ʚ 6th Jan 2017 ɞ

me: *is overwhelmed by things i absolutely have the time to do*

it’s really a pity no one cares about foreign languages irl because I am a fountain of fun and interesting facts about linguistics and grammar and etymology but my peasant friends could not be any less interested

Compliment people. If you think a good thing about someone, there’s no harm in saying it aloud.

Vocabulaire français - des verbes

remorquer - to tow, lug

râler - to grumble, complain, gasp

ébranler - to shake, rattle, weaken

sonder - to sound, plumb, probe, survey

germer - to germinate, sprout, grow

étreindre - to embrace, clasp, clutch, choke

remuer - to move, touch, stir

étouffer - to suffocate, stifle, smother

bêler - to bleat, whine

gémir - to moan, whine

s’égarer - to get lose, lose one’s way, digress

ficeler - to tie up, bind

frotter - to rub, scrape, scrub

délier - to untie, undo, unknot

énerver - to annoy, irritate

effarer - to alarm, frighten

crisper - to tense, contract

haleter - to pant

balbutier - to stammer, stutter

bégayer - to stammer, stutter

harceler - to harass, pester

accabler - to impose, overwork, overburden

épier - to observe, spy on

délayer - to mix, water, dilute

éventrer - to disembowel, gut

étreindre - to embrace, clasp, clutch, grasp

sévir - to hit, strike

Words taken from: Le Horla (Maupassant)

reading a foreign language you're trying to learn: lol this is easy I understand so much of this

trying to construct sentences in that language: wtf am I doing jesus take the wheel where is wiktionary

Bonne Année - Happy New Year Vieille Année - Old Year Nouvelle Année - New Year Les bonnes résolutions du Nouvel An - New Year’s resolutions Le Saint Sylvestre - New Year’s Eve Hiver (m) - Winter Décembre (m) - December Janvier (m) - January Fête (f) - Party Célébration (f) - Celebration Concert (m) - Concert Parade (f) - Parade Tradition (f) - Tradition Champagne (m) - Champagne Toast (m) - wassail Oraison (f) - Speech Horloge (f) - Clock Compte à rebours (m) - Countdown Minuit (m) - Midnight Bisou (m) - Kiss Pétard (m) - Firecracker Feu d'artifice (m) - Firework Présentation (f) - Presentation, display Confettis (mpl) - Confetti

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!

a list of untranslatable words ☕️

cafuné - brazilian portuguese: the act of running one’s fingers, gently but deeply, through someone else’s hair 積ん読 (tsundoku) - japanese: the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other such unread books 木漏れ日 (komorebi) - japanese: sunlight filtering through the trees mångata - swedish: the roadlike reflection of moonlight on water verklempt - yiddish: a person who is too emotional to speak liefdesverdriet - dutch: the heartache caused from an unrequited love and the mental pains one endures; the physical pain of depression fika - swedish/finnish: gathering together to talk and take a break from everyday routines, usually drinking coffee and eating pastries 幽玄 (yūgen) - japanese: an indescribable sentiment, can only be described as a painful awareness of the mysterious beauty and human suffering l'esprit de l'escalier - french: the moment one finally thinks of a witty remark, far too late, after the opportunity has passed kilig - tagalog: the feeling of butterflies in your stomach, usually when something romantic or cute takes place いるす (irusu) - japanese: pretending to be absent from home when someone is at the door habseligkeiten - german: personal belongings, small treasures and property, which define our happiness and sentiments nefelibata - portuguese: cloud walker; name given to the quixotic dreamers, they appear spacey, otherworldly, but intelligent σοφρωσύνη (sophrosyne) - greek: self-control, balance, wisdom & grace;virtue that follows the aphorisms “nothing in excess” & “know thyself" hiraeth - welsh: homesickness for a place which never even existed. Connotations of sadness, yearning, profound nostalgia and wistfulness torpe - tagalog: being too shy to pursue amorous desires waldeinsamkeit - german: the feeling of being alone in the woods litost - czech: the humiliated despair we feel when someone accidentally reminds us, trough their accomplishment, of our inadequacies dustsceawung - old english: contemplation of the fact that dust used to be other things - the walls of a city, a book, a great tree… duende - spanish: the spirit of evocation; the mysterious power a work of art has to deeply move a person gattara - italian: a woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats tоска - russian: a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause, a longing with nothing to long for, nostalgia φιλότιμο (philotimo) - greek: a complex array of virtues; expressed through acts of generosity & sacrifice w/o expecting anything in return  gezellig - dutch: abstract sensation of individual well-being that one shares with others;cozy ambience, anything pleasant, homely, friendly

french vocab from the first half of my year abroad

I’m home for Christmas now, which means I’m back on Scottish soil with decent internet. It’s giving me a chance to reflect on my French and how much it has improved just in three months of living in France. So I thought I’d share some of the things that I learned from living in the Charente-Maritime: 

ah, bah, oui (expression) this seems to be the equivalent of ‘yeah but no’ when people have a false-start on a sentence. usually, i heard this in disagreements in my classroom when students were wanting to correct another student but couldn’t get the words out fast enough. i think it’s a hilarious thing to say and i’ve been trying to incorporate it into my way of speaking. 

en fait (expression) this literally means ‘in fact’ or ‘actually’, which i think can come off a little rude in english but is actually a common expression in french. french people i have encountered use ‘en fait’ to start sentences, to provide more information, to correct, basically just all the time! 

franchement (adverb) in english, i’m a big fan of using ‘tbh’ or ‘to be honest’, and this is the best french equivalent to that. it sounds so very french when it’s said and can mean ‘frankly’, ‘honestly’, ‘indisputably’ or ‘without hesitation’, depending on the context. 

rater (verb) i picked up this new verb when i was telling a class about how i failed my driving test. i knew that ‘rater’ can mean ‘to miss’, as in ‘i missed the train’, but one student turned to another and said that ‘elle a raté’ and it was explained to me that ‘rater’ can also mean ‘to fail’, or in my case ‘to mess up’ something. 

se tromper (verb) this verb means ‘to be mistaken’, and i definitely found myself saying ‘je me suis trompée’ a lot while I was just new to the country! 

une chocolatine (noun) I was living on the south-west coast of France in the Charente-Maritime region which means that I picked up some new and different ways of saying things. I was quickly informed by my students in the most sincere and serious way possible that the famous ‘pain au chocolat’ pastry does not exist in the Charente-Maritime and I was to ask for ‘une chocolatine’ at the local boulangerie instead. I now use both nouns interchangeably! 

Ukedager

Mandag - Monday

Tirsdag - Tuesday

Onsdag - Wednesday

Torsdag - Thursday

Fredag - Friday

Lørdag - Saturday

Søndag - Sunday

en dag - day

i morgen - tomorrow

i dag - today

i går - yesterday

en uke - week

en helg - weekend

nå - now

Picture : stillstudies

The only thing I regret about languages is that I didn’t start learning them earlier.