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LEARNING FRENCH

‘Paté in the armpits’ – 10 ways to say you’re sweating in French

After an unsettled start to the summer, things are hotting up in France. Luckily, the French language is rich with ways to express that you're feeling somewhat hot and bothered.

Published: 30 July 2020 15:58 CEST
Updated: 22 July 2021 12:07 CEST
'Paté in the armpits' - 10 ways to say you’re sweating in French
Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was more than a little damp after he delivered a speech on the closing day of the Socialist Party Summer Congress in 2015. Photo: AFP
After an unusually cold and wet start to July, temperatures across France are rising, while the south east of the country is seeing particularly scorching days.
 

 
 
 
Chances are that, if don’t live inside a fridge, you’ll be dripping with sweat at several points during the next few weeks.
 
Thankfully, there are several ways of exclaiming in French that you’re feeling rather warm.
 
1. Suer comme un porc 

First the classic ‘sweating like a pig’ also exists in French. Suer comme un porc means exactly the same as the English variant and is not the most original expression on the list, but it’s a safe bet.

Je dois rentrer pour me doucher avant le dîner, j’ai sué comme un porc aujourd’hui. – I have to go back home and shower before the dinner, I’ve been sweating like a pig today.

2. Transpirer comme un bœuf

‘To sweat like a bullock’ is a very common French way of saying that you’re sweating like a pig (some say it’s even more common than suer comme un porc).

Je n’ai pas trop envie de sortir ce soir, on va transpirer comme des bœufs ! – I don’t really want to go out tonight, we will sweat like pigs!

You can also use suer comme un bœuf, which means the same.

Paris can be scorching hot in the summer. Photo: AFP 

3. Suinter
 
Suinter means ‘to ooze’, but the expression je suinte literally means ‘I am melting drop by drop’, which is a pretty telling way of saying that it’s a little too hot out for your taste.
 
If you’re sat in the sun and would like to move into the shade, you could say, ça vous dérange si on bouge à l’ombre ? Je suinte tellement, c’est insupportable. – Would you guys mind if we move into the shade? I’m melting, it’s unbearable.
 
4. Fondre
 
Fondre means ‘to melt’, so if you say je fonds it means ‘I’m melting’. Pretty self-explanatory. Tu veux qu’on rentre ? Tu es en train de fondre comme une petite glace au soleil. – Do you want us to go back home? You’re melting like an ice cream in the sun.
 

When you’re practically dripping with sweat, you can say that you’re ‘swimming’. Photo: AFP

5. Etre en nage

This expression means that ‘to be swimming’, which means that you are practically bathing in your own sweat. A similar expression is être en sueur (sweating), but être en nage implies that you’re sweating a very large volume.

Ca fait une heure que je suis debout sous le soleil, je suis en nage. – I’ve been standing out in the sun for an hour, I’m sweating buckets.

6. Perdre les eaux

Perdre les eaux means ‘to lose water’. Normally this expression signifies when a woman’s water breaks before she gives birth – but you can also use it about sweating excessively.

Il fait plus que 40C ! Je sais, je perds les eaux là, il faut bien s’hydrater. – It’s more than 40C outside! I know, I’m sweating so much, we need to hydrate well.

7. Avoir les mains moites

This expression refers to your hands only and means ‘to have sweaty hands’. Je n’ai pas trop envie de lui serrer la main, mes mains sont tellement moites. – I don’t really want to shake hands with him/her, my hands are so sweaty.

Feeling like you’re boiling yet? Photo: AFP

9. Avoir des auréoles sous les bras

In French, when you have sweat rings under your arms, they’re called ‘halos’. Auréoles sous les bras literally translates to ‘halos beneath the arms’, which is a pretty way of describing dark and malodorous sweat rings.

Tu devrais changer ta chemise avant l’interview, tu as des auréoles sous les bras. – You should change shirts before the interview, you have sweat rings under your arms.

You can also say avoir des rillettes sous les bras, but it’s less commonly used. Rillette is similar to paté so you are basically saying that you have chunks of meat paste in your armpits. Tasty.

10. Avoir le rideau qui colle aux fenêtres 

This expression translates as ‘to have the curtain sticking to the windows’. Rideau (curtain) here refers to your underpants and fenêtres (windows) to your butt cheeks.

Il fait tellement chaud, à chaque fois que je me relève, j’ai le rideau qui colle aux fenêtres. – It’s so hot, every time I get up my knickers are stuck to my bum.

It’s pretty vulgar so don’t use it with your French boss or mother-in-law, but if you’re among close friends you could impress them with your slang skills. 

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LEARNING FRENCH

Is the English language really just ‘badly pronounced French’?

A French linguist has been making waves with his boldly titled book 'The English language does not exist - it's just badly pronounced French', but does the professor actually have a point?

Published: 23 April 2024 14:35 CEST
Updated: 28 April 2024 14:39 CEST
Is the English language really just 'badly pronounced French'?

The French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini is clear that the title of his book should be taken with humour and a pinch of salt, beginning his work by explaining that it is a ‘bad faith proposition’.

