Barbe à papa

n. – cotton candy
Just as I wrote recently that I thought the French word for sour cream, “crème fraiche” was so much more appetizing than our version, I feel the exact opposite about cotton candy. Literally translated in French it means papa’s beard. It’s also grammatically incorrect as it should be “barbe de papa”. I suppose it’s a “clin d’oeil” or wink to the fact that it’s something named by a child. But even as a child I don’t know if I would have found eating my father’s beard, even if he had one, appetizing.

“Clin d’oeil” makes me think of “trompe l’oeil,” which we use in English to mean optical illusion and literally translated means just that – a trick of the eye. It’s funny how sometimes you don’t really think of the translation of a word or expression when you use it in its natural form. Other examples are “déjà vu,” which literally means, already seen, “hors d’oeuvres” which means outside of the work or more simply, the snacks you eat outside of the meal and “RSVP” or “respondez s’il vous plait,” which means please respond or literally, respond if you please.

The plural of “oeil” or eye is “yeux” and the plural of “oeuf” or egg is “oeufs.” A single eye sounds almost like “oy” where the plural sounds more like “yueh.” While the “f” is pronounced in the single version of an egg sort of like “uff,” the “f” disappears in the plural form sounding more like “uh.” I have a hard time pronouncing and spelling these along with the word for sister, “soeur” or heart, “coeur.” There are just one too many vowels stuck together for my liking.

You may have noticed that I’ve become lazy with some of my accents. The one over the “a,” accent “grave,” doesn’t always come up automatically in spell check even if I have the document checked for French. I don’t know how to do it automatically and I’ve gotten tired of trying to find an older one and copying and pasting. There is actually an accent grave in the word grave since it denotes an “ah” sound vs. an “ay” sound. So I’ve gone on an accent grave strike, which actually strikes me funny (no pun intended there) since the word for strike is “greve,” which also has an accent grave over the “e” since it’s an “eh” sound vs. an “ee” sound.

You’re never alone really when striking in France. For the last two days, the newspaper distributors have been on strike forcing our lovely little local newsstand vendor to close up shop early and head home, losing revenue. There’s a gargantuan volcano disrupting worldwide air travel to, from and within Europe and what do a portion of the French railway workers do when travelling by rail has now been one of the only alternatives for travel? Go on strike, “bien sur!” I can’t help but get a little frustrated with strikers especially with so much unemployment. Even the people who work for the unemployment office went on strike recently.

At least my accent grave strike is hurting no one except perhaps a sensitive French person who reads my blog and is offended by the accent sloppiness. There are many more accents I could avoid if I wanted to. There is accent “aigu,” which usually goes over an “e” to make is sound more like an “ay.” There are accent “circumflexes,” which are the little hats that go over some “o’s,” “trénas,” two little dots that go over some “i’s” similar to “umlauts” and “cédilles,” little squiggly lines under some “c’s” to denote a softer “c” vs. a hard one. This word actually comes from Spanish meaning little c.

If my keyboard were French and thank god it isn’t, the accents are built in, albeit with a great deal of shifting and control alt maneuvers. The French keyboard is azerty vs. ours, which is qwerty so even if it’s just those few letters out of place, it wreaks havoc. I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve written from my in-laws “Hqving q greqt time – zish you zere here!”

As far as describing my French skills, I like to say I have “bonnes notions,” good notions or, “bonne connaissance,” a good understanding. I don’t like to use the word “courant,” fluent or “bilinge,” bi-lingual, but rather that I “debrouille bien,” or get by just fine. This way I don’t oversell myself and people will be more impressed than disappointed. I do like to speak well, however and so try to continue learning the rules of the language, which are endless.

There are some things that even the French can’t explain. For example, what is the difference between “parce que” and “car,” both meaning because, other than one is much longer than the other? Similarly, why are there two expressions for “on the other hand” when only one is supposed to be used or is considered proper? A friend of mine once practically threatened me never to use “par contre,” but always “en revanche.” Now I get nervous if I hear a French person using the former as if something awful will happen to them. I mean why does “par contre” even exist to begin with if it’s wrong?

Every day brings something new to learn and yet leaves some things continually a mystery. And I suppose that’s part of the fun of it all, n’est ce pas?