SF&S-S2-Ep.6 Clock Hands, A Mother-in-law, and Good Night!

A Coucou John

J Que mas, Aurora? (How is it going, Aurore)

A Coucou is a cute way to say hi in French. Kids use it a lot too. Do you have a cute way to say hi in Spanish?

J  Que tal, Que mas?, Como vas?. In Colombia, where I come from, we sometimes say “Quiubo” which is short for Que hubo? (literally “what had”). 

A To wish someone a good day, in French we use the verb passer -to spend (time) at the imperative form. In English, we say “have” a good day, afternoon, evening, night,... In French, we say Spend a good….. Passez une bonne journée………

J One can say “Que pase un(a) buen(a) dia/tarde/noche”, “pase un(a) buen(a) dia/tarde/noche)” or simply “buen dia”. In some countries like Colombia, people replace the word “buen(as/os)” with “feliz” (happy); for example: Feliz noche (literally “happy night”). 

A If it is soon, or before the end of the day, we say : à tout à l’heure. On peut également dire - we can also say : à bientôt, mais à bientôt can be used to express see you soon, tomorrow, next week, next month or year.

J Nos vemos pronto/la semana que viene/el viernes, etc. (We’ll see each other soon/next week/this Friday, etc.).

A Regardons quelques expressions - 

J  When someone does not want to reveal their age, they say: I was born in nineteen...none of your business. En español sería, nací en mil novecientos...no es asunto tuyo. :D

A Je crois qu’en Français - I think that in French we would say something like : Mêle-toi de tes affaires ou occupe-toi de tes affaires. Ce qui se traduit par - what translates to : Take care of your business.

J I like the word choice you used “I think that…” In Spanish that phrase sounds similar “Yo creo que...”. ¿Cuál es tu palabra o expresión favorita?

A J’aime le mot clockwise. I like the word clockwise. It is composed of 2 words : clock and wise. En français on dit : dans le sens des aiguilles d’une montre. In the direction of the hands on the clock. Par exemple quand on joue - for example when we play a game, we usually play dans le sens des aiguilles d’une montre. 

J En dirección de las manecillas del reloj. (In the direction of the “little” hands on the clock).

A Tu sais - you know - when I used my GPS I noticed differences in the way that French give directions. Je’ m’explique. 

Par exemple, to say stay on the left 2 lanes, we stay rester sur les 2 lignes de gauche. So we precise 2 lignes-2 lanes before their location (gauche-left).

J Que interesante!

A La même chose - the same thing with the sign that says :  pass at yellow flashing arrow.  En français : passez à la flêche clignotante jaune. We must first say what we talk about (la flêche-the arrow)then what is doing (clignotante-flashing in feminin form).

J Entiendo. Buen punto cultural. (Great cultural note!)

A There is so much culture hidden in languages. Only the intonation speaks of an intention. But then we have the order in which the words are spoken, and even the choice of words and structure sentence speak of the nature of the speaker. I got used to saying “you” a lot more since I moved here. In France we prefer to say on (we). On apprend à lire à l’école - you learn to read at school.

J In Spanish we speak more in terms of “one” as opposed to you. Uno tiene que tomar riesgos cuando está intentando algo nuevo como aprender un idioma. 

A En français we call the mother-in-law la belle-mère - the beautiful mother.

J En español es suegra.

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