This Kilts Me

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/26/who-was-that-man-in-the-kilt/2880181/

omd

I just had an oh my god moment with French.

For weeks I have been working on understanding the use of the word EN in French.  Basically, it has two uses; one, as a preposition, used like the word in, and two as a pronoun.  This word gets used all over the place, and easily half the time, I don't understand what it brings to the sentence. Sometimes, I see it like this -- m'en -- and that, I really don't get. For example, I read once that Je m'en vais  means I'm going away. I knew that Je vais means I go, but the m'en -- that eluded me. I figured that the M came as a contraction of ME (yeah, but why is that even there?).  And as for the EN -- forget it.  No idea.

And then I discovered this page.  And I found this example on it:

and it CLICKED.  In French, some verbs have a SE in front of the verb, making it a 'reflexive verb'.  It means that the thing that's being done is being done to (or by) ME.  For example, if I laver something, I wash it.  If I se laver something, I'm washing myself. I actually say ME LAVER, which is the first person singular form of SE LAVER.

So okay.  That infinitive verb isn't just débarrasser, it's se débarrasser.   The SE is making the verb reflexive.  Debarrasser means 'to throw something out'.  SE Debarrasseer means that I'm the one who's going to do it. I'm throwing the something out. The reason that the M' is there is because it's a contraction of ME, which is the first-person-singular form of SE, which is part of the verb.

Yeah, okay, fine -- but what about that EN?  Why is that there?

Turns out that they're sticking an EN in there as a pronoun -- it's a reference to the thing that's getting thrown out. Instead of saying I'm going to throw out the old shoes,  they're saying I'm going to throw them out.   In the English word order, that would be I'm going to throw them out-- but in the French word order, its I'm going to them throw out. Just happens that they're sticking that EN right in the middle of the two-word verb... then adding a tense (changing SE to ME) and then contracting it (changing ME to M'') - all of which made me blind to what was actually happening in that sentence.

I would like to believe that they did not do this solely to confuse me. Still... Oh.  Oh, Mon, Dieu.  It freaking makes sense.

David Ash, of Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom, Head of Modern Languages at King Edward's School, creator of this slide --  I thank you.

SHIELD

Saw Agents of SHIELD tonight.  It should be called Agent Coulson, formerly dead,  hangs out with pretty people, some with accents, who like to look determined and talk techno-geek.  They have like totally amazing technology, really fit, buff people, they have the geeks' geek, and, to offset him, a chick geek.  The geeks' geek can't decide if his accent is Scottish or Australian.  They have the spunky outsider, and the macho insider.  The techology usually out-acts them.

But it's cool, because they have Agent Coulson. He makes the show worthwhile; the others... could be dropped off a heli-carrier.

Recurrence

I wish that blogger had a feature whereby I could have a post show up every X number of weeks saying man, I hate studying French.

Of course, once this mechanism became apparent, I'd have even fewer readers and responders than I do now!

Fear

A doctor finds out what it's like to be a scared parent, and is surprised.

Cropping

Two substantially different pictures, depending on cropping.  The original was found on Barefoot In Paris,  here.

Budgets

This article isn't about the United States....but it sure could be!

Non Pas Que

I was looking up a translation of the phrase non pas que, which means 'not that' (as in, not that I could do anything about it), and was intrigued to notice this ad on the page.  I didn't know that Target sold French phrases.

Un Autre Pays

Had an interesting conversation today with a woman who lives in Iran.  Kind of spooky, but interesting.  Tried to stay away from any political observations, though.

Sasquatch

Found here.

Concordia, UP!

Off The Grid

Found here.

NoMentor

I learned today around 11AM that the kid who I'm supposed to mentor -- the one who got into eighth grade, much to my surprise -- called in sick.  The very first day we were supposed to meet, he's not there.

Later, when I started Skype, I noticed that he was there.  We didn't talk. 

What a great start to the year.  Put the whole day under a cloud.

Conversations

I'm accustomed to occasionally getting requests to be a conversation partner from French people.  Usually, it's people in France, occasionally it's people in Canada.  But today, I got a request for English conversation from a person in Iran, and she doesn't speak French at all -- just Persian and English.  I have to admit, I'm intrigued -- even if, as I said to my wife, it means that the NSA will take a greater interest in me!

Econ

We went out for coffee tonight, but instead of heading to a local town to have coffee in the Barnes and Noble, we went to a college that's right up the street, where they've recently opened a coffee shop in their library.  While we were there, I picked up a copy of The Economist, started leafing through it, and remembered again why I liked it so much.

So, what the hell - I resubscribed.  Should be fun.

Footed

My daughter broke her foot.  She has to wear a protective boot, or crutches, and for long walks, both.  Consequently, she can't wear her uniform, she can't do most physical training, she can't try out for a specialty group that she wanted,  she has to plan her trips to the bathroom, she has to figure out how to get into and out of buildings, and she has to watch out for crowds.

It's only for a month, but she hates it.

Please?

One of my minor ongoing tasks in French is to get comfortable with the word en. I look at en so much one friend said you really are too fixated on that, you know.   I can understand about 70% of the times that it's used, but every so often something zings right past me. 

This morning a French person thanked me in an email, saying Je t'en prie, which is a short form of Je te en prie. Based on my understanding, that's literally I you it pray, and is translated as I beg it of you, which in turn is generally translated as my pleasure or no problem, something like that.

Anyway, when I saw that Je t'en prie in the email, I thought that I'd look again for some examples of the use of en, and in particular, en prie.  I found several on the BAB.LA site.  I must say, running my eye down the English translations, it's sort of..... creepy. Not so much on their own, but read in series, as if they were all in one paragraph.  Which may be why Babla notes "These sentences come from external sources and may not be accurate. bab.la is not responsible for their content."

Je t'en prie, juge-le avec compassion et mansuétude.
I pray you, judge him with compassion and understanding.

Je t'en prie, que ça arrive vite, pendant que j'en ai la force.
Please let it happen fast while I have the strength.

Je t'en prie, ne prive pas les enfants de leur mère.
Oh, please, don't deprive the kids of their mother.

Ma puce, je t'en prie, ne repars pas.
Baby... please don't go away anymore.

Je t'en prie, je ne veux pas mourir.
Please, Tony, I don't want to die.

T'inflige pas ça, je t'en prie.
Come on, don't do this to yourself.

Fais ça pour moi, je t'en prie.
Will you do that for me, sweetie?

Je t'en prie, papa, décroche!
Please answer, Daddy, answer.

Je t'en prie, Akin, rétablis -toi vite!
Please, Akin, get well soon.

Oh, mon Dieu, je t'en prie.
Oh, God, I beg you, please.

Parle-moi, je t'en prie.
Please -- Please talk to me.

Steve, je t'en prie.
Steve, baby, no, please.

Pas un mot, je t'en prie.
Not a word, please.

Ricardo, je t'en prie.
Please, Riccardo.

Je t'en prie, Frère.
Please, brother?

Je t'en prie!
Please don't go.

Je t'en prie?
Please, Tony?

Je t'en prie.
Please, Mac!

Je t'en prie!
Please, Lou!

Je t'en prie.
Oh, please.

A Republican One?

Actually, of course, that's not really fair.  A government isn't responsible for covering any and all medical bills.  But the ones that are life-threatening, and can't be covered by the person involved?  Gotta do that.  Even if the person's a conservative, libertarian, or rastafarian.  Fair's fair.

Found here.

Enough?

Odd Image

When I saw this image, I thought I know that -- its....its...   And I can't place it.   I want to say that it's something like the results from a geographic tracker - something that looks at earthquake tremors -- but I'm not sure.  Any ideas?