Both are translated by “to know” which can be very confusing.
Connaître
To be aware of the existence of something, of this value. Can also be used to speak about people, places, the experience of something/its deep knowledge. The etymology in Latin is “to visit, to see each other, to get to know”. A good tip could be to remember that in Connaître, there is “naître” (to be born, to start). This way you can remember the link to people and starting something.
- I know my neighbors : Je connais mes voisins (You got to know them)
- I know the Louvre : Je connais le Louvre (you visited the Louvre)
- I know South America : Je connais l’Amérique du Sud (you traveled through South America)
- I know my lesson : Je connais ma leçon
- I know my work : Je connais mon travail.
Connaître is always followed by a noun and can’t never be used before pronouns (qui, que, quoi, comment, etc.)
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Savoir
Savoir is used for things teached, facts, abilities, knowing information, conviction.
- I know how to write : Je sais écrire
- I know how to conjugate a verb : Je sais comment conjuguer un verbe.
- I know how to bake tasty cakes : Je sais cuisiner de bons gâteaux
- I know that you’re going to Italy for summer : Je sais que tu vas en Italie cet été
- I know that you love stargazing : Je sais que tu aimes regarder les étoiles
- I know why you didn’t come to the party : Je sais pourquoi tu n’es pas venu à la soirée
- I know who stole the cake : Je sais qui a volé le gâteau.
- I know it’s you : Je sais que c’est toi.
It’s mostly followed by verbs or subordinate clauses (Thing you can see in English too, the verb “to know” is used differently to translate savoir than for connaître!)
When it’s followed by an infitive : It’s about knowledge, how to do something
Je sais écrire > I know how to write
When it’s followed by a subordinate clause : it’s about an information you got and understood/conviction
Je sais que c’est toi : I know/I’m convinced it’s you.
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These are words French people sort of use anarchically regladless of their original gender. This confusion can be explained for example by liaisons (L’armistice = le + armistice, but it sounds like la + armistice), by the facts we mostly use them with their plural form (Les horaires d’ouverture d’un magasin). anyhow, here are the petty criminals :
Masculine :
- Pétale
- Tentacule
- Équinoxe
- Acrostiche
- Effluve
- Appendice
- Horaire
- Armistice
- Augure
- Archipel
- Haltère
Feminine
- Anagramme
- Scolopendre
- Immondice
- Épithète
- Enzyme
- Réglisse
Words that can be both
- Silicone
- Hymne
- Après-midi
- Éclair
- Pupille
- Moufle
- Amour(s)
- gens
Don’t hesitate to submit others if they come to your mind!
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These three words are all translated by “time” and it might be confusing.
Temps
Duration during which events/days/nights/seasons occur, the general “concept” of time
- Le canyon se creuse à mesure que le temps passe : The canyon grows wider as time flows by.
- Je l’attendrai parce que je l’aime, peu importe le temps que ça prendra : I’ll wait for him/her because I love him/her, no matter how long it takes.
Measurable length :
- J’ai passé trop de temps à travailler sur cet essai, ça m’a pris toute une journée : I spent too much time working on this essay, it took me a whole day.
- Combien de temps faut-il pour aller du Louvre à la Tour Eiffeil ? How long does it take to go from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower?
The atmosphere’s condition :
- Il fait beau temps, le soleil brille et il fait chaud : The weather is nice, the wun is shining and it’s hot.
The idea of the right moment, the opportunity :
- Il était temps qu’il fasse sa demande en mariage, elle désespérait ! : It was about time he proposes, she was losing hope!
Heure
Literally “hour”, refers to time like on a clock.
- J’ai fini mes devoirs, il est l’heure de manger maintenant ! : I finished my homework, it’s time to eat now!
- Je suis à l’heure : I’m on time.
Fois
Refers to an instance of an event, as in “one time, two times…”, “once, twice…”
- J’ai mangé du poulet deux fois cette semaine. : I ate chicken twice this week.
- C’est la première fois qu’elle va au Casino : It’s the first time she’s going to the Casino.
- Elle réserve sa première fois pour quelqu’un qu’elle aime : She keeps her first time for someone she loves.
- Combien de fois dois-je répeter qu’il ne faut pas fumer ? : How many times do I have to repeat that you must not smoke?
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Anonymous asked :
bonjour! could you please explain to me the difference between "peler" and "eplucher"? merci!
I just… I.. Okay. I can’t promess you’ll understand but I’ll try.
There are several verbs actually that mean “peeling”:
- éplucher : Peeling the first layers of something that are not edible or taste bad : “Eplucher une carotte”. It’s the notion that you’ll “force” some layers out.
