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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Frosty German words and sayings to use this winter

As the cold, dark days of winter descend, you shouldn't just be content with the basics like "mir ist kalt". Here are a few expressions that'll really impress your Austrian friends!

Published: 16 December 2016 10:06 CET
Frosty German words and sayings to use this winter
The Christmas market in front of Vienna's Rathaus. Photo: Charley1965/Flickr

Saukalt

As it drops into the sub-zero temperatures, kalt (cold) is just not going to hack it. Instead, the word you need is saukalt. Literally translating as “pig-cold” it means it’s flipping cold, and it's the perfect description as we head into the frozen months.

Naschkatze

As you walk past the delicacies on offer at the Christmas markets, this word may also come in handy. A Naschkatze (nibble-cat) is the term for someone with a sweet tooth, and who can blame you when there’s such a delicious selection of cakes, cookies and sweets to delve into this winter?

Gemütlichkeit

The colder it is outside, the warmer it feels inside, and that’s why we’re grateful for the German word Gemütlichkeit (its closest translation is “cosiness”). As you pile into a warm wood-panelled bar and wrap you’re hands around a steaming mug of Glühwein, you only need to exclaim: “So gemütlich!”

Schneematsch

Many of you are probably hoping for some snow this winter. But the main downside of the white stuff is when it starts to melt. Yes, when it turns to slush, snow suddenly loses its magic. The German term Schneematsch (snow mud) describes that slurry of white and brown that starts to pile up on street corners and seep through your shoes.

Photo: Vestaligo

Schneeballschlacht

But when it does snow, make the most of it and get outside for a snowball fight (the German word literally translates as ‘snowball slaughter’!). And make a Schneemann (snowman) whilst you’re at it.

Die Kuh vom Eis holen

If someone tells you “du hast die Kuh vom Eis geholt” (You’ve got the cow off the ice), they’re probably not being literal (unless you’re a dairy farmer next to a frozen lake). Instead, this rather wintry idiom really means that you’ve saved the day. If someone manages to rescue a situation as you teeter on the edge of disaster, that’s the way to thank them.

Sich freuen wie ein Schneekönig

If you get everything you want for Christmas this year you can say “Ich habe mich gefreut wie ein Schneekönig über die Weihnachtsgeschenke” – I was as pleased as punch with my presents. Schneekönig is actually a nickname for the little songbird known as a wren – so it’s similar to saying you’re as happy as a lark.

Aufs Glatteis führen

Another winter-inspired idiom, aufs Glatteis führen means to “lead [someone] onto the black ice”. The English equivalent is to “lead someone up the garden path”, or to lead them astray. So next time you think you’ve clinched a great deal on that hat at a Christmas market, and then you see it for half the price in a shop window on the way home, you’ll know that the convincing vendor has led you “aufs Glatteis”.

Schnee von gestern

Das ist jetzt Schnee von gestern (literally “that’s yesterday’s snow now”) is best translated as “that’s water under the bridge now”. It's a great phrase to bring out this Christmas, when it seems that an old family argument is about to kick off again. Just tell them calmly that “it’s yesterday’s snow”.

 

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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Le Havre rules: How to talk about French towns beginning with Le, La or Les

If you're into car racing, French politics or visits to seaside resorts you are likely at some point to need to talk about French towns with a 'Le' in the title. But how you talk about these places involves a slightly unexpected French grammar rule. Here's how it works.

Published: 30 November 2021 13:04 CET
Updated: 4 December 2021 17:47 CET
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre.
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre. It can be difficult to know what prepositions to use for places like this - so we have explained it for you. (Photo by AFP)

If you’re listening to French chat about any of those topics, at some point you’re likely to hear the names of Mans, Havre and Touquet bandied about.

And this is because French towns that have a ‘Le’ ‘La’ or ‘Les’ in the title lose them when you begin constructing sentences. 

As a general rule, French town, commune and city names do not carry a gender. 

