Let's open with a heavy taste question: "Tu es versatile!" Arrête de bretter et fais ton pis.”
Guess what it means?
It's pretty confusing to see the literal meaning... It's actually trying to say, "You really can!" Stop wasting time and make a decision! "
This is actually a Quebecer with their own way of expressing it, which may seem difficult for many today's French to understand, or completely outdated, but in fact they are mostly interesting and often full of charm.
So today we come to Four "Old French Expressions" that originated in Quebec and are widely loved by the French.
01
Lâcher son fou – let it go
Literally, it should be "lay down your elephant", and the "elephant" here is the "bishop" in chess.
If you "let go", you will fall into a kind of happiness in the struggle, so this expression is derived from chess, but this expression continues to this day.
02
Courailler – a man of upheaval and displacement
"If you don't study and don't work hard, you're going to become a Courailler later!" This word is what many French parents say when educating their children, and they often have to be accompanied by an expression of hatred for iron and steel.
Thus Courailler refers to those who live a life of upheaval, which is known as "Le Trésor de la Langue Française" (a treasure of French). The word first appeared in Balzac's La Cousine Bette.
03
Niaiseux – stupid
This is a somewhat pejorative word, and is mostly used in place of very aggressive words.
Its meaning can actually be very broadly replaced by one word - "stupid", two words - "stupid", but in fact, Quebec people have a very deep feeling for this word, which takes a long period of cultural accumulation and time to feel.
It's probably like it's hard for foreigners to understand the use of "I" in Chinese so widely.
04
Tanné – tired, bored, enough
What Tanné actually means is: something that takes on a smooth and shiny side under the action of friction and wear.
The quebec people's explanation for this is that the hot summer has passed for a few weeks, the autumn is getting closer, the school has been going on for a while, everyone is tired, enough, Tanné.
That and "something that takes on a smooth and shiny side under the action of friction and wear." "What does it matter? We don't know, we...
Encrypted expressions
In addition to these, there are also those common phrases that are more commonly used, but do not mean much from the literal meaning:
Une nuit blanche – stay up all night
This seems to be very common, after all, the French "traditional festival", the kind of "sleepless nights" that everyone gets together to jump together is named after "nuit blanche".
Un coeur d'artichaut – carrots with heart
This seems to be more image than Chinese, artichaut is the artichoke, growing like that, looking more than the radish flower heart.
Je suis K.O. – I'm exhausted
The French love nothing but complaining about yin and yang, such as:
Describe clumsiness:
Avoir les deux pieds dans le même sabot. Stand on the same shoe with both feet.
Describe grumpy:
Avoir un pet de travers. There was a pet passing by.
(This may seem unrelated, but think about it Chinese is there such an expression: there are ten thousand grasses in my heart... The alpaca sped by. ）
Describe energetic:
Avoir la patate/la frite. Potato chips or fries.
I saw the barrenness of the Staple Food of the French, and I also saw the "burning whole field"!
Describe "Mo Lao Tzu":
Aller se faire cuire un œuf. Go fry yourself an egg.
Can you give me time to fry an egg, and quietly send you something to eat?
So, the second language is like having a second soul, different languages come together to form our vast world, what other interesting colloquial expressions do you know? See you in the comments section. ~
https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/expressions-francaises/cinq-expressions-vieillottes-qui-nous-viennent-du-quebec-20200925
| Bellman