Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Language Funnies

Did you know that...

What we call "goosebumps" in English is called chair de poule [chicken skin] in French?

The word for bat (chauve-souris) literally means "bald mouse"?

Here's a couple expressions that make me laugh...

Casser les oreilles - literally "to break the ears".  It's a way of saying someone is making too much noise and getting on your nerves.

S'occuper de ses oignons - literally "to take care of one's onions".  Telling someone to take care of their onions is the equivalent to saying "mind your own business".  I've also heard se mêler de ses oignons ("to mix one's onions"), which basically means someone is getting involved in something that isn't their problem.

And here's some homophones to wrap things up...

La foi/le foie/une fois - fath/liver/once

Le hockey/le hoquet - hockey/hiccup

Le maire/la mer/la mère - mayor/sea/mother

La pâte/le pâtes/la patte - dough or pastry/pasta/paw

Le poids/le pois - weight/pea or dot

Le sel/la selle/celle - salt/saddle/this one

Le ver/le verre/vers/vert - worm/glass/toward/green

No comments:

Post a Comment