I read through the Sunday papers in England and come across a lot of French words mixed in with the English.
Some of them describe feelings or states of being. Elan, says one person is style, but I think it means a shooting up of excitement, flair. Insouciant - uncaring. Finesse - style and skill, a light touch, like creating delicate lace on a gown.
We find more words from cookery. Pain perdu, literally lost bread, is leftover bread lost under a covering of egg. In English we used to call it eggy bread. I had some for lunch. It was very good.
A grander sounding version, C r o q u e monsieur, is bread, cooked with cheese on top, Welsh Rarebit, usually accompanied by a squirt of Worcestershire sauce to make it umami, more than savoury, almost bitter or piquant. I had to separate the letters of c r o q u e because the autocorrect wanted to suggest croquet.
The word croquet is another French word, for the game of croquet, played with balls on a lawn. Didn't Alice in Wonderland play croquet with the Queen and flamingoes? That vision reminds me, is reminiscent of boules, a game of balls rolled along gravel in many town squares in France.
Piquant is another term used in cooking. Think of it as a metaphor, picking or sharp.
Add an Egg on top of the bread as well as the cheese and you have Croque Madame. You might cook your stew in a crockpot.
A pot is spelled the same way in both languages but pronounced differently. In French the word is pronounced poh, as in Edgar Allan Poe. In English restaurants we use the French term petits pots de c h o c o l a t, little pots of chocolate. I have to spell the word out in French because my English spell checker keeps changing the word to the English Chocolate. A small woman is petite, with an e on the end for the feminine.
Lastly, I shall add the a name from the news, M e d i c i n s Sans Frontiers. Literally doctors without frontiers. In English medicine is what you take, the pill or liquid such as a cough mixture. In French you visit le m e d i c i n . In English we would say a doctor.
croque
elan
finesse
frontiers
medicine
monsieur
pain
perdu
petit
pot
sans
Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ATG. Teacher of English, French, creative writing and public speaking. Travel writer, author and speaker. I might call myself a dilettante - one who dabbles in many subject. Or a Renaissance woman. The Renaissance was the rebirth, part revival but more a reinvention or flowering of new culture.
Some of them describe feelings or states of being. Elan, says one person is style, but I think it means a shooting up of excitement, flair. Insouciant - uncaring. Finesse - style and skill, a light touch, like creating delicate lace on a gown.
We find more words from cookery. Pain perdu, literally lost bread, is leftover bread lost under a covering of egg. In English we used to call it eggy bread. I had some for lunch. It was very good.
A grander sounding version, C r o q u e monsieur, is bread, cooked with cheese on top, Welsh Rarebit, usually accompanied by a squirt of Worcestershire sauce to make it umami, more than savoury, almost bitter or piquant. I had to separate the letters of c r o q u e because the autocorrect wanted to suggest croquet.
The word croquet is another French word, for the game of croquet, played with balls on a lawn. Didn't Alice in Wonderland play croquet with the Queen and flamingoes? That vision reminds me, is reminiscent of boules, a game of balls rolled along gravel in many town squares in France.
Piquant is another term used in cooking. Think of it as a metaphor, picking or sharp.
Add an Egg on top of the bread as well as the cheese and you have Croque Madame. You might cook your stew in a crockpot.
A pot is spelled the same way in both languages but pronounced differently. In French the word is pronounced poh, as in Edgar Allan Poe. In English restaurants we use the French term petits pots de c h o c o l a t, little pots of chocolate. I have to spell the word out in French because my English spell checker keeps changing the word to the English Chocolate. A small woman is petite, with an e on the end for the feminine.
Lastly, I shall add the a name from the news, M e d i c i n s Sans Frontiers. Literally doctors without frontiers. In English medicine is what you take, the pill or liquid such as a cough mixture. In French you visit le m e d i c i n . In English we would say a doctor.
croque
elan
finesse
frontiers
medicine
monsieur
pain
perdu
petit
pot
sans
Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ATG. Teacher of English, French, creative writing and public speaking. Travel writer, author and speaker. I might call myself a dilettante - one who dabbles in many subject. Or a Renaissance woman. The Renaissance was the rebirth, part revival but more a reinvention or flowering of new culture.