Clearly, the English language does exist and equally clearly the French are a little uneasy about it – with numerous laws, national bodies and local initiatives attempting to fight back against the anglicisms that now litter everyday speech, from ‘c’est cool’ to ‘un job’. 

But Cerquiglini argues that the supposed ‘influx’ of English words that are now used in France, especially tech-related terms, is nothing compared to what happened when French literally invaded English in the Middle Ages.

And the close similarity that the two languages enjoy today – around 30 percent of English words are of French origin – speaks to this entwined history.

“You can also see my book as an homage to the English language, which has been able to adopt so many words… Viking, Danish, French, it’s astonishing,” he told AFP.

The history

The key date in the blending of English and French is the Norman conquest of 1066, when Duke William of Normandy invaded England with a small group of Norman knights and made himself the English king William the Conqueror.

What happened next was a radical re-ordering of society in which English nobles were displaced and William’s knights were installed as a new French-speaking (or at least Norman-speaking) ruling class. 

The use of French by the ruling classes continued into the 13th and 14th centuries, by which time French was the official language of the royal courts, diplomacy, the law, administration and trade – meaning that ambitious English people had no choice but to learn French in order to take part in official or legal processes. 

Cerquiglini says that half of all English’s borrowings from French took place between 1260-1400, with a heavy slant towards words related to nobility, trade, administration or the law.

But a large group of non-native speakers meant that the French spoken in England was already starting to evolve, and the French words ended up with different pronunciations or even a different meaning. 

As early as 1175, the records show a Frenchman in England snootily remarking that: “My language is good, because I was born in France”. 

English and French started to part ways from the mid-1400s, by which time the two countries no longer shared royalty (the last English possession in France, the port of Calais, was lost to the French in 1558) and gradually systems such as the law courts and trade began to be conducted in English.

French remained widely spoken as a second language by the nobility and the elite right up until the early 20th century and French is still the most widely-taught language in UK schools.

The similarities

It’s not always easy to distinguish between English words that have a French root and those that have a Latin root, but linguists estimate that around 29 percent of English words come from French, another 29 percent from Latin, 26 percent from German and the rest from other languages.

But many of the English words that do have a clear French root are related to nobility, administration, politics and the law.

For example the French words gouvernement, parlement, autorité and peuple are clearly recognisable to English speakers. Likewise budget, revenus, enterprise and taxe, plus avocat, cour, juge, magistrat and evidence.

Amusingly, the French and the English obviously found time to share many insults, including bâtard [bastard], crétin, imbecile, brute and stupide.

Adaptation

But most of the people in England who were speaking French did not have it as their mother tongue, so the language began to adapt. For example the French à cause de literally translates into English as ‘by cause of’ which over time became the English word ‘because’.

There are also words that started out the same but changed their meaning over time – for example the English word ‘clock’ comes from the French ‘cloche’ (bell), because in the Middle Ages church bells were the most common method of keeping track of the time for most people.

When the mechanical clock began to appear from the 14th century onwards, the French used a new term – une horloge – but the English stuck with the original.

The differences

One of the big differences between English and French is that English simply has more words – there are roughly 170,000 words in the English language, compared to about 135,000 in French.

And at least part of this comes from English being a ‘blended’ language – that English people hung on to their original words and simply added the French ones, which is why you often get several different English words that have the same translation in French eg clever and intelligent both translate into French as ‘intelligent’.

Another difference represents the class divide that the Norman invasion imposed between the French nobles and the English labourers.

For example the words pig and cow both have Anglo-Saxon roots, while pork and beef come from French (porc and boeuf) – so when the animal is in the field being looked after by English peasants it has an Anglo-Saxon name, but by the time it is on the plate being eaten by posh people, it becomes French.

There’s also a tendency in English for the more everyday words to have Anglo-Saxon origins while the fancier words have French origins – eg to build (English) versus to construct (French). In French construire is used for both. Or to feed (English) versus to nourish (French) – in French both are nourrir.

Faux amis

One consequence of English and French being so closely linked in the bane of every language-learner’s life – les faux amis (false friends).

These are words that look and sound very similar, but have a completely different meaning. If you don’t know the French word for something you can have a stab at saying the English word with a French pronunciation – and often you will be right.

But sometimes you will be wrong, and sometimes it will be embarrassing.

READ ALSO The 18 most embarrassing French ‘false friends’

Often, faux amis are words that have changed their meaning in one language but not the other – for example the French word sensible means sensitive, not sensible – which is why you can buy products for peau sensible (sensitive skin).

But it once meant sensitive in English too – for example in the title of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility – over time the meaning of the English word adapted but the French one stayed the same.

The title

And a word on that title – La langue anglaise n’existe pas, C’est du français mal prononcé (the English language does not exist, it’s just badly pronounced French) is actually a quote from former French prime minister Georges Clemenceau.

He did apparently speak English, but doesn’t appear to have been very fond of England itself – his other well-known quote on the topic is: “L’Angleterre n’est qu’une colonie française qui a mal tourné” – England is just a French colony gone wrong.  

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