idk but “stuffed animal” sounds so violent. in german it’s called “kuscheltier” which can be translated to “cuddle animal”
vraiment - truly
abominablement - abominably
absolument - absolutely
actuellement - currently
admirablement - admirably
attentivement - carefully
aucunement - not at all
autrement - otherwise, differently
assurément - certainly
carrément - totally
certainement - certainly
complètement - completely
crûment - crudely
diversement - variously
doucement - gently
entièrement - entirely
éperdument - desperately
exactement - exactly
excessivement - excessively
frugalement - frugally
gaiement - happily
gentiment - kindly
indûment - wrongly
lentement - slowly
longuement - extensively
malheureusement - unfortunately
médiocrement - poorly
naïvement - naively
naturellement - naturally
parfaitement - perfectly
péniblement - painfully
poliment - politely
précisément - precisely
prétendument - allegedly
progressivement - gradually
quasiment - almost
rapidement - quickly
réellement - actually
résolument - resolutely
sensiblement - substantially
solennellement - solemnly
tellement - so much
tranquillement - peacefully
uniformément - uniformly
vainement - vainly
i just want to have my own cute little apartment with big windows and bake fresh banana bread every morning and have lots of plants everywhere and read a lot of books and go on adventures w/ friends and watch sunsets from my rooftop
I’m home for Christmas now, which means I’m back on Scottish soil with decent internet. It’s giving me a chance to reflect on my French and how much it has improved just in three months of living in France. So I thought I’d share some of the things that I learned from living in the Charente-Maritime:
ah, bah, oui (expression) this seems to be the equivalent of ‘yeah but no’ when people have a false-start on a sentence. usually, i heard this in disagreements in my classroom when students were wanting to correct another student but couldn’t get the words out fast enough. i think it’s a hilarious thing to say and i’ve been trying to incorporate it into my way of speaking.
en fait (expression) this literally means ‘in fact’ or ‘actually’, which i think can come off a little rude in english but is actually a common expression in french. french people i have encountered use ‘en fait’ to start sentences, to provide more information, to correct, basically just all the time!
franchement (adverb) in english, i’m a big fan of using ‘tbh’ or ‘to be honest’, and this is the best french equivalent to that. it sounds so very french when it’s said and can mean ‘frankly’, ‘honestly’, ‘indisputably’ or ‘without hesitation’, depending on the context.
rater (verb) i picked up this new verb when i was telling a class about how i failed my driving test. i knew that ‘rater’ can mean ‘to miss’, as in ‘i missed the train’, but one student turned to another and said that ‘elle a raté’ and it was explained to me that ‘rater’ can also mean ‘to fail’, or in my case ‘to mess up’ something.
se tromper (verb) this verb means ‘to be mistaken’, and i definitely found myself saying ‘je me suis trompée’ a lot while I was just new to the country!
une chocolatine (noun) I was living on the south-west coast of France in the Charente-Maritime region which means that I picked up some new and different ways of saying things. I was quickly informed by my students in the most sincere and serious way possible that the famous ‘pain au chocolat’ pastry does not exist in the Charente-Maritime and I was to ask for ‘une chocolatine’ at the local boulangerie instead. I now use both nouns interchangeably!
Compliment people. If you think a good thing about someone, there’s no harm in saying it aloud.
12.19.16 catching up on English journals
not me lmao but congrats to somebody out there