French
How to Search Multiple Definitions and Translations in a Single Click — for Language Learning and Translating
One of the annoying, charming things about language is that definitions are squishy; there’s no one perfect definition. Each speaker of the language will have a slightly different idea of what “bread” tastes and looks like, for instance, or about whether a “soirée” is classier or tackier or more passé than a “party”. This is …
What are the tackiest French pick-up lines?
Using a pickup line in your native tongue is a dubious move. But in a foreign language the mispronounced equivalent of “Do you come here often?” can be funny, even endearing. The following are very clichéd classics; say them earnestly, falteringly, and for once your bewildered foreigner status may work in your favor. T’as des …
Verlan: French slang for sex, drugs, and, of course, complaining
Welcome to Verlan, France’s answer to Cockney rhyming slang or Pig Latin (and an exact parallel to Serbian’s Šatrovački). Verlan became common in the ’80s among poor young folks in Parisian suburbs, and was diffused through hip hop and pop music. Today, anyone of the MTV Europe age or younger employs it to some degree. The …
What do inanimate objects say in French?
The following table will aid in communication with inanimate French objects. I have also made guides for the lesser experiences of communicating with the young and animate French, the sexually alluring French, and more.
You Can Pass for French with Just These Gestures and Noises
The world thinks it knows what a French person sounds like: a derisive laugh that somehow pulls phlegm through the nostrils, a sarcastic oh-la-la between pinched puffs of smoke… But what do the French think the French sound like? And what can you say and do to pass as one of them? As part of our Fluent …