French language

Le Mouv’ and Mots fléchés

My favorite French radio station is Le Mouv’. I started listening to it when I lived in Toulouse, and before I left I managed to find it on the internet. It’s a fairly good mix of music, mainly alternative rock (which they call indé, an apocope of indépendant), about half in French and half in English, with the occasional song in another language. Unfortunately, the connection can be a bit spotty. 🙁

I tend to put Le Mouv’ on in the morning while doing a mots fléchés, which I’ve become addicted to – I have to do one every morning – and then keep listening while doing non-work stuff.

Words of the day (with lots of vowels)

According to a Mexican friend of mine, murciélago (bat) is the only Spanish word with all five vowels.

In English, we have facetiously, which has all 5½ vowels (y is the half) in alphabetical order. I also like the words vacuum and aardvark for the unusual double vowels.

The coolest French word may be jouaient (third person plural imperfect of jouer – to play), which has all five vowels in a row!
And créée (feminine past participle of créer – to create) with its triple E.

Any other vowel-laden words?

Coup de boule – the song

We all knew that Zidane’s head butt during the World Cup Final would go down in history, but did you ever think about the marketing aspects? A French song parodying the event is breaking records (ha ha) in France, and there are several ringtones you can purchase too, all from La Plage Records

I’m not going to translate the whole song, but here’s the chorus:

Zidane il l’a frappé, Zidane il l’a tapé (Coup de boule!)
Zidane he hit him, Zidane he slapped him (Head butt!)

Allez les Bleus !

Tomorrow, the whole world (almost) will be watching France face Italy in the 2006 World Cup Finals. Isn’t it funny how American kids grow up playing soccer, the roads are filled with soccer Moms, yet the US is virtually the only country that doesn’t care about the World Cup – the ultimate soccer match and one of the world’s greatest sporting events? I don’t watch or play any sports, yet every four years I find myself watching the last few World Cup matches. It’s actually fun to watch, as opposed to sports like football and baseball, which have so many time-outs and commercials that you’re stuck in front of the TV for 3 or 4 hours.

By the way, “les Bleus” refers to the French soccer team: French soccer vocabulary.

French in English

Ever notice a certain je ne sais quoi about certain expressions in English? Become au fait about them – a rendez-vous with this index gives you carte blanche to learn some of the de rigueur French expressions scattered throughout English. Once they’re déjà vu, it’ll be a fait accompli… bon voyage! French terms in English

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