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French Idioms
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10-04-2012 7:47pm#1
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je m’en fiche/fous!Someone post in the thread I made, it's lonely
(it means i dont give a damn but i'm not sure if its more like 'i dont give a fu(k, might not be appropriate!)
À toute chose malheur est bon - every cloud has a silver lining
Autres temps, autres mœurs.
Times change.
“Other times, other customs.”
Un clou chasse l’autre.
Life goes on.
“One nail chases the other.”
Il faut casser le noyau pour avoir l’amande.
No pain no gain.
“You need to break the shell to have the almond.”
Il faut qu’une porte soit ouverte ou fermée.
There can be no middle course.
“A door must be open or closed.”
Impossible n’est pas français.
There is no such word as “can’t.”
“Impossible isn’t French.”
Les jours se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas.
There’s no telling what tomorrow will bring.
“The days follow each other and don’t look alike.”
Un malheur ne vient jamais seul.
When it rains, it pours!
“Misfortune never comes alone.”
Tant va la cruche à l’eau qu’à la fin elle se casse.
Enough is enough.
“So often the pitcher goes to the water that in the end it breaks.”
Qui vivra verra.
What will be will be. / Time will tell.
“He who lives will see.”
My teacher said she asked a French person and they're all okay - learned them the night before my mock and got an A1, so yeah, I think you'll be fine with these
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Oh yeah thats what I meant :P Subjunctive though...would it not maybe be qu'on voye? like, voyons, knock off the ons, add an e?There's no need for a que, you could say 'il faut qu'on voit la vie en rose' instead though.
I havent done the subjunctive yet sooooo yeah I'm probably wrong but still :P 0 -
Oh yeah thats what I meant :P Subjunctive though...would it not maybe be qu'on voye? like, voyons, knock off the ons, add an e? I havent done the subjunctive yet sooooo yeah I'm probably wrong but still :P
I'm not very good on my subjunctive of voir so I just left it as it was, but you take it from the ils part not the nous part anyway. 0 -
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Almost sure its the same stem anyway :PI'm not very good on my subjunctive of voir so I just left it as it was, but you take it from the ils part not the nous part anyway.
C'est la moins qu'on puisse dire - the least one can sayIt'd be 'qu'on voie' I think
'Je souhaite que je puisse y rétourner un jour' is one of the only full sentences with the subjunctive I know, have to fit it in somewhere
Some of my idioms have subjunctives too, and a really helpful person (presumably a teacher) posted a list of things that trigger the subjunctive always, really handy to know! Il faut que is probably the best, and you can always put a ne in too, just to show you know the ne expletif...even if you dont. :cool:0 -
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Coeurdepirate wrote: »I could be mistaken, but shouldn't it be "il faut qu'on voie la vie en rose" ?
Ah, yeah you're right. (I think I've been corrected a couple of times now!) :P I don't know the subjunctive of voir very well at all, so I just left it in the present. At least it sounds the same for the orals anyway.
Another idiom I found today - en voir de dures - to have it rough. eg. 'Nous en avons vu de dures quand ma mère était au chômage.'0 -
I have a few nice subjunctive phrases at the ready for next week.
Tip: Just use 'bien que je sois' (although I am - eg. hard-working, clever, etc.) and put whatever you want after it for a nice easy subjunctive.
Loving that one That, along with 'Il faut que' is going to make up basically all of my use of the subjunctive in the oral haha 0 -
dont forget avant que! maybe even 'il faut que j'aie les points pour mon cours avant que je sois heureux' :P
dunno if j'aie is right coz yeah, we havent done it yet :rolleyes: is voir irregular for subjunctive or do i just have the wrong conjugation rules? I thought it was take nous, remove ons and add endings
I'd check but we dont use a book... :pac:0 -
Dwellingdweller wrote: »Loving that one That, along with 'Il faut que' is going to make up basically all of my use of the subjunctive in the oral haha
Same, those two are life-savers! You can even throw in a sneaky 'il est nécessaire que' if you're afraid you'll overuse 'il faut que'. 0 -
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dont forget avant que! maybe even 'il faut que j'aie les points pour mon cours avant que je sois heureux' :P
dunno if j'aie is right coz yeah, we havent done it yet :rolleyes: is voir irregular for subjunctive or do i just have the wrong conjugation rules? I thought it was take nous, remove ons and add endings
I'd check but we dont use a book... :pac:
J'aie is right Couldn't ya just say 'il me faut avoir les points pour mon cours avant que je sois heureux'? Simplify it down to just one part of a subjunctive and reduce the chances of f**king it up haha. I've the subjunctive endings of voir here, it's basically regular except ye change the 'y' to an 'i'.
-je voie
-tu voies
-il voie
-nous voyions
-vous voyiez
-ils voient0 -
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Dwellingdweller wrote: »Handy Thingy though, why is 'il faut que je etc' subjunctive but 'il me faut etc' isn't? Confusing stuff!
I've no idea. I'd never considered using falloir like that. :eek:0 -
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Yeah dudes It's unreal confusing the first time you read it 'cos you're just like 'It's.. me... required?' But eventually it gets really easy, and it's really easy to say too because the words are so short! It's nice and easy in the past and future too. 'Il m'a fallu' and 'Il me faudrai' Bingo maybe yese'll find it useful in the oral!
