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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the Day: Enfariner

The French language is so detailed it even has a word for throwing flour over someone. 

Published: 14 June 2021 15:17 CEST
French word of the Day: Enfariner

Why do I need to know Enfariner?

Because it seems to happen a lot lately, especially to politicians. 

What does it mean? 

Enfariner comes from the French la farine – flour – and it means sprinkling flour or white powder over something. 

It can be used when you cook but also when you apply too much make-up powder on your face. 

More recently, it was used a lot to describe politicians who had flour thrown over them. 

This weekend, far left presidential candidate for 2022 Jean-Luc Mélenchon had flour thrown in his face as he was talking to reporters during a march against extreme right-wing ideas. 

Former environment minister François de Rugy was also enfariné last Friday while he was campaigning for the regional elections in Nantes in western France. 

But enfariner also has a different, less literal, meaning. It is derived from Se faire rouler dans la farine, a very typical French expression which means to be fooled. 

Use it like this

Je me suis encore fait enfariner ! – I got fooled again!

As-tu bien enfariné le plat avant qu’on verse la pâte dedans ?  – Did you sprinkle enough flour in the dish before we pour the mixture in? 

Tu t’es encore enfarinée le nez ! – You put too much powder on your face again!

Le politicien s’est fait enfariner le week-end dernier – The politician had flour thrown over him last weekend. 

Synonyms 

Se faire duper – to be fouled 

Saupoudrer de la farine – Sprinkle flour 

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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

You'll need to check the calendar carefully when you see this.

Published: 17 May 2024 12:36 CEST
French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

Why do I need to know jours ouvrés?

Because you need an accurate time estimate.

What does it mean?

As most French learners will know, jours means days, while in this context ouvrés means ‘working’. Therefore jours ouvrés – roughly pronounced jzoor-ouv-ray – means ‘working days’. You may also see jours ouvrables, which means the same thing.

You’re most likely to come across this in the context of estimates on how long things will take – for example a delivery or the processing of an official task or perhaps the results for a test or exam.

And this is where the calendar comes in – ‘working days’ doesn’t include the weekends, but also excluded are public holidays, of which France has quite a lot. So an estimate for livraison dans les cinq jours ouvrés – might actually take almost two weeks to reach you, if there are weekend days and public holidays in between.

Days on either side of public holidays (known as ‘pont‘ days) are technically working days, but don’t be too surprised if things don’t happen on these days either. 

Although ouvrés looks similar to ouvrir (to open) the root of the work is actually ouvrer – an archaic verb meaning to work or to labour.

This word was gradually supplanted by travailler in around the 16th century, but some derivatives of it are still used – most commonly ouvrier (or ouvrière for women) which means a worker – it can be used for all types of salaried workers, but is more commonly used for people who do manual labour or work with their hands. 

It’s often used in a political sense too – one of France’s leftist political parties is Lutte ouvrière, which translates as Worker’s struggle. 

Use it like this

La livraison est estimée à trois jours ouvrés – Delivery is estimated within three working days

Les résultats seront communiqués sous 48 hours (jours ouvrés) – the results will be sent within 48 hours (on working days)

Not to be confused with 

If you want to talk about ‘open days’ – days when institutions including schools, the military or artists workshops open up to the public – in France these are known as portes ouvertes (literally ‘open doors’).

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