teachers, we are asked not to speak of fault, for what has been mentioned above, but “error” because an error is repairable. Exit the guilt. Moreover, whoever can repair it comes out grown.”
So let’s put things straight :
Fault in the sense of “sin” if it’s a moral error
Vocabulary
College… in France, EVERYBODY goes to college… by law!
How come?
If you’re from the USA or Canada – excuse me for the other anglophone countries, I don’t know your scholar system – your “college” isn’t the same as the French’s.
The French scholar system is the following :
Entry in the “production line” at age 6.
Primary school: 5 years
Then College: 4 years. Normally, it takes you to the legal age for schooling, that is 16.
Then High School: 3 years… optional 
😉 You also can go into less intellectual apprenticeships for a few years.
Then… it’s up to you, directly University or Preparation classes (1 to 3 years) to – hopefully – make it into some very high class teachings.
Your US or Canadian College would be like our first cycle in a French University (2 years).
Vocabulary
On comes up in conversation ALL THE TIME, you will not ba able to avoid it 😉
1/ “On” is used to represent “unknown” people, as a group. In English, it could be “people” or “You” when it is not meant to point out the exact person/s you’re talking to.
Ex.: On doit s’arrêter au feu rouge / People/you must stop at the red lights.
2/ “On” is used instead of “nous (we)”… more and more. It was considered incorrect when I was a child… nowadays, it’s part of everyone’s ordinary language.
But even if it is meant to represent more than one person, it still is a personal pronoun of the third person, singular (like “il” and “elle” and should be conjugated as such. Then the ”Académie Française” (guardian of the French Language Temple !) decided that even if the verb MUST remain singular, everything else must agree with the plural… because there are more than one person in this tiny two-letters word, right?
Ex.: On est allés au cinéma hier soir / We went to the movies yesterday night.
3/ More very colloquial usages… that you don’t really want to remember 😉
Vocabulary
We’ve already talked about genders in French… there is more 😉
There are some words that are spelled exactly the same way… but they change meaning if they are used as masculine or feminine.
How come ?
I explain :
MOULE – “un moule“, masculine, is a form, a mould, a tin, a pan… “une moule“, feminine, is a mussel.
LIVRE – “un livre“, masculine, is a book… “une livre“, feminine, is a pound.
MOUSSE – “un mousse“, masculine, is an apprentice sailor… “une mousse“, feminine, is a foam. In fact we wouldn’t talk about “une mousse“ but more about “la mousse“ for “some” foam. “Une mousse“, feminine, is also a casual name for a beer 😉… very visual !
PAGE – “un page”, masculine, is a page in the Middle Ages… and “une page”, feminine, is one side of a sheet of paper in a book… funny, you have the same two pages in English… but you don’t have to bother with the gender, right ?
There are many other words that are either/or… with different meanings. This was just a sample.
Vocabulary
Play Games with Toys… that’s what I call variety 😉
The same in French?
Jouer à des Jeux avec des Jouets… that’s what I call uniformity 😉
Could it be that the English language is A LOT more creative than the French language?
Naaaaa…. there are cases when it’s just the opposite.
It must be a “game” thing!
Vocabulary
It’s raining a lot these days and mushrooms started to show their heads in my lawn… which inspired me this post about… mushrooms.
When a French speaks about “champignons”… think twice, especially if it doesn’t quite make sense for you.
We agree about the mushroom from the photo, the ones you use as food or the ones you avoid picking in the forest if you don’t want to end up in a hospital or… a cemetery ! They are “champignons,” edible or toxic.
But the French also use the same word “champignons” for fungus. The ones that cause fungal infection or mycosis. On the other hand, we will talk about the fungicidal effect of an ointment or medicine with the adjective/noun “fongicide,” and not mushroomicidal 😉
Could we imagine that it’s better accepted to have “des champignons entre les doigts de pied,” literally “mushrooms between the toes,” rather than fungus? But the idea of mushrooms growing on your skin or in your body remains really weird, don’t you think?
