French Charades - Way Freakin Cool

by Ariette
(Switzerland)

I thought Tash's post of French Charades was so cool, we tried it and it caused hysteria - the laughing type, so we've found some more funny French sayings and phrases to act out in charades that you may (or may not) know:

abattoir
slaughterhouse

art nouveau
a style of decoration and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It takes a capital in French (Art nouveau).

ballet
a classical type of dance

baguette
a long, narrow loaf of bread with a crispy crust, otherwise called 'French bread' in the United Kingdom and United States.

blasé
unimpressed with something because of overfamiliarity, jaded.

bon appétit
literally "good appetite"; enjoy your meal

bon voyage
literally "good journey"; have a good trip!

bonjour
"good day," a standard greeting in the morning or afternoon

bouquet
a handful of flowers

brunette
a brown-haired girl. For brown-haired man, French uses brun and for a woman brune. "Brunette" is rarely used in French, unless in old literature, and its masculine form, "brunet" (for a boy), is almost unheard of.

cliché
lit. negative; trite through overuse; a stereotype

clique
a small exclusive group of friends; always used in a pejorative way in French.

crèche
a nativity display; more commonly (in the United Kingdom), a place where children are left by their parents for short periods in the supervision of childminders; both meanings still exist in French

crème brûlée
a dessert consisting primarily of custard and toasted sugar, that is, caramel; literally "burnt cream"

cul-de-sac
a dead-end street; literally "arse buttocks of the bag". Even though "cul" is vulgar in French, this expression in itself is not (see also amuse-gueule). Equivalent terms "impasse" or "voie sans issue" are also used in French.

eau de Cologne
a type of perfume, originating in Cologne, Germany. Its Italian creator used a French name to commercialize it, Cologne at that time being under the control of France.

eau de toilette
literally "grooming water." It usually refers to a aromatic product that is less expensive than a perfume because it has less of the aromatic compounds and is more for an everyday use. Can not be shortened as eau, which means something else altogether in French (water).

éclair
a cream and chocolate icing pastry

faux
false, ersatz, fake.

fiancé/e
betrothed; lit. a man/woman engaged to be married.

genre
a type or class, such as "the thriller genre"

Grand Prix
a type of motor racing, literally "Great Prize"

hors d'oeuvre
"outside the main work": appetizer

haute couture
"high sewing": Paris-based custom-fitted clothing; trend-setting fashion

haute cuisine
upscale gastronomy; literally "high cooking."

je ne sais pas
"I don't know"; collapses to chais pas ʃɛpa in modern colloquial speech

je ne sais quoi
"I-don't-know-what": an indescribable or indefinable 'something' that distinguishes the object in question from others that are superficially similar.

je t'aime
I love you. Implies "I like you" too. The French word "aimer" implies all the different kinds of love (love = like). To differentiate the two, one would say simply "je t'aime" to one's love whereas one would say "je t'aime bien" (lit. I love you well) to a friend.

joie de vivre
"joy of life/living"

layette
a set of clothing and accessories for a new baby

macramé
coarse lace work made with knotted cords

mademoiselle
young unmarried lady, miss; literally "my noble young lady"

omelette
omelette

panache
verve; flamboyance

papier-mâché
lit. chewed paper; a craft medium using paper and paste

restaurateur
a restaurant owner

retard
Translates as late, but is used as a derogative term for someone who is a slow thinker

sabotage
subversive destruction, from the practice of workers fearful of industrialization destroying machines by tossing their sabots ("wooden shoes") into machinery

saboteur
one who commits sabotage

sauté
lit. jumped; quickly fry in a small amount of oil.

voilà!
literally "see there"; in French it can mean simply "there it is"; in English it is generally restricted to a triumphant revelation.



For the more daring:


Ah, la vache! (lit: oh, the cow!): oh my god!

à l’eau de rose (lit: with rose water): sentimental/soppy

à toutes les sauces (lit: with all the sauces): in all sorts of ways

au poil (lit: to a hair): perfect; flawless

avoir le gueule de bois (lit: to have a wooden face): to have a hangover

avoir le bourdon (lit: to have the bumblebee): to feel down/have the blues

avoir le cafard (lit: to have the cockroach): be down in the dumps; have the blues

avoir le démon de midi (lit: to have the midday demon): to have a midlife crisis

avoir un chat dans la gorge ) (lit: to have a cat in your throat): to have a frog in your throat

avoir une faim de loup (to have the hunger of a wolf): to be ravenous/starving hungry

avoir une peur bleue de quelque chose (lit: to have the blue fear): to be scared stiff of something

avoir une araignée au plafond (lit: to have a spider in the head):to have a screw loose

c'est la fin des haricots (lit: that's the end of the beans) : it's the last straw/its hopeless or that's the end of it

chercher des puces (lit: to look for fleas): to bug/annoy someone

les carottes sont cuites (lit: the carrots are cooked): I've had it/that's enough

quand on parle du loup (on en voit la queue) (lit: When you talk about the wolf (you see its tail)): speak of the devil

quelle mouche t'a piqué? (lit: which fly bit you?): what's your problem? what's the matter with you?

se fair une toile (lit: to make a fabric): Go to the movies.

un film trop mortel (lit: a film too mortal): such a good movie

zut alors! (no translation!): holy smokes/darn!


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