Here are some French words I found over the weekend, with my descriptions helping you to remember and envisualise.
brusque - short and sharp reply
cloche - glass bell shape or cap to cover food, especially delicate plants in a garden or greenhouse, items on table protected from insects guests who want to grab from the buffet before everybody has seen it, or cloche hat, a beehive shape hat
creme fraiche - literally cream fresh, meaning fresh cream
eminence grise - eminent but shadowy person, like a monk wearing a grey hooded cloak
enfant terrible - shocking adult, like a terrible infant
finesse - very fine
guillotine - French knife descending to cut off heads during the French revolution, regarded with horror in the UK, but actually invented to despatch the condemned quickly, rather than the painful process of a man with a sword hacking at their neck with a knife. (Named after inventor?)
largesse - large amount generously given
melange - mixture
son et lumière - sound and light show - visual and audio display, for example lights projecting on a castle with recorded voices of a play or music and historical scenes for a seated audience who pay to see the show late evening or twilight and after dark.
Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer, teacher and tutor of England and French, speaker.
brusque - short and sharp reply
cloche - glass bell shape or cap to cover food, especially delicate plants in a garden or greenhouse, items on table protected from insects guests who want to grab from the buffet before everybody has seen it, or cloche hat, a beehive shape hat
creme fraiche - literally cream fresh, meaning fresh cream
eminence grise - eminent but shadowy person, like a monk wearing a grey hooded cloak
enfant terrible - shocking adult, like a terrible infant
finesse - very fine
guillotine - French knife descending to cut off heads during the French revolution, regarded with horror in the UK, but actually invented to despatch the condemned quickly, rather than the painful process of a man with a sword hacking at their neck with a knife. (Named after inventor?)
largesse - large amount generously given
melange - mixture
son et lumière - sound and light show - visual and audio display, for example lights projecting on a castle with recorded voices of a play or music and historical scenes for a seated audience who pay to see the show late evening or twilight and after dark.
Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer, teacher and tutor of England and French, speaker.
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