Il avait traduit un dictionnaire

Il avait traduit un dictionnaire // He had translated a dictionary

Today, another delightfully silly phrase from Duolingo: Il avait traduit un dictionnaire // He had translated a dictionary (I ask you!).

I mean, ok, you can just about imagine why would anybody want to translate a dictionary, and the cat clearly had done it. And here he is, at a book signing (séance de dédicace) and everything. Well done, that cat.

Il s’est déguisé en pirate pour le Carnaval

Il s’est déguisé en pirate pour le Carnaval // He was disguised as a pirate for Carnival

Once again, “French Word of the Day” to the rescue.

Nothing to add (it is perfect as is).

Pictures of carnival @ Shutterstock.

If the shoe fits

 Il chausse du quarante-huit // He takes shoe size 48

Today, two of my classmates had to do a monologue in front of the class, giving a description of a (supposedly unknown) person based on a questionnaire that person filled in some time ago.

One of the boxes to fill was "shoe size", pointure. The obvious way to go is to just say "her shoe size is blah", right?

But life is never as simple as all that. Quick verbal explanation of how it should be said was given, accompanied with the illegible scribbling on the board. So quick and so illegible that I had to search for it on internet. *

So, there is a verb, chausser (which could be reflexive, se chausser, but it doesn't seem to be obligatory). It means "to shoe" (self), i.e. to take shoe size X.

It can also mean buying shoes or shoeing a horse and probably a few other things.

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* - I am almost  sure it (the explanation) is also present in that ever-increasing heap of photocopies I am carrying in my backpack to each lesson, but I not in a mood for trawling through it.

Le chat se prépare pour Halloween

Le chat se prépare pour Halloween// The cat is getting ready for Halloween

Today in class absolutely nothing happened that was in any way related to Halloween. So I decided to remedy that with this little pic. And that's how I found that French not only has reflexive verbs (verbe pronominal ou verbe réfléchi), it also forms them the same way as Spanish (with -se). Well, at least sometimes, for third person singular. I am not sure about the first and second person.

Come to think of that, the "s'" in "peut-il s'inscrire" probably has the same origin.

So, anyway. The Cat is getting ready for Halloween. Lazy creature that he is, he can't be bothered to even cut the eye-holes properly. Now he is busy putting his signature on the back of the pumpkin (une citrouille).

True artist - however half-baked the product might be, you gotta sign it.  (c) Justin Case

Le cheval a huit ans

Le cheval a huit ans / The horse is eight years old

This time the phrase comes from Duolingo site. I thought it was rather adorable and lends itself well to a little drawing.

Judging by the discussion under the phrase, native English speakers find it difficult to accept that age construction can contain verb “to have” (“avoir” in French, “a” in third person singular) and not the equivalent of “to be”. Fortunately I have already passed though this stage with Spanish. Spaniards also “have” their years, not “are” them, if I may say so.

Come to think of it, the Russian construction “Тебе сколько лет?” — “Мне 50”, implies by the grammatical cases that somebody went and gave the years to the speaker. I.e., the question can be interpreted as “How many years (were given to) you?” and the answer “I (was given) 50”. If so, Russians also “have” their years.