Anyway, it’s still has nothing to do with goats… Le cerf-volant To confuse things even more, according to the legend, the sprouts of this aromatic plant were eaten by roe deers, called “chevreuil” in French.
Even if we know the words “chèvre” (goat) and “feuille” (leaf), this still doesn’t help guess that “chèvrefeuille” is nothing but “honeysuckle” in English. Ok, this one isn’t as popular as the others but its name is definitely as interesting. Originally, it may have come from “chouette-souris” (owl-mouse) because they are nocturnal animals but was transformed into “chauve-souris”, which is a lot funnier indeed. What is the difference between a mouse and a bat in French? Apparently one of them is bald! Formed with the words “chauve” (bald) and “souris” (mouse), the French word for bat doesn’t seem to make much sense. It seems that a knot butterfly, as the literal translation suggests, is for French people’s mind a very accurate description of a bow tie… Why not? La chauve-souris “Le noeud pap”, as the French would say, is a very fancy piece of clothing usually worn only on special occasions like weddings or balls. Weird, when we know that a potato is not a fruit but a root… And to confuse things even more, you’ll often hear French speakers call a “pomme de terre” a “patate” in colloquial French. Literally, it translates as “apple from Earth” or “apple of the Earth”, it actually means a mere potato. This may be the most common and strange compound word of the French language. Don’t forget: it may not make sense to you but it does for French speaking people. Thankfully for you – or unfortunately, your call – the French language has some wonderful funny words of its own. Yes, it might not make sense to someone else, but to me it’s a perfect mnemonic way to learn vocabulary. Sure, it has nothing to do with a flying dragon like I imagined them (do you also picture the ones from Game of Thrones?) but it’s so unexpected that it’s actually pretty easy to remember it. In German, the word for plane is also pretty funny: “das Flugzeug” literally translates, in my mind, as the “flight stuff”. Take the English word “dragonfly” for instance. In fact, those are the words that I find the most interesting and the most memorable. When learning a language, we often come across words that, translated into our own language, seem bizarre, stupid or funny. If you have a singing part in the school chorus, you should check your microphone, because if you’re inharmonic, chances are someone took the batteries out.“Do you eat apples of the Earth?”, “You should wear a knot butterfly at the wedding”, “My grandma’s house has two beautiful ox’s eyes”, “I have an irrational fear of bald-mice.” are all perfectly understandable sentences for someone who speaks French. Translated into English, however, the wording sounds a little bit funny. You might think that inharmonic means that you’re “in-harmonic,” or in harmony. Which means that person was being sarcastic.
But if you’re human (which you probably are if you’re reading this), then you definitely make mistakes sometimes. If someone says you’re infallible, it means you can’t make a mistake. Which means you and I should get together for a nice long chat. Indiscreetīeing indiscreet means you can’t keep a secret. If you mess it up you won’t sound like Sherlock you’ll just sound like a noob. If you use this word, you’d better make sure you practice it at home. Indubitably, my dear Watson, indubitably. Do you understand now? Is it perfectly clear? Something fishy is going on. They just say “noob.” Imagine a job posting: “Manager wanted. InexperiencedĪctually, people don’t say this anymore. I mean, waddaya want? First you say I’m a prude, then you say I’m not prudent enough! 5. I mean, that could hurt a guy’s feelings. It’s bad enough being called an imbecile without then being described as imbecilic. IdolatrousĪre you a big fan of Oprah? Can’t get enough of Gerard Butler? Do you look up to Morgan Freeman like he’s the next best thing to the real God? Then you are idolatrous. If you call someone an ignoramus, they won’t even feel bad because a real ignoramus won’t know what it means.
Wouldn’t it be awful to be like the letter I and be completely indecipherable from another letter plus a number? 1. See? Right there, I bet you couldn’t tell if I was writing l or I. The trouble with the capital letter I is that it can easily be mistaken for the lowercase letter l in the alphabet.
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