20
votes
Accepted
Words ending on i/u, spoken with (IPA) [ɪç] – is there a system?
Look up "phrase-final vowel devoicing" for scientific articles on the subject.
It's a relatively recent phenomenon in European French, whereby the vocal folds stop vibrating halfway through ...
- 9,591
17
votes
Accepted
"Je vais te me les disperser" ?
As far as most French grammar books are concerned, this form of double ethical dative doesn't exist.
However, the reality is that it is definitely understood by native French and still used in ...
- 145k
17
votes
What's the word equivalent to, "Announcement! Announcement!" or "Attention! Attention!"
That's certainly:
Chères clientes, chers clients ! (Dear customers)
The expression is not specific to Switzerland.
- 145k
16
votes
Accepted
Seeking colloquialism for “just because”
I suggest :
Oh, comme ça.
Oh, juste comme ça.
A possibly cheekier, less idiomatic translation would be :
Oh, parce que.
Bah, parce que.
- 1,718
13
votes
She is doing it!
I think those are the closest translations:
« Elle/Il va le faire ! » - She/He's going to do it!
« Elle/Il va y arriver ! » - She/He's going to do it!
« Elle/Il peut le faire ! » - She/He can do it!
...
- 384
13
votes
Does French have the English "short i" vowel?
No, standard French does not have the vowel /ɪ/ (near-close front unrounded vowel), which is the English “short i”. The vowel which is normally written with the letter I in French is a close front ...
12
votes
Francophones seem to end sentences of emotion with "quoi"?
That kind of "quoi" is what is called a discourse marker, a particule intended to convey a speaker's attitude to the conversation, or to signal something to the interlocutor. A few other common ...
- 9,591
11
votes
Does French have the English "short i" vowel?
The French generally spoken in France does not have [ɪ] either phonemically or phonetically, and to my knowledge no variety of French would use it for the first vowel in « s'il vous plait » (though ...
- 19.2k
11
votes
Que disent les français pour se corriger en parlant ?
Dans la conversation courante :
J'ai acheté du lait — euh, du pain.
J'ai acheté du lait — enfin, du pain.
Je veux dire s'emploie aussi volontiers : 'j'ai acheté du lait — euh, je veux dire, du ...
- 1,718
10
votes
How do you say 1.000.001 in French?
In most use cases, there would be no ambiguity. The context will generally rule out the strictly correct option if you talk about prices or actual quantities :
Cette maison coûte un million deux.
...
- 145k
10
votes
Accepted
Most idiomatic way to say "Could you repeat that?"
Plait-il ? / Plaît-il ? formal, outdated (or nowadays often humorous, ironical or sarcastic)
Pourriez-vous répéter [, s'il vous plait (or plaît)] ? is very formal
Pouvez-vous répéter [, s'il vous ...
- 145k
10
votes
Ways to tell a person to be quiet
Ferme-la ! (or La ferme !) is very rude although you might be even more rude with Tu vas la fermer ta gueule ! or just Ta gueule !.
Tais-toi ! or Taisez-vous ! is only acceptable if you are talking to ...
- 145k
10
votes
Tartuffe de Molière : "Raijon" et "fiche"
L'explication est clairement indiquée après le texte en question :
qui avait un énorme morceau de patisserie dans la bouche.
Mme Pernelle, dans cette très libre interprétation de l’œuvre originale ...
- 145k
10
votes
Les différents langages du français
Comme l'écrivait déjà Louis Meigret en 1530 :
Nous écrivons un langage qui n'est point en usage, et usons d'une langue qui n'a point
d'écriture en France. Cité par Bernard Cerquiglini, L'accent ...
- 145k
9
votes
Accepted
Feu orange ou feu jaune ?
Vivant dans le Nord-Est de la France je n'ai jamais entendu un particulier utiliser "feu jaune". Par contre "feu orange" est couramment employé. On parle même d'"orange mûr" quand on passe au moment ...
9
votes
"Je vais te me les disperser" ?
It's also know as "dative of interest". It's mostly an emphatical marker common in French, but also used as a way to "call in" someone: Regarde-moi ça!, "Look at it!" has an additional "call-out" ...
- 17.3k
9
votes
Is it natural to use “quoi” at the end of a sentence in texting?
Yes, phatic quoi looks absolutely OK in a text. As a general rule of thumb, whatever sounds right in speech will look fine in a text message or online chat.
Examples that would make completely legit ...
- 1,718
9
votes
Fast spoken French: Is "pour" removed in "Selon moi, pour se changer..."?
I'm pretty sure this is just some issue with audio editing of this recording. This is obviously an edited track, and it seems the person assembling these bits of audio together just started this bit (...
- 5,209
8
votes
De « je suis » à « ch'u » ?
Il y a deux évolutions de prononciation séparées, là : d'un coté la fusion des consonnes initiales de je et suis ; de l'autre la fusion de la semi-voyelle et de la voyelle de suis.
Le premier ...
- 9,591
8
votes
What are the French “language buffer” words (aka “filler words”)?
This Wikipedia article about filler words lists the following ones for French (emphasis mine):
euh /ø/ is most common; other words used as fillers include quoi ("what"), bah, ben ("well"), tu vois (...
- 181
8
votes
What are the French “language buffer” words (aka “filler words”)?
I dunno about Europe, but in Quebec the standard filler words are tsé (for tu sais) and genre, the latter of which is usually seen as the lower-key one.
- 17.3k
8
votes
Est-ce qu'en français il existe des pronoms anciens ou spéciaux?
Icelle et ses dérivés sont assez sympathiques : l'ancêtre de celle-ci et ses acolytes peuvent être utilisés de nos jours et seront parfaitement entendus.
- 23.9k
8
votes
Accepted
French movies/videos with French subtitles
There is an amazing site called Les films français avec
sous-titres where one may find a plethora of films to watch of different genres (comedies, dramas, adventures and the like).
Very useful: TEDx ...
- 27.6k
8
votes
Accepted
« Putain », « merde » et « bordel » : sont-ils grossiers ?
All of them (putain, bordel, merde) are clearly rude words, and are far from being considered acceptable in all situations, or as words from a standard register. For instance, none of these would be ...
- 596
8
votes
D'où vient ce T de liaison? → Je suis à l'heure > Ch't'à l'heure
L'usage incorrect d'un T au lieu d'un Z de liaison est appelé cuir (l'inverse est un velours). "Pataquès" est le nom du phénomène dans son ensemble.
Ici, le -t- apparaît pour les mêmes raisons que ...
- 17.3k
7
votes
Accepted
French radio communication language
copy that / roger that -> Reçu ! or Bien reçu !
over -> À vous !, or Parlez !, or Transmettez !
over and out -> Terminé !
do you read me? -> Est-ce que vous me recevez ? or Essai radio !
yes/no -> ...
- 145k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible