My theory on profanity

The words people use when they are swearing are the things the collective unconsciousness of the society is repressing. The words would not be bad if this were not the case.  Therefore, if a society place a premium on cleanliness then cuss words might be connected with the dirt or waste that come out of the body, these are truly dirty words, pun intended. Another example is if a society had no taboos against f__king , then where is the shock value in using it as a curse word?

Similarly in a culture that is not religious, then religious profanity has no purpose, unless it is a matter of tradition. For example, Quebec tradition after the quite revolution and secularization in the 1960s. After this secularization you would think that this type of swearing would go out of style, but it did not. The religious French swear words were so firmly in place people did not stop using them.  I personally find these the most offense.

The words you use when you swear to tell you a lot about who you are.  If you use words that are very rude most likely you have an anger problem.  If you use words to cuss a little more suggested in nature, that is use naughty words then you had something else besides anger on your mind.

French swearing vs English swearing

The French are not particularly reverent people, however, and they are not irreverent.  Since the French are cultured people, I do not hear a lot of profanity in Francais.  I think when the French want to be rude or irreverent, they do it in a more subtle way using indirect insults rather than vulgarity. They will just suggest you are an idiot and make you feel bad rather than use some primitive outburst with a French swear word or phrase.

More then swearing the French make you feel like an idiot

Another reason I hear less profanity in French that in English (other than I am not a French native speaker) is because French culture is more about love than competitiveness.  I think  American and English culture is very competitive, French culture, even in big cities like Paris, is more relaxed about life and low key, more about love.

However Mediterranean culture, even though they are relaxed is hot blooded. The people of France are rather an odd lot to a cross between northern Germanic culture and southern Mediterranean culture, perhaps it could be argued that they take the best from both and swear the least.

French swear words

Here is my list of mild French swear words.  Let me know what you think, and if you think any others should be added to the list of words.

French swear words

If you are offended by the meaning of any of these French phrases write me and I can remove them from the list.

Days of the week in French -les jours de la semaine

• lundi - Monday
• mardi - Tuesday
• mercredi - Wednesday
• jeudi - Thursday
• vendredi - Friday
• samedi - Saturday
• dimanche - Sunday

There you have it. However, please read on as I want to give you some interesting facts about days in French.

Days of the week facts in the French language

When I first came to Europe I was often confused by the fact that the week starts on Monday not Sunday.

The French of course go by a dd/mm/yyyy not mm/dd/yyyy like in the USA.

Most French are catholic but they do not go to church on Sunday.

France has the shortest work week in Europe, I think it is about 35 hours, must be nice. It was adopted in 2000.  I think generally France is the easiest place to live in the E but you have to speak French of course. They did this to help reduce the chronic unemployment which is usually around 10 percent.

The days take ‘le’ as a noun article.

Sentence with the days in French

Monday is the first day of the week.
Tuesday is a workday.
Wednesday is the hardest day.
On Thursday I see the light.
Friday is the best day,
On Saturday I start the weekend.
Sunday is a day of rest.

Translations into French.

Le lundi est le premier jour de la semaine.
Mardi est un jour de travail.
Le mercredi est le plus difficile journée.
Le jeudi, je vois la lumière.
Le vendredi est le meilleur jour,
Le samedi, j’ai commencer le week-end.
Le dimanche est un jour de repos.

Find the days of the week in French with this Word search

If you have any other interesting facts or notes about days in français please let me know. You can print out the above puzzle by the way. When I was a kid I loved these and its a good way to learn this Romantic language because it exercises your brain, instead of just passively looking at a word list.

A French good bye is similar to other languages. You have formal and informal ways of greeting and saying farewell and bye. The purpose of this post is to give you different ways to say good-bye in French beyond what you already might know.  I will give you some pronunciation and a quiz at the end.

I think testing yourself makes all the difference.

French good bye phrases

• Au revoir is French for good bye – The way you pronounce this is Oh reah vah. This is the basic way you say good by good bye in French and it can be use both formally and informally. Voir is the verb to see in French.
• Ciao is Bye bye in French – You pronounce it Chow. It is an informal way of saying goodbye. It is an Italian import word and is very popular in Montreal and the whole provence of Quebec. I do not know why but I think it is because there are a lot of Italians in Quebec.
• Salut is bye in French - This is one of my personal favorite ways of saying hello and good bye in French. Its very informal, however, I am an informal person. It is a greeting and a way to say see ya.
• Bonne journèe is good day in French – Like in Polish or Russian you might say Dzien Dobre in any situation formal and informal, in the shop or to people you do not know, so this is the a formal greeting but also way to say thank you for allowing me to be in your presence.
• Bonsoir means good evening in French - It is pronounced bon swaa This is a more formal expression but on a date with a girl that you even know you might use it.
• Bonne nuit is good night in French - Not much to say about this other than its is good night formally or informally.
• Adieu is like Good bye in English, it means God be with you in French - This is pronounced a de you. Good bye in English means God be with ye. This is what Adieu means in the French language and its eloquent.
• À bientôt is see you in French – A bee en toe is the pronunciation.
• À demain is see you tomorrow in French – A do mehn is the pronunciation. It can be formally or informally.
• À demain is French for see you tonight – A do mehn is the pronunciation.

When you think you know if take my quiz at the end of of this post.

As far as greetings and farewell go all you really need to know is one or two, maybe one formal and one informal. With something like basic phrases it is pretty clear in the content.

French good bye vocabulary quiz

How to learn how to good by in French

I am a believer in the flash card method. Simply take the phrases I give you or look up your own in a dictionary and put them on 3″ by 5″  index cards. If you want to draw some pictures or use mnemonics this is also good.  Go through them until you know them.  It might take a full day and night but the next day you will have about a dozen ways to say good bye from France to Quebec to Morocco.  Try my flashcard method.

My recommendation is better than phrases is words, particularly French verbs. Verbs are the soul of any language. If you want to learn a language as fast as possible study about two hundred of the most important verbs and you will be able to speak French. Concrete nouns and greetings and phrases you can get off my website, you can learn them online.

Body language and gestures in a French good bye

The French kiss.  As an American in Europe, I have gotten use to this custom of kissing when you say hello and good bye.  Of course it is only on the cheeks but if the movies you may have seen are true, they kiss each other when they say hello.

I needed to add the men are less likely to hug and kiss other men.

French good bye with a kiss

Further, although there is not a formal language like in the Slavic languages the French use madame, mademoiselle or monsieur when saying good bye to someone you are not informal with.  Therefore you might say, Au revoir mademoiselle to a French girl you just met.

Why am I writing this post on how to say thank you in French? I personally believe, along with, forgiveness, giving thanks is one of the most powerful human spiritual things you can do. If you learn how to say thank you in French with a smile your life will be a lot easy if you are planning a trip to France or Quebec, for example.

Below I drew a little Dwarf in the French countryside saying, “merci pour votre aide précieuse”. This is a very charming way of saying thank you in French, it means literally, “thank you for your precious help”.  I love visual learning, as for me a picture is worth a thousand words.

Thank you in French

If you memorize this and only this phrase, you will be in the good graces of many people in from Montreal to Marseille.

Learn a language with memorization

I know this sounds like hard advice when the entire Internet is saying take French lessons here at this school it is easy and fast. But I teach and learn languages. I am not good with languages personally. However, I found that memorizing French words and basic phrases, but mostly words along with blood sweat and tears is the most effective way to learn a language.

To learn a language you do not need a dictionary or phrase book or a translator. You need physical paper flashcards. Something that you can hold and carry around with you during the day,  that will test and retest your knowledge over and over again. This is because most memory problems are a retrieval not a retention problem. Using language flash cards will teach you word retrieval.

French for thanks and Gratitude expressions

I do not want to give you too many as it does not good. Often less is better than more. With too many French vocabulary words you will become demotivated or frustrated. Just learn the following phrases.

merci – thanks
merci beaucop – thank you very much
merci d’avoir m’aidé avec mes devoirs – thank you for your help with my homework
merci, bien sur – thanks of course
je vous remercie – You can see the Je (I) vous (formal you (all) remercie (a polite merci)
je tiens à vous exprimer notre gratitude – Expression of graditiute
merci de toutes vos bontés – Thank you for your kindness
mille fois merci thanks a million
merci d’avance – in advance
avec tous mes remerciements - with thanks
je te remercie pour le dîner – I thank you for the dinner
À votre bon coeur – With (or from) my heart I thank you (I love this one)

These expressions of gratitude are all you need. Copy them to notepad and print them. Fold them up, put them in your pocket and carry and reference them around all day for one day and that is better than any phrase book.

A mnemonic for Merci beaucop could be “image a man who is saved from execution, crying and saying “mercy, Boo hoo”. The meaning of this image is ‘thank you for showing me mercy and saying me from my exicution’. It is a visual link word to help you remember these French words for thank you very much.. If you remember this image you will remember the words in the French language with a mnemonic trick. Try it with other vocabulary it is pretty fun.

Now you know how to say thank you in the French language

Let me know if I misses any words that might be useful for saying thank you in French or leave a comment and say ‘Merci’.

Why did I write a post on happy birthday in French. I live in a foreign country and my daughter had her first birthday. We sang happy birthday in Polish and then in English. Since I also study and speak  the French language, I thought this would a nice little post, so you do not have to use a dictionary to translate the literal meaning of what you hear.

To say happy birthday in Paris, France or Montreal, Quebec (one of my favorate cities, espcially the Latin quarter along St. Dennis street) you simply say:

• Bonne Fete – in Quebec or French Canada
• Joyeux anniversaire in French in France
• Bon anniversaire also in France

The word ‘bon’ means ‘good’. In fact a candy is ‘bon bon’ in French. ‘Anni’ comes from Latin meaning year, that is pretty clear. ‘Joyeux’ is the same as in English, joyous. What about ‘fete’? It looks like festival does it not?

