| French help please?

French help please?

st. sparrow asked:


*NO online translation sites please!*

Bonjour à tous,

Is it true that the word <> means grass, as well as herb? is there a way that you differentiate the <> that grows on your lawn, from culinary herbs?

also - isn’t <> also used as a slang for marijuana?

Merci!
David, thanks for your insight on that.

Curious_lalalala, thanks very much for the French-Canadian perspective, especially since I live in Quebec and it’s often difficult to keep track of the colloquial differences!

Funny, I looked up “lawn” and I got “pelouse”, which none of you mentioned. I wonder how common it is.
Maya, that’s funny about “herbe” being an out-of-date expression for marijuana. Just like in English, it was more common to say “herb” or “grass” for marijuana back in the 60s/70s.

Freshface, I’ve never heard the word “grape” in French before to mean raisin!? I’m pretty sure it’s more common to say “raisin sec” or simply “raisin” if the context is obvious.

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Comments

4 Responses to “French help please?”

  1. David on May 27th, 2009 10:07 pm

    If I remember correctly, yes, “herbe” is used to refer to the stuff that grows on lawns, culinary herbs, and as slang for marijuana. As in English, context is key. When a recipe calls for “fines herbes”, they’re obviously not talking about the grass you mow or that some people smoke. Similarly, “fumer de l’herbe” clearly excludes references to cooking or lawn care. (Well, depending on what you’re growing there, I suppose- wink, wink.) As in English, however, there are other ways of referring to these things. “Lawn” can be translated as “le gazon”, or simply “le jardin” (even if you’re not growing a garden there in the literal sense). And “to smoke a joint” can be translated as “fumer un pétard”- the latter word meaning “fire cracker” when used in a different context- or simply “fumer un joint”.

    I hope that helps.

  2. J.J. on May 28th, 2009 11:09 am

    the answers:

    YES,

    YES, (by description, like ‘culinary herb’, ‘herbe gastronomique’.)

    and COULD BE SO if it’s ‘weed’ in English.

  3. RK on May 30th, 2009 6:32 am

    Manet’s painting Le déjeuner sur l’herbe is usually translated Lunch on the Grass.

    They weren’t talking about culinary herbes (which can be distinguished by being in plural) or marihuana (which would be a slang usage of the word). Context is everything.

    Incidentally, the same meanings apply to the related Spanish word hierba. It can mean grass, hierbas are herbs, and hierba can be slang for marihuana.

  4. freshface2991 on May 30th, 2009 3:27 pm

    “L’herbe” refers to grass. In the French language, certain words don’t refer explicitly to what they sound like in English. For an example, “raisin” means grape. It doesn’t refer to raisin. “Grape” refers to raisin, not grape.