Does anyone know if phrases like 'Ce soir la', 'Ce jour la', 'Ce semaine la' make sense? I think they roughly mean 'On that night', 'On that day' etc. They'd be really handy 'cos you could throw them in to your sentences to dress them up a wee bit. Par example, 'Ce soir la, j'avais deja allé a la supermarché deux fois pour acheter du vin et donc j'ai voulu rester a la maison.' Yis should check this thing out, it's pretty handy. La plupart des verbes et des mots en sont tres informal, peut-etre un petit peu trop informal pour l'epreuve orale, mais ils peuvent etre utile encore. J'ai trouvé un bonne verbe la: Bicher! On l'utilise pour dire que l'on est heureux avec soi-meme. Par example, "J'ai biché car j'ai gagné six cent points en ma Leaving Certificate." 0 -
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Just so ye know, my teacher says that the plus-que-parfait tense sounds even more impressive than the subjunctive because it's a lot more difficult to form and very very rarely used in orals! So I think ye should also try to fit a few of those in. I did in my mock when talking about my document and when I was finished the examiner said it was a really good idea to throw it in
Oh, and one idiom I always say to describe someone is "il/elle a un caractere de cochon"!0 -
I've never heard of this tense :S. Would you be able to give us a simple example?Just so ye know, my teacher says that the plus-que-parfait tense sounds even more impressive than the subjunctive because it's a lot more difficult to form and very very rarely used in orals! So I think ye should also try to fit a few of those in. I did in my mock when talking about my document and when I was finished the examiner said it was a really good idea to throw it in
Oh, and one idiom I always say to describe someone is "il/elle a un caractere de cochon"!0 -
Its simple really, PF - I have no accents on my keyboard btw but it should make sense.
Like this:
Je suis arrive a l'ecole quand j'ai realise* que j'avais oublie mon cahier (the plus-que-parfait bit is the I HAD forgotten, its to indicate something in the past tense further back than the rest of it)
*I know the correct verb is rendre compte or something, but I forgot if its reflexive so yeah :pac:
Its the equivalent of 'i had done' in english and is translated the exact same way, simples only thing is etre verbs are still etre verbs, so for i had gone you'd say 'j'etais alle' 0 -
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What Patchy~ said.
It's actually really simple. You just take a verb in the past tense:
J'ai donné - I gave
Then you change the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) to the imperfect tense. Easy!
J'avais donné - I had given
And if you want to make it even more impressive (we're getting ahead of ourselves today lads), you could add a 'si' clause to the start of it e.g "Si j'avais rangé la maison, ma mere serais content." (If I had, it would be) 0 -
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Ils sont montés sur leurs grands chevaux- They got up on their high horses.
Cela m'enleve une épin du pied-This has taken a weight off my shoulders!
Tout va pour le mieux!-Things are looking up!
J'ai vendu la meche!-I let the cat out of the bag!
I use these in the journal intime, can be used for anything really 0 -
je m’en fiche/fous!
(it means i dont give a damn but i'm not sure if its more like 'i dont give a fu(k, might not be appropriate!)
Je m'en fous translates as i dont give a **** so don't use it in the oral, but je m'en fiche is fine@Patchy~ When we learned the subjunctive we were told the best way to form it is to take the stem from ils, but most books say use the nous form. I don't think voir is irregular, as far as I know it's just like boire.
It's always take the ils form and add the endings apart from of course the verbs where the subjunctive is irregular.
A good subjunctive to use is "C'est dommage que" it's a shame that0 -
Thanks for the warningplein de force wrote: »Je m'en fous translates as i dont give a **** so don't use it in the oral, but je m'en fiche is fine Is it okay to say, if you were talking about the economy, 'nous sommes foutu'? I wrote it in my copy and my teacher just laughed, but I wanna make sure I'm not being too rude :P 0 -
Thanks for the warning Is it okay to say, if you were talking about the economy, 'nous sommes foutu'? I wrote it in my copy and my teacher just laughed, but I wanna make sure I'm not being too rude :P
No don't use it in an oral, but je m'en fous and that is perfect stuff for a french convo with a friend
if you're talking about the economy you could say "Ce sera difficile de s'en sortir" a much nicer way of putting it0 -
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plein de force wrote: »i didn't really use uncommon vocabulary and i didn't really get the chance to use more than one or two subjunctive phrases or intensely complicated grammar structures and i made a few mistakes and got an A1. i did have a complicated document, maybe that was it.
the most important thing to do is come across confident, pronounce things well and try the best on your accent.
plus if you make a mistake and you know you did and know how to correct yourself, do correct yourself, the examiner will be impressed you did. they don't expect you to be fluent and even when you are you still make mistakes.
Just be natural !
Great stuff! I'm looking forward to it now! the only thing is I'm not very naturally confident but ah well, my l33t french skills will carry me through :pac: 0 -
Can any of you tell me which of these is right?
1.) Il y a des hauts d'être l'aînée.
2.) Il y a des hauts d'étant l'aînée.
(Being the oldest has its advantages.)
I never know how to translate 'being' in these kinds of sentences.
(And I could probably use a better word for advantages in this case, but I'm not bothered about that for the moment!)0 -
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Moi aussi! I'm up early to try and cram about the Economic Crisis in French, have to go over my Document again (Exam Pressure) ironic or what? -_-SO. NERVOUS.
I'm gonna try and do up a mind-map of what they might ask aswell, cram about Olympics, Holidays, Future, Weekend, TY. :P. I really wanna just do it at this stage
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