Saturday 25 February 2012

How to describe someone physically in French

You might need to describe yourself if someone you don’t know is picking yourself at the airport. Here is a list,  
My tip to memorise the list? When you repeat these sentences, try to remember someone you know who has those features; that should make it easier for you to remember the words and adjectives.
For instance the French singer Lio on this picture from the 80’s

Elle est brune, elle a les cheveux longs et une frange et elle a les yeux noisettes....
A vous
How is he/she like ?                       Comment est-il?                              Comment est-elle?
He/she is  tall                                     Il est grand                                   Elle est grande
He/she is small                                 Il est petit                                       Elle est petite
He/she is fat                                      Il est gros                                      Elle est grosse
He/she is plump                               Il est enveloppé                               Elle est un peu ronde
He is handsome                               Il est beau
She is pretty                                                                                            Elle est jolie
He/she is ugly                                    Il est moche                                    Elle est moche
He/she is tan                                     Il est bronzé                                    Elle est bronzée

The hair :Les cheveux (Note always in the plural in French)
He/she has short hair                     Il/elle a les cheveux courts
He/she has long hair                       Il/elle a les cheveux longs
She has shoulder-length hair      Elle a les cheveux mi-longs ( a bob = un carré)
She has a fringe                           Elle a une frange
He/she is dark/haired                    Il/elle a les cheveux noirs
He/she has brown hair                 Il/elle a les cheveux châtains
He/she has straight hair                   Il/Elle a les cheveux raides
He/she has curly hair                      Il/Elle a les cheveux bouclés
He/she has brown eyes                  Il/Elle a les cheveux marron/noisette
He/she has freckles                        Il/elle a des tâches de rousseur
He/she has dimples                        Il/Elle a des fossettes                    

Note 1: In French, we say avoir les cheveux bruns ou châtains but avoir les yeux marron ou noisettes. There is an interesting thread in Wordreference.com (http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=382382)

Note 2: The adjective ‘marron” never agrees with the noun. It means chesnut. Brun becomes brune bruns/brunes ( one song in the early 80 by French/Portuguese singer Lio  was protesting about the blond supremacy, (Les brunes ne comptent pas pour des prunes ) Idioms: pour des prunes= for nothing)

Friday 24 February 2012

How to write "Avé l'accent, té!"

Photohttp://www.wix.com/danielecapes/matieres-couleurs-textures
 
Big problem for users of English keyboards (also known as 'qwerty') is to put the accents on the right letters in French. You could as I do, change the input of your keyboard for an "azerty" one, but this means memorising the keys, or have it easy with this Canadian website where accents are added for you. 
On reflexion, I maybe should not say that to my students ( well at least learn from it)

From this:
La ou le francais n'est pas accentue,
 il y a de la gene,
 mais quand le systeme m'accentue,
 je suis moins gene!

To this:
Là où le français n'est pas accentué,
il y a de la gêne,
mais quand le système m'accentue,
je suis moins gêné

PS: about the title, "avé l'accent" is the way the people in the South of France are said to speak according to the Parisians.

Thursday 23 February 2012

Cheap petrol price in France

Are you going to visit France with  your car this year?
Renault 4CV aussi appelée La 4-chevaux/Photo Krikri Memory


The price of petrol is heading to record levels again in France. Unfortunately petrol prices are flirting with the €1.60 a litre barrier.
If your want to keep your cash for the restaurant and cafés bills, keep an eye on petrol prices by checking the official Prix des Carburants en France website (http://www.prix-carburants.economie.gouv.fr/index.php) The site is run by the French government and collects data from thousands of filling stations across the country.
You can search the cheapest 'carburant' on you route to your destination by clicking on the "Itinéraire" tab. Once arrived,you can start your search via département, commune or postcode, with the results displaying the name of petrol stations and supermarkets closest to your chosen location and the individual prices per litre.
If you register an account with the site you can track prices over time at different stations local to you.
But still we prefer this:
Photo Danièle Capes http://www.wix.com/danielecapes/matieres-couleurs-textures

Alors bon voyage et bon séjour