What does the French expression ‘la langue de bois’ mean? How is it used in a sentence?
La langue de bois - the tongue of wood. la langue de bois is often used with 'pratiquer' (regular ER verb, conjugated like AIMER is). It's used mostly in politics and it means to doublespeak, to talk out of both sides of one's mouth.
« Chuis vénère, elle évite toujours la vérité et ne répond jamais aux questions. C'est toujours la langue de bois avec elle et on n'arrive jamais à rien. »
"I'm really irritated, she always avoids the truth and never answers questions. Everything she says is just pure talking out of both sides of her mouth and we can never get anywhere."
Élections américaines - US elections - The French reaction
Séisme aux États-Unis avec Trump- Tsunami in the States with Trump
How are the French reacting to the result of the American presidential elections? - listen, read, understand the whole video transcribed in this course. Enroll in the course and click in this lesson. You can also hear it in slow French in the same lesson.
How do you say "I just did" - What's 'venir de + infinitif' ? - just have, just had -- The near past or recent past
The expression ‘VENIR DE + infinitive verb’ expresses the notion of just did something, had just done something. It’s used when two actions happened in sequence, one very close to the other. It’s called the passé proche – near past, or recent past in English.
‘VENIR DE’ may be in the present tense. It expresses the idea of ‘just did something’ or ‘just have done something’.
Je viens de manger => I just ate or I have just eaten
Practice
To practice your knowledge of the near past, translate the following sentences into English.
Je viens de réparer le carburateur.
Tu viens de découvrir la ville.
Elle vient d’avoir son diplôme.
More challenging practice
To practice your knowledge of the near past, translate the following sentences into French.
C'est la dernière __________ droite de la course à la __________ Blanche. Les deux __________ à la __________ des Etats-Unis __________ pour la dernière fois avant le __________ du 6 novembre.
C'est leur dernière opportunité pour __________ les indécis.
Ne manquez pas le __________ Obama-Romney, en direct, sur FRANCE 24.
What does the French expression ' entre guillemets ' mean? How is it used in a sentence?
entre guillemets –between quotation marks – entre guillemets means ‘quote unquote’ if you are quoting someone, or doing a dictation as we love to do once a week at FRENCH ETC. But entre guillemets also means ‘as it were’ or ‘if I may say’.
« Ce candidat n’avait aucune chance de gagner aux élections. Il a été complètement ignoré – entre guillemets – de la presse. »
“This candidate had no chance whatsoever to win the elections. He was totally ignored – if I may say – in the media.“
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