Hard times (2)

Galérer

/galeʀe/
gah-lay-rray
The verb from galley, literally. You need to imagine those slaves painfully maneuvering huge paddles in the heat, to the sound of beating drums. Yes, galérer means to have a hard time, in a painful miserable way.

Molière, in The Impostures of Scapin : "Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère ?" 
"What the Hell was he doing in this galère ?"

It is not exactly to struggle, because I feel there is a sense of pride and courage in the struggle. When you feel like a galérien (male), or a galérienne (female) (gah-lay-rr-ee-a/gah-lay-ree-un), you are not in a fighting mood anymore. I can assure you, you don't feel proud, nor courageous. You feel a drudge, a slave, and you feel miserable.

Almost everyday in big cities, you would galère in traffic or in the subway. This galère doesn't really call for an explanation as it usually derives from multiple issues (strike, delay, crowds, flooding, accident, riot, unattended luggage - or suspicious activity)

Essential Parisian idiom :

I'm sorry I'm late. J'ai galéré in the subway to come.

Hard times (1)

Ramer

/ʁame/
Rrrah-may
To paddle. More or less the same meaning as galérer. The hard time you get when you rame is totally helpless. No matter what you do, it doesn't seem to work so well.

Pédaler dans la choucroute

/pedale dɑ̃ la ʃukʁut/
Pay-dah-lay dan lah shoo-kroo-t
Pedal in the sauerkraut. I have no idea where this one comes from. It's pretty much the same as ramer. You try and try but don't succeed. And you are stuck in the mud.

 
My teammate caught me making fun of her hair. J'ai ramé, big time, trying to convince her I was talking about someone else. It was like pédaler dans la choucroute. She didn't believe me at all. And now she's pretty mad at me.  C'est la loose.

Bonus : la loose.

/la luːz/
Lah lose
The lose. A lose-lose hopeless situation. 
La loose / la grosse loose / grave la loose.

Faux ami

Faux-ami

/fozami/

Foze ah-me

‘False friend’. Is said of a deceiving word that looks familiar doesn’t mean what you would think it does.

For example, ‘piece’ is a morceau when pièce is ‘coin’, and coin is ‘corner’… 
In French 'forgiveness' is pardon. But a 'pardon' in English means grâce in French, and when the Americans say 'Grace' the French (seldom) say Bénédicité...

Or an entrée is an ‘appetizer’ and a plat is an ‘entrée’. But an entrée is also a ‘doorway’.

I actually like faux-amis so much that I might end up with a specific entry for them (which has nothing to do with an entrée… oh I’m confused).

Wanna play ?