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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

French words of the day - ricochet, maquette, statuette




French words of the day - maquette, after a maquette of Ted Hughes, and ricochet. The word ricochet came up in a wonderful quotation from Ted Hughes' wife, American poet, the late Sylvia Plath, wife of the late Ted Hughes. His mini statue has just been placed in his honour in a pub in Yorkshire, north England. (See my previous post.)

Words ending in et from from the French are pronounced ay.
The feminine ending e t t e is pronounced et rhyming with yet.
Here are some words ending with et or  e t t e . I have to insert spaces because the spell checker automatically converts the word into tête . Ironically I cannot find the word tete but up it pops automatically when I type e t t e ! Just press on the e key on the keyboard of your computer or laptop and hold it down and you get the choice of accents.

Glossary French-English
ballet - Dance of men and women, traditional wearing tights, ladies in a tutu
ballet shoes - Flat soft shoes with rounded toes, often with a bow on the tow on the edge which meets the exposed foot. Flexible underneath so dangers can bend the foot to stand on tiptoe when pirouetting.
bouquet - bunch of flowers
maquette - scale model
matinée - Early afternoon starting performance on stage, theatre, musical, ballet, from the word morning which is matin.
pirouette - lady dancer spinning around on one toe with the other leg raised and bent with the toe against the knee, usually wearing a tutu
ricochet - rebound
soiree - evening get together, from s o i r for night (spaces inserted because spell check thinks the word should be sour)
statuette - small statue (usually of a person, sometimes an animal)
tutu - a very short circular skirt which is or becomes horizontal like a disc around the female dancer's waist, most often white stiffened net or fabric, with or without supporting petticoats


I deserve a bouquet for my explanation of words such as ricochet, or maybe a trip to the ballet, a matinée.
See my previous posts on French words. Please follow my posts here on blogger.com and on Facebook. Link to me on linkedIn. Read about my books, b r o w s e (not brownie which spell check prefers) and buy on Amazon and Lulu.com
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, English and French written and spoken language tutor, author and speaker.

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