A photo for Diane Scott. This dog (an épagneul?), lives in St. Tropez and gets to call those lovely blue shutters and lace curtains home. Now if someone would just let the loiterer inside for a nice treat!
Note: today’s extra edition is a word only. The regular edition (with sound file, vocab section) returns tomorrow!
abrégement (ah-brezh-mahn)
: abbreviation
synonymes : une apocope, un raccourcissement (shortening), une abréviation
………………………………………………………………….
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
………………………………………………………………….
You’ve heard about writer’s block (when you can’t think of the first word to put down on paper), then reader’s block (when you don’t feel like picking up a book), and now… how about “in-box block”? I’ve got it bad.
More about this topic another time. Meantime, while catching up on email, I reread one of Carol’s (see her photo, below) poetic and educational responses, this time to the apocope edition. I thought you, too, would enjoy reading it — for the rich list of vocab words and for the reminder as to what, exactly, apocopes are. Enjoy!
P.S.: Carol is a big fan of Smokey “R” Dokey and has addressed the following letter to his-truly.
En période d’exam (examen)
On ouvre le dico (dictionnaire)
Sur ces kilos d’ mots, (kilogrammes)
C’est la récré, on va au ciné, (récréation, cinématographe)
L’affaire est dans l’sac
On aura no’t bac, on ira en fac (baccalauréat, faculté)
Prenons l’auto, filons au resto, j’offre l’apéro (automobile, restaurant, apéritif)
On f’ra des photos, (photographies)
Du prof de philo. (professeur, philosophie)
Pour toi Smokey:
Toi, joli chien sympa, sensas, extra, (sympathique, sensationnel, extraordinaire)
Je suis fan de toi (fanatique).
Smokey’s Pooch-Perfect Pillow photo by Jean-Marc
Tu as remarqué Smokey, pour créer une apocope, on enlève les syllabes finales. Or, quand les proprios (propriétaires) de chiens vous parlent, ils utilisent le langage “enfantin” ou “enfanchien” dans ce cas. Et là, pour faire simple, ils doublent les syllabes, pour être sûrs que vous compreniez bien. Deux fois la même syllabe dis, comme si vous pouviez pas piger du premier coup! Ils vous prennent pour des débiles! Exemple:
Viens mon chienchien, (chien)
fini le dodo, (dormir)
donne la papatte à mèmère, (patte, mère)
où il a mis son nonoss le toutou? (os) (toutou/chienchien, même topo)
Il a encore fait le foufou….” (fou ….. fou? qui est fou?:-)
…etc… On en passe, et des pires.
Que leur répondre? Ils ne sont pas méchants, plutôt bienveillants…
……Alors vous utilisez le même langage pour ne pas les vexer, et vous répondez :”wouaf, wouaf”! Deux fois, pour qu’ils comprennent bien…..
Bisous Bisous,
Carol Donnay, Belgium
Please join me in thanking Carol for her helpful “apocope” examples. Click here to leave her a message, which she’ll happily read from her chez-soi in Belgium!
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Merci beaucoup, Carol. Smokey est un chien trѐs fantastique, n’est ce pas? Et, Braise est un chienne trѐs sympathique. My Westie, Bijou and Shih-Tzu, Boomerang often sleep as Smokey and Braise are in the photo above. I am traveling to Belgium for the first time this July with 6 days in Brugges and 2 in Bruxelles. Maybe I will find some doorways and dogs to photograph and share.
Suzanne, wed love to see your doorways-n-dogs photos! Have fun.
The dog in the photo is a Brittany, as they are known in England or un épagneul breton as they are known in France. I have a 9 year old Brittany who is the same colour as the one in the photo.
Merci, Carol, votre poème est très drôle!
Also, I wanted to second the recommendation of Excericises in French Phonics which I ordered after I saw it on FWAD. I have been studying and speaking (very imperfect) French for a long time and about a year ago, I read through and studied this concise little treatment of the subject and had many aha! moments. It was really helpful.
I think I have to do the Rosetta Stone French course, I am semi-fluent in Spanish and can’t seem to pronounce one word without sounding as though I am from Spain. However, I am loving learning my one word a day!
Merci, dear Kristin, for the “fido” photo! A second smile for a Thursday. The sun is finally beginning to peek through the clouds.
XOXOXO,
Diane
Carol: loved the apocopes. word play is often the final frontier in language understanding.
Kristin: the dog is not waiting to be let in through the blue door. he is waiting for his girlfriend to join him for a walk to the beach. as usual, she is not ready yet but he is waiting patiently.
Suzanne: if you have a taste for good belgian beers, be sure to visit the Garre (I like to think of it as the flemish spelling of Gary, but it isn’t) brew pub in Brugge.
Hi Kristin,
I immediately recognized the dog so patiently waiting by the blue door as a Brittany Spaniel. Our Annie was with us for almost 16 years, and until the last 6 months of so people were still asking if she was a puppy. She would NEVER have sat so quietly outside the door! But she was a very sweet dog.
I’ve noticed more Brittanys in France than in the U.S. Makes sense, I guess.