Joe the Plumber

I join to this plumbiferous post, an other post of Roger Cohen on NYTimes.com :

"Before Joe the Plumber, the latest celebrity of the U.S. presidential campaign, we had the Polish plumber, star of the 2005 French referendum that sent a much-heralded European Union constitution into the toilet.

[...]

In time, sociology departments at the Sorbonne and Stanford will complete studies on this Gallo-American plumbing thing. Meanwhile, it’s clearly time for everyone to start searching for his inner plumber."

Once again, you can't imagine how words are French. We say "plombier" in France, this kind of artisan who puts lead pipes all around your house. As you know, the competition between German-Saxon and French-Roman words is terrifying. You have to make a choice, lead or plumb, to end or finish, to start or commence, German or French, hardness or delicacy.
Plumb, finish, commence, these words are so sweet, so French...

Plumber comes from plumb, wich comes from "plomb" in French. We have an unique word for lead and plumb, that is "plomb". Plomb is a dangerous but famous metal. They have burried kilometers of lead tubes in the big royal garden of Versailles to build an infernal machinery of fountains. Louis XVI was a famous clock-maker but he was not a good leader.

These craftmen who put plomb pipes everywhere was named "plombiers", or royal plumbers.

We have this dimension in French : a lead-er can't be a plumb-er, the 2005 French referendum became a 'no', the European Union constitution had got a leak!

Wall Road

I know, my precedent post about Bankruptcy was not good.

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Bankruptcy, or banqueroute in French, is a tender spot. But, you have to note that banque-route is like a banque-déroute.
I mean, we have this verb - dérouter - in French, and you - to reroute - in English, so, a banque-route is like a bank-rout.

Espagñol : bancarrota
Deutsch : bankerott
from Italian : banqua rotare

Well, it's not my French lesson of the day, but I don't know why in English bank-rupt(cy) tend to the rupture !

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So, my first lesson of this autumn concerns, AGAIN, this cute letter "s" in es or os syllables, with these beautiful French accents, acute and circumflex.

Do you remember ? : Hospital, hostel or hostess... they become hôpital, hôtel or hôtesse in French.

The circumflex accent is written, not spoken, not pronounced - (that is a weird post-mediaeval syntax) - and, historically, it replaces "s".

So, about this good autumn and its good fruits : can you imagine a nice brown châtaigne in your plate ?... a nice chastaigne ?... a nice chast-aigne ?... a nice chest-nut !

Do you know the word écureuil in French ?

- écureuil -

What can you do with this word ? Can we put an "s" ? Yessss ! An acute, like a circumflex, can replace "s" :

- écureuil -

- escureuil -

- escuriol -

- scuriol - (diminutive Latin)

- squirrel -


En automne, les écureuils mangent des châtaignes dans la forêt !

In autumn, squirrels eat chestnuts in the forest !


...eScureuil - chaStaigne - foreSt... recession... depression...

My friends, my squirrels, it's high time to put your nuts aside !

Créée

créée

Have you ever seen this attractive word : " créée " in a French text ?

cr-éée

That sounds like an exotic Maori word, but it's really French, used everyday.

éée

You know this French verb : "chanter", that means "to sing".

to sing } infinitive form
chanter } infinitive form

Conjugation - present - verb without "er" + ending :

(I) je chante
(you) tu chantes
(he/she) il chante
(we) nous chantons
(you) vous chantez
(they) ils chantent
(participle) chanté

or, if you prefer, verb without "er" + ending :

je chant + e
tu chant + es
il chant + e
nous chant + ons
vous chant + ez
ils chant + ent
chant + é

We can do the same thing with "créer", "to create", participle : créé.

Créé, the participle, you can study this sentence : a created man / un homme créé.

You can put an "e", this letter marks the feminine gender in French : a created girl / une fille créée.


Hercules, a man created by God / Hercule, un homme créé par Dieu.

Brigitte Bardot, a woman created by God / Brigitte Bardot, une femme créée par Dieu.


And God created Woman, 1956, directed by Roger Vadim.