So if you wanted to describe Paris as beautiful, you could write: Paris est belle or Paris est beau. It doesn’t matter what adjectival agreement you use. 

For most towns and cities, you would use à to evoke movement to the place or explain that you are already there, and de to explain that you come from/are coming from that location:

Je vais à Marseille – I am going to Marseille

Je suis à Marseille – I am in Marseille 

Je viens de Marseille – I come from Marseille 

But a select few settlements in France do carry a ‘Le’, a ‘La’ or a ‘Les’ as part of their name. 

In this case the preposition disappears when you begin formulating most sentences, and you structure the sentence as you would any other phrase with a ‘le’, ‘la’ or ‘les’ in it.

Masculine

Le is the most common preposition for two names (probably something to do with the patriarchy) with Le Havre, La Mans, Le Touquet and the town of Le Tampon on the French overseas territory of La Réunion (more on that later)

A good example of this is Le Havre, a city in northern France where former Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, who is tipped to one day run for the French presidency, serves as mayor. 

Edouard Philippe’s twitter profile describes him as the ‘Maire du Havre’, using a masculine preposition

Here we can see that his location is Le Havre, and his Twitter handle is Philippe_LH (for Le Havre) but when he comes to describe his job the Le disappears.

Because Le Havre is masculine, he describes himself as the Maire du Havre rather than the Maire de Havre (Anne Hidalgo, for example would describe herself as the Maire de Paris). 

For place names with ‘Le’ in front of them, you should use prepositions like this:

Ja vais au Touquet – I am going to Le Touquet

Je suis au Touquet – I am in Le Touquet 

Je viens du Touquet – I am from Le Touquet 

Je parle du Touquet – I am talking about Le Touquet

Le Traité du Touquet – the Le Touquet Treaty

Feminine

Some towns carry ‘La’ as part of their name. La Rochelle, the scenic town on the west coast of France known for its great seafood and rugby team, is one such example.

In French ‘à la‘ or ‘de la‘ is allowed, while ‘à le‘ becomes au and ‘de le’ becomes du. So for ‘feminine’ towns such as this, you should use the following prepositions:

Je vais à La Rochelle – I am going to La Rochelle

Je viens de La Rochelle – I am coming from La Rochelle 

Plural

And some places have ‘Les’ in front of their name, like Les Lilas, a commune in the suburbs of Paris. The name of this commune literally translates as ‘The Lilacs’ and was made famous by Serge Gainsbourg’s song Le Poinçonneur des Lilas, about a ticket puncher at the Metro station there. 

When talking about a place with ‘Les’ as part of the name, you must use a plural preposition like so:

Je suis le poinçonneur des Lilas – I am the ticket puncher of Lilas 

Je vais aux Lilas – I am going to Les Lilas

Il est né aux Lilas – He was born in Les Lilas  

Islands 

Islands follow more complicated rules. 

If you are talking about going to one island in particular, you would use à or en. This has nothing to do with gender and is entirely randomised. For example:

Je vais à La Réunion – I am going to La Réunion 

Je vais en Corse – I am going to Corsica 

Generally speaking, when talking about one of the en islands, you would use the following structure to suggest movement from the place: 

Je viens de Corse – I am coming from Corsica 

For the à Islands, you would say:

Je viens de La Réunion – I am coming from La Réunion 

When talking about territories composed of multiple islands, you should use aux.

Je vais aux Maldives – I am going to the Maldives. 

No preposition needed 

There are some phrases in French which don’t require any a preposition at all. This doesn’t change when dealing with ‘Le’ places, such as Le Mans – which is famous for its car-racing track and Motorcycle Grand Prix. Phrases that don’t need a preposition include: 

Je visite Le Mans – I am visiting Le Mans

J’aime Le Mans – I like Le Mans

But for a preposition phrase, the town becomes simply Mans, as in Je vais au Mans.

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