Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque
| Message 105 of 232 07 February 2014 at 6:46pm | IP Logged |
This word/expression of the week idea is really cool, i haven't heard either of those expressions before and they're both really fun. Thanks for sharing! I'm looking forward to seeing what other things pop up :)
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Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch
| Message 106 of 232 09 February 2014 at 11:54am | IP Logged |
Roughly relating to the overall "traffic"-related words of the week, here is mine. Though it's more intermediate vocabulary, I had to learn it the hard way:
Last Sunday, about 10pm. I was on my way back from Germany, where I had spent the weekend; empty highway, smooth driving. Then I saw a small vehicle in front of me, with big letters on the back. As I came closer and closer, I could decipher "È-P-A-N-D-A-G-E". While starting to take over, I thought "Èpandage? Doesn't ring a bell. When I'm home I'll look it up." Turned out I didn't have to: In this very moment the road salt hit my car with full strength....
So it's
épandre - (to) spread
l'épandage (m) - the spreading
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4910 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 107 of 232 09 February 2014 at 12:26pm | IP Logged |
Gosh that's an obscure word! Well done. The Collins online French dictionary doesn't even have the verb, and it defines the noun as "manure spreading".
Or maybe that wasn't road salt hitting your car...
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Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch
| Message 108 of 232 09 February 2014 at 12:34pm | IP Logged |
Jeffers wrote:
"manure spreading".
Or maybe that wasn't road salt hitting your car... |
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Uuh....have to go and double-check.... :-)
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kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish
| Message 109 of 232 10 February 2014 at 8:26pm | IP Logged |
I just saw this this morning: passer un coup de chiffon.
It means passer-by, especially if on foot. I don't know how you get from "wipe with a soft cloth" to "pedestrian," but it's colorful and I like it.
The context was this video on Facebook of a Spanish ship that broke apart on a jetty in France recently: un dramatique instant
The comments have a lot more good Fench in them, too - apparently poor spelling and grammar on the internet are not just an English thing!
Deejay Jean Mi
Ce mercredi matin, l'instant ou le cargo LUNO s'échoue sur la digue des Cavalier à Anglet, un dramatique instant figé par un riverain.
Captaine Ricoq Romain Dla polution encore !!!!
Maite Qua non tout va bien Captaine Ricoq j'ai lus que tout ce qui peut polluer et bien contenu dans je sais plus quelle partie du bateau
DjYann Cye c est abusé
Maite Qua on verra bien
Damien Brulefert Encore de la pollution ...
Deejay Jean Mi Mais non. Un coup de chiffon. Et hop ! Lol. En même temps c est un accident sur un navire en bon état donc juste un accident malheureux mais sans victimes !!! Donc c est déjà ca !
DjYann Cye c est sa pas contre les sauveteurs devais pas etre tranquille avec tout le vend qu'il y avais
Deejay Jean Mi Visiblement ça a été chaud d après les infos comme un bout de bois qu' il te le ballade le cargo, notre oceaun
Deejay Jean Mi En tout les cas merci à Philippe pour avoir eu le reflewd de prendre une caméra pour immortaliser ce drame
Sophie Poppie Ils ont posté ta video sur le parisien
There's a full article and more videos at Le parisien
Edited by kanewai on 10 February 2014 at 8:32pm
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 110 of 232 10 February 2014 at 9:34pm | IP Logged |
To me, this means that the spill is no big deal, that you can just wipe it off with a cloth. I can't imagine how this could mean anything related to a passer-by.
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kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish
| Message 111 of 232 10 February 2014 at 10:07pm | IP Logged |
Well that was a fail on my part. I used a French idiom site to translate "coup de
chiffon," but I think it re-routed me to "passer un coup de chiffon" and then translated
"passer" as passer-by and ignored the rest of the phrase.
I hate when computers try to think for you. It does make more sense that he's saying
that the spill was minor, a coup-de-chiffon, and not that he himself was the coup-
de-chiffon.
I still like the phrase.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4910 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 112 of 232 11 February 2014 at 12:07am | IP Logged |
It's a new week and I have a new phrase: "Petit papillon".
I have seen this in several films, but the only one I can remember it in for sure is Micmacs. Obviously, it literally means "little butterfly", but it was always translated as "hold your horses". It was clearly used in a way to tell them to calm down, and those to whom the phrase was directed didn't seem pleased.
Google translate doesn't give anything other than "small butterfly", and I can't find anything on a regular Google search (except I found a comment I made on Duolingo about it!)
Since I came across it a few times, I was sure an internet search would come up with something, but I haven't found anything. Can anyone illuminate us?
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