- peler : Peeling the skin/hard layers of something, that are not edible. There’s a notion of skin as in human/animal skin, with hair and such, at least something consistant. “Peler une orange” = Peel an orange (because the orange has a really hard skin you can really differenciate from the rest of the fruit for example, unlike a carrot). We use “pêler” for human skin too, like when you’re sunburnt and your skin is peeling, we say “peler” or “avoir la peau qui pèle”. “Peler” is also to remove the hair of a skin (not for humans, in that case it would be “épiler”), as in “peler un cuir” (“Peel a leather”)
- dépecer : To cut-up the skin of an animal (possibly humans if you’re into killing people and dismembering them)
So let’s take a cow for example. You’d “dépecer” the cow to get the skin out of the meat so you can eat the meat. Then you’d “peler” the skin (remove the hair) to make leather. Then you’d “éplucher” the carrots you’d put in a pot to cook the meat with to make a pot-au-feu :D (famous French dish).
- épiler : to remove the hair, with the notion of “pulling the hairs out of the skin” (different from shaving, “raser). That’s the verb we use as a standard for girls getting their legs done for example, or for when you’re taking the feathers out of a chicken, when you remove the last little hairs on the skin so it looks completely clean.
(I feel immensely proud of this post that painfully took me ages, I feel like you should know)
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“Ils croivent”, “ils voyent” : Mispelling of verbs “Ils croient” (They believe) and “Ils voient” (They see)
“Je sais pas c’est quand” instead of “Je (ne) sais pas quand c’est” (I don’t know when it is?), bad order of words.
“Je lui la donne” instead of “Je la lui donne”, bad order of words.
“Ceux-là qui” instead of “Ceux qui” (Those who), sheer slang creation.
“C’est qui qui a…?” instead of “Qui a…?” (Who did…?) , sheer slang creation.
“J’ai manger” instead of “J’ai mangé”, mispelling of participe passé.
“Se livre”, “sa va” instead of “Ce livre”, “ça va”, mispelling of “ce, ça”.
“Le truc que je t’ai parlé” instead of “Le truc dont je t’ai parlé”, bad use of “que” instead of “dont”.
“Comme même” instead of “Quand même”, mispelled slang.
“Si je pourrais…” instead of “Si je pouvais…”, bad use of conditionnel.
“Au jour d’aujourd’hui” : three levels of pleonasm. The word “Aujourd’hui” (today) itself is a pleonasm. In old French “hui” means today. “Au jour de” (At the day of) had been added with years to merge into “Aujourd’hui”, literally meaning “At the day of today”. Yet, “aujourd’hui” still is the fully correct word for “today”. However, adding another “au jour d’” is useless and incorrect.
“C’est jolie” instead of “Joli” : Bad agreement of masculine/feminine forms of adjectives.
“Un ciseaux” instead of “des ciseaux” (scissors). “Un ciseau” = one blade.
“C’est le livre à Jean” instead of “C’est le livre de Jean”, “Je vais au coiffeur” instead of “Je vais chez le coiffeur”, general bad use of prepositions.
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Note that nicknames are very often pejorative depending on the context, and that you should not use them until you’re sure it fits the context perfectly.
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USA : Le pays de l’oncle Sam, les States, la busherie
Americans : Les Amerlocks/Amerloques, les Ricains, les fils de Sam
Italy : La grande botte
Italians : Les ritals, les spaghetti, les macaroni
New-Zealanders : les kiwis
Australians : les kangourou
UK : Perfide Albion
British people : Les rosbeefs/rosbifs, les Anglish, les Britons
Scottish people : les cul-nu, les pingres
Irish people : les farfadets, les rouquemoutes
Spanish people : les espingouins, les churros
Portuguese people : les portos, les poilus,
German people : Les Boches/bosches, les Schleu, fritz, les teutons, les casques à pointe
Japan : Pays du soleil levant
Chinese people : Chintok, chinwé, les nems, les niacks/niakwé
Arab people/ North african people : les beur, les rebeu
Polish people : Les polak
Russian people : Les usskovs/russkofs
Canada : le grand nord blanc
Canadians : les caribou
Mexicans : les sombreros, les mariachi
Pakistani : les pak-pak
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13 : Do you want to marry me? > Veux-tu m’épouser ? in French
Veux-tu me marier is Canadian French.
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Find below a list of romantic/sexy/sexual words, idioms and such.
