Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

A collection of the best ‘re-invented’ franglais ‘ing’ words

The French have unwittingly re-invented a whole set of English words by adding "ing" to the ends of things. Here translator Jane Proctor shares her favourites.

Published: 1 June 2016 08:13 CEST

Photo: Artur Chalyj/Flickr

Le camping

Where do you go camping? At a camping. Yes, “camping” is the French word for camp site.

A campsite in Ain, central France. Photo: Victor Engmark/Flickr

Le dressing

Dressing is the French word for “walk-in wardrobe”, where many people might actually do their dressing.

Photo: Anne-Marii/Flickr

Le fooding

Fooding isn't “eating” or “instagramming your meal”. No, it's the art of cooking.

Photo: Etolane/Flickr

Le footing

You'd be forgiven for thinking footing had something to do with football, but it's actually the word for jogging.

Photo: EmilyRides/Flickr

Le parking

Where do you park your car? At the parking, of course. It's French for car park.

Parisians paying dearly for their bad 'parking'

An example of someone who couldn't wait to get to the “parking”. Photo: Tejvan Pettinger/Flickr

Le planning

This is how the French say “schedule”, which makes total sense if you ask us.

Photo: Mike Blackburn/Flickr

Le brushing

This is how the French say “blow-dry” – potentially confusing for us foreigners visiting French hairdressers.

Photo: Artur Chalyj/Flickr

Le pressing

Here's another one that makes perfect sense, pressing means “dry-cleaners”.

Photo: Thomas Leuthard/Flickr

Le shampooing

No, it's not a verb – shampooing is just the French way of saying “shampoo”. And “”après-shampooing” is conditioner.

Photo: devra/Flickr

Le training

And lastly, what do you wear to do your training? A “tracksuit” of course (or a training, as the French say).

Photo: Dennis Yang/Flickr

Jane Proctor is a French to English translator who runs the alpinelinguists blog. Follow the blog on Facebook here.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

8 favourite French words of the Day

Every weekday The Local publishes a French word or phrase of the day. We try to focus on colloquialisms, slang, sayings (and a bit of swearing) – you know, the type of French you won’t learn in the classroom, but will hear all the time in the street.

This daily habit means we have a very extensive back catalogue – find it here – and we’ve picked out eight of our recent favourites.

N’importe quoi

If you are ever involved in an argument in France, and the chances are you will be, you are going to need this French expression that means one of ‘no matter what’, ‘anything’, ‘whatever’, ‘nonsense’, ‘rubbish’ – or even ‘bullshit!’.

We get to the bottom of how that all works, here.

Éclater en sanglots

Honestly, the French language is routinely much more poetic than English, as its version of ugly crying beautifully and … well, poetically … demonstrates.

Éclater en sanglots – roughly pronounced ay-clah-tay ahn san-glow – means to burst into tears (or sobs). Éclater is the verb to burst, while sanglot is a wonderful term for the ‘spasm causing contractions of the diaphragm and accompanied by tears’.

Try not to blub as you read more, here.

Zut

It’s a bit old-fashioned now, but this polite exclamation of frustration is always fun… And no, it’s not ‘zut alors‘ despite what your school textbooks told you.

Read more, here.

En lice

This phrase, dating back some 800 years or so, is a good one to know for the end of the French rugby or football seasons, and the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

The expression actually refers to being part of a competition or tournament. In English, we might say ‘in the running’ or ‘in the fray’.

Get up to speed with the term here.

Péter un câble

You may want to make like Homer Simpson and back away carefully into a hedge if you hear someone say “je vais péter un câble”. Because it means they’re very close to losing their temper in a dramatic and not entirely constructive manner…

We explain, here.

Raccrocher au nez

If you feel the urge to hang up on the 15th cold caller to offer you protection juridique, and miss the days when you could slam the phone back down on its cradle, rather than simply pressing a button, this is the phrase for you.

Wait… don’t hang up… find out more, here.

L’effet waouh

Don’t be fooled by the odd spelling – l’effet waouh is no false friend: it really does mean the ‘wow factor’. Similar to the English-language version, in French it can basically be used for anything that elicits a sense of surprise, shock or curiosity – from red carpet outfit to the age of the French Prime Minister…

Learn about the French version of wow factor, here.

Brûler les étapes

Not something you usually want to do – even if you’re in a rush – “burning the steps” means to cut corners, as we explain (in full) here.

One final thing – as we’re nearly a quarter-of-a-century into the 21st century, it’s probably time to catch up on some key French online terms.

How to talk email, websites, social media and phone numbers in French

Url copied to clipboard!