Impress the French – Hard French common words to read #2
Take the challenge: 10 common French words to pronounce. Are you ready for this new challenging episode?
Fringues – FRINGUES – dont voice the N sound in the semivowel ‘in’… Alors les fringues (most often use in plural) – means clothes – Je vais acheter des fringues – I am going to buy clothes – This is a familiar world and quite common… un magasin de fringues = a clothing stores… Fringues, repeat after me…
Dare-dare, DARE-DARE, is an adverb meaning quick or at running speed, or on the double… Viens dare-dare = come over quick …. Je dois partir dare-dare = I have to leave in a hurry
Vadrouille – VADROUILLE – a noun and you also have the verb ‘vadrouiller ‘, vadrouille means a jaunt, to ramble, a common expression such as elle est en vadrouille = she is on a jaunt or je vais vadrouiller en Bretagne = I am going for a jaunt in Brittany. There is a famous French comedy ‘La grande vadrouille’ which was one of the highest grossing movie of all times. Try to watch it and tell me if you liked it!
Guignol .. Hard g don’t pronoun gwi, then gn as onion …. GUIGNOL, do you know what or who guignol is? Guignol is a famous marionnette or puppet in France. You will find the shows in French parks in Lyon (where it comes from) and other cities such as Paris. But these days, the. Word guignol has a total different meaning… In sentences such as C’est un guignol .. ou Marc est un guignol ou Sophie est une guignole, well, you mean that someone is a bozo, a clown that you don’t take seriously. Be careful not to call someone a guignol, this is not a compliment….
Strapontin = STRAPONTIN – two semivowels ‘on’ and ‘in’, do not voice the N sound, French does not have many diphtongues. Un strapontin is a jump seat that you will find in a subway, train, or a theater. Now you can try to practice with me : Assied-toi sur le strapontin: seat on the jump seat or asseyez-vous sur le strapontin… We use vous for someone we don’t know, or for being formal ….remember? Strapontin, repeat after me…
Chef d’oeuvre – Don’t pronounce the F at the end of Chef and the cluster ‘oeu’ is almost like the ‘u’ in butter – let’s repeat = Chef d’oeuvre…. Un chef d’oeuvre is a masterpiece .. please don’t use google for learning how to pronounce words, could not pronounce this correctly. Let’s practice: Ce plat est un chef d’oeuvre: This dish is a masterpiece (of course you can come up with another subject…)
Cuiller ou cuillère – la cuillère …this is a spoon and has two spellings but same prononciation – comes in two kind = la cuillère à soupe, which is a tablespoon or la cuillère à café which is a teaspoon.. Cuiller, let’s repeat..
Grognon – grognonne – this is an adjective – let’s repeat, gro takes practice, gn makes the same sound as ni in onion and don’t voice any n sound with ‘on’… can you guess?…
Je suis grognonne for feminine and je suis grognon for masculine ?? The meaning is grumpy!sounds almost similar …
Cul-sec ! You don’t pronounce the l at end of cul — so no coule- sik or similar This is a funny one.. Do you you know what it means? First cul-sec means bottoms-up! Yes, cheer to France and of if you watch soccer and the European Cup, plenty of reasons to celebrate! Anyway, the translation of cul-sec – and I apologize for the offense – means dry-ass!! Do you know where it comes from? The bottom of the glass is called a ‘cul’, hence cul-sec means that the bottom of the glass is dry by shooting down your drink!
Bric-à-brac – let’s repeat together, bric-à-brac… bric-à-brac is a noun, un bric-à-brac means clutter or messy… If you get in a place and say ‘C’est quoi ce bric-à brac’? It means what a clutter! Or what is this mess? Bric-à-brac is also used for thrift store for junk store, or any stores with odd ends or overstocked with all kind of stuff… Bric-à-brac…
Voilà, c’est la fin de cet épisode ! J’espère qu’il vous a plu ! I hope you enjoyed it. Now, subscribe and go to my website for the transcript, and again, thank you, oui, vous qui m’écoutez, for listening and learning French! Merci, au revoir, a bientôt !
How did you find this episode? I hope it was a five-start experience for you. I really want to be helpful and share my knowledge with you. So if you want to help other listeners to discover my podcast, go ahead an leave a five star rating on Spotify (only in the app), Apple podcast, Audible….
If you have any feedback about the quality of the episode (sound, pace, transcripts) show, feel free to reach out!
And if you are still reading, check this: I’ve put together a one-hour course FOR FREE just for you! You will speak French under one hour guaranteed! Try it! Find out more details by clicking on speakfrenchavecmoi.com.
Thank you again, and please share with your friends, comment, and join the Facebook page or Instagram account!