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Festive French phrases and words for the Christmas period
Joyeux Noël tout le monde - your vocabulary guide to get you through the festive season
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Learning French: what does j’avoue mean and when should it be used?
A French language tic which can indicate you are actively listening to and agree with what is being said
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Language: Beware ‘false friends’ but take heart - the French struggle with them too
A teacher recounts the struggles of his Francophone colleague with English
Convivere, coureurs à vélo: New French words for our modern society
Times change and that requires language to evolve too. We look at some recent additions to the French vocabulary.
Whatever your political proclivity, a major feature of this year’s French Presidential election is candidates’ ecological credentials - and with their policy proposals come associated words and phrases.
Given that ‘green’ thinking has evolved hugely – at least, it has since those of us of a certain vintage learned French at school – plus the fact that newly invented jargon and (often meaningless) slogans accompany manifestos, for many of us there is plenty of catching up to do, just to be ‘in the debate’.
Le Figaro once ran a rather sniffy round-up of some of the (albeit dafter) re-imagined expressions being employed.
In Paris and Toulouse, it said, urban “micro-forêts” (micro-forests) are being planted at the foot of buildings, while in Lyon (with a green mayor), they call a park “un espace végétalisé” (a vegetated space); a pavement is “un grand corridor” (a large corridor); and humble cyclistes (cyclists) are now “coureurs à vélo” (bicycle riders).
Inclusivity and the notion of collective living are key tenets: today, to be ecological is not merely about recycling and climate change awareness – it is also to strive to “faire société”, “faire sens”, and “faire lien” (make society, make sense, make a link).
“Convivialisme” (convivialism) encourages “convivere” (living-together) while, Le Figaro reports, we are asked to rethink how we see our fellow man/woman: we no longer live among “citoyens” (citizens) but rather “co-citoyens” (co-citizens) in order to “co-construire” (co-build) a world where every child will be “co-éduqué” (co-educated) by society as a whole.
Related stories:
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Origin of ‘le doigt d’honneur’, France’s middle finger gesture
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