Happy birthday in French

Name day versus Birthday

In European catholic countries like France, there was a tradition that is now fading, that is to celebrate your name day. The day of your patron Saint’s name. So my name is Mark. On the day of St. Mark I would have a birthday like celebration with the exchanging of gifts. I prefer, birthdays as it is more personal. Although I am very religious I still like secular celebrations in most cases, birthdays included.

If you know someone over lets say 50 and you are living in France, its good to check if they prefer name day or a birthday celebration

History of Happy Birthdays in France

Birthdays in France were connected with the coming of age. Some one’s 15th birthday in France way back when was when a boy was a man and a girl was a woman. It was a rite of passage. The US has something like a ‘fun’, sweet sixteen.

French for happy birthday

People would have a debutant’s party (when a person first appear to the public), or a birthday ball. In the Middle Ages in France people would conceal rings and gold in the cakes.

In modern France birthdays that end in zero have a longer celebration. Further, the French go out to dinner for the birthday songs and celebrations more than Americans.

It is interesting to note that the American song happy birthday still has a copyright and is illegal to sing in public without permission. The same is not true for happy birthday in French, luckily. The American version copy right will expire in 2030 in the USA and 2016 in France and the EU.

Learning words connected with French clothing is fun, because these words are concrete tangible nouns. My opinion as a language learner concrete nouns are the easiest to learn as you can see touch and feel the vocabulary you are trying to study.

French clothes and fashion are exceptional

I am an American who lives in Europe and I see a lot of Europeans and styles and fashion in my city, I think perhaps people from France and in particular Paris might not be dressed the best, but rather the most unusual.

Girls from Montreal are a different style than say girls from Paris, France but both have great French clothing styles.

I have seen girls from France dressed like bubble bees and look great, as well as Gothic styles and Parisians that have a more modern classic look.  I think the only thing you can speak about the Français is the are a cross between traditional and something thought provoking.

French language words for clothes

Learn these word. Print out this word in notepad or whatever and carry them with you for about a day. Know them by heart as language needs to be a reflex if you want to speak it well.  I teach and learn languages in Europe. I know people say they do not have the gift of languages, but I have taught 100s maybe 100s of students over the years and I know know people in class who study and those who just show up for the lessons, not linguistic polyglot genius.

trousers = pantalon
swimsuit = maillot de bain
sweatshirt = Sweat-shirt
sweater = chandail
suit = costume
sock = sock
sneakers = Sneakers
slacks = pantalon
skirt = jupe
shorts = Shorts
shoe = chaussure
shirt = chemise
shirt = chemise
raincoat = imperméable
pullover = pull-over
pants = pants
pajamas = pyjama
overcoat = paletot
jeans = Jeans
jacket = veste
handbag = sac à main
dress = robe
coat = manteau
clothes = vêtements
boots = bottes
blouse = blouse
belt = ceinture
bag = sac
backpack = Sac à dos

French clothing words

French clothing words

Most memory and learning problems are a retraction rather than a retention problem, this is why testing is an important part of studying a language.

Vocabulary vs Grammar to learn a language

How did you do? If you did not get 100% on this test go back until you do. French in my opinion is an easy language to communicate in if you know the vocbulary, of course grammar is another things, but words always come first. Why? Because what good is the grammar if you have no words to use, but the converse is not true. Let me know if you see any corrections to my French clothing word list.

There are many ways to say hello in French. Some of the ways to greet people are formal and some are informal. In the USA many people think we do not have such a division between the formal and informal greetings, but we do.

You will not say ‘hey man’ to your professor, nor will you say ‘it is a pleasure to meet you’ to your friend. That being said here are a few different ways you can say hello in the French language from Paris to Montreal, Canada.

Hello in French

French hello

• Hello including good morning, good afternoon and good day in English is Bonjour in French.  This is both formal and informal. Bon means good and jour means day. Bon Bon is a candy in fact.  And think of soup de jour, which is soup of the day.  It is pronounced ‘bon’ like Jame Bond with out the ‘d’ and ‘zhore’ like ‘shore’ but with a z sound. To say hello in French is bonjour.
• Hi in French or an informal way of saying hello in France is salut. It sounds like the English word ‘salute’ like ‘salute a soldier’ but with out a ‘t’ at the end of the word. This is an informal hello or greeting in Paris or Quebec or anywhere really.

When learning words like greetings of hello in a language try not to use a French dictionary or translations. Use word lists and memorized them. When you have say ten to twenty words put them on a piece of paper and carry them around with you. Making word lists and carrying them around with you is one of the best ways to learn.

I am making this site to include many such word lists. From vocabulary list you can make your own flash cards for all the greetings.

Say hello in French and meet beautiful people from France

Basically people are friendly, do not believe, for example, that Parisians are snobs or people from Montreal do not like speaking the English language. If you smile and make an effort you will meet good and bad people everywhere. I am an American that has live in Europe for many years. I am not a European but an American and perceived that way and people are really friendly to me.

So learn to say “hello” and smile and France can be your playground.  But the smiling is very important.