Read More
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Anonymous asked :
allo! i was just curious if you knew any social justice or queer-centered slang that could potentially aid in having conversations about queer/LGBTQ culture in french. i understand if that is just way too vague or a topic you're not too well-versed in, but i had to ask! i appreciate your blog and all the work you do so much. merci bien! <3
I’m afraid our French queer vocabulary is really basic… We don’t have those new pronouns English has and stuff. We’re actually barely starting caring about that. France is more narrow-minded about LGBTQ semantic than the English world. Even the “labels” are less developped. You will very rarely find words as pansexual (pansexuel), people still are confused by the difference between transgender (transgenre) and transsexual (transsexuel). And the recognition of Queer people is still to be made. Indeed, we rarely use the term “LGBTQ”, we use “LGBT” even though it includes fighting for queer people too. Sadly, I must admit we’re doing it one step at a time, and since the gay-lesbian rights still are hard to swallow for most of people, I guess the queer rights will come after (and that’s not something I’m happy about, I keep listening to the governmental debate over gay marriage and not one single time queer people had been mentionned!)
Some vocabulary
- Gay : homo, gay (we don’t use gay a lot because we have another word, gai = cheerful, and it can confuse if the context isn’t clear)
- Homosexual : Homosexuel(le)
- Lesbian : Lesbienne
- Bisexual : bisexuel(l)
- Transsexual : Transsexuel
- Transgender : Transgenre
- Sexual identity : identité sexuelle
- Sexual orientation : orientation sexuelle
- gay marriage : mariage gay
- same sex marriage : mariage des couples de même sexe
- gay rights : droits LGBT
Slang
Use with caution… some people don’t like to be addressed this way - including me -, but I think it’s important to also know what NOT to tell. If you’re invested in Gay rights and such, you’re most likely to find them in opponents’ speech or just as a “joke” between gay people - but personally, it doesn’t make me laugh at all x)
- Fag, pussy, queen : pédé, PD (both come from “pédéraste” -to NEVER use when talking about gay men), tapette, tantouze, tante
- Lesbian, butch : gouine, lezos, brouteuse (from grazing the grass/brouter le gazon)
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Je vous souhaite un joyeux Noël : I wish you a merry Christmas
Passez de bonnes fêtes : Happy holiday to you
Bonne année : Happy new year
Bon réveillon : Happy new year’s eve
Un sapin de Noël : a Christmas tree
Une guirlande : tinsel
Une bougie : a candle
Un cadeau : a gift
Une carte de voeux : a greeting card
Un repas de Noël : a Christmas diner
La bûche de Noël : The Christmas log (traditional Christmas cake)
Le Père Noël : Santa
Le compte à rebours : the countdown
Le gui : the mistletoe
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"Un jour maussade."
- A gloomy day.
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- une loi : a law
- un article : an article
- un droit : a right
- une sentence : a sentence
- une peine : a sentence (with prison)
- un tribunal : a court
- un avocat : an attorney
- un cabinet d’avocat : a law firm
- la partie civile : (the victims)
- la défense : (the accused)
- un accusé : an accused
- un juge : a judge
- un procureur : a prosecutor
- un procès : a trial
- une plainte : a complaint
- un sursis : a suspended sentence
- la réclusion : imprisonment
- la prison : the jail
- une amende : a fine
- des dommages et intérêts : damages
- une garde à vue : custody
- un témoin : a witness
- une preuve : a proof
- un homicide : un meurtre
- intenter un procès : to take someone to court
- porter plainte : to complaint against
- déposer une main courante : to file a complaint (without the intention of take someone to court)
- témoigner : to testify
- déclarer sous serment : to declare under oath
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Une question bizarre, mais c'est quoi la difference entre un fleuve et une rivière? Je crois qu'on dise la Loire mais le Rhône parce que c'est la rivière Loire et le fleuve Rhône, n'est pas? C'est un peu difficile pour nous anglais parce qu'is sont tous 'rivers' ;) :)
Non, un fleuve se jette dans la mer/océan, une rivière se jette dans un autre cours d’eau.
Par exemple, le Missouri est une rivière car il se jette dans le Mississippi, qui lui, est un fleuve car il se jette dans l’océan.
La Loire et le Rhône sont tous deux des fleuves car ils se jettent dans la mer. Le fait qu’un soit féminin et l’autre masculin n’a rien à voir avec leur nature. C’est comme ça, il n’y a pas de règle pour le féminin/masculin en français !
Liste des fleuves français http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_fleuves_de_France
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*What’s the difference between “Fleuve” and “Rivière”? Because in English both are called “river”.
“Un fleuve” flows into a sea or ocean whereas “une rivière” flows into another watercourse.
For exemple, the Missouri is “une rivière” because it flows into the Mississippi, which is “un fleuve” because it flows into the ocean.
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