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To give birth in French = poetic expressions
6 years agoBonjour tout le monde,
One of my favorite expression in French is the one we use to say "to give birth", we say
"mettre au monde"
Literally, it means "to put to the world", exemple = ma femme a mis nos deux enfants au monde
We also say :
"donner la vie"
Which means to "give the life", exemple = les femmes ont le pouvoir de donner la vie.
Sometimes we use words or sentences without noticing how poetic they are because we don't always pay attention to the beauty of our mother tongue ! What about your language? Could you share with us the most beautiful expressions you use on your everyday life?
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Comments (1)
Hi LaPetiteFrenchie!
I love that word "mettre"; I love the fact that it exists. I had no idea. In Spanish, the word "meter" (same meaning: put, stuff, insert, ram, jam, load, stick, poke, etc) is ubiquitous nowadays, though not in the sense of the lovely French expression you've explained; that, in Spanish, is "dar a luz", which is also quite pretty: give to light.
As for "donner la vie", there's a word-for-word comparable Spanish expression which has a totally different meaning: "dar vida", and its meaning is what actors do to characters on a page; the actor "gives life" to the character, which is somewhat less painful and less, uhhhmmm, dramatic than giving birth, of course, but can also sometimes be lovely. (I became interested in the theatre some years ago when my son, Oscar, became an actor and I watched up-close the process of how he used to give life to the characters on pages he was reading).
I was trying to think of pretty phrases in English, as you suggested; I'm sure there must be some, although none occur to me right now. There must be plenty, but none springs to mind. I do enjoy it when Spanish people ask me how to say "Que aproveche" in English, and I honestly tell them: "Bon appetit". (Google Translate reckons, somehow, it's "Take advantage" - just imagine the looks of puzzlement you can provoke around the dinner table if you place too much of your trust in robots!)
My Vietnamese is still pretty basic, but I reckon my favourite Vietnamese word will always be their word for cat: they call those things "mèo". :)
Yes you're absolutely right David! In Spanish or English it can be very confusing because you have a lot of different verbs to say "put". Finally something that it's easier in French :)
We also have the expression "donner vie" and it has the exact same meaning than the Spanish expression "dar vida". You could definitely say "un bon acteur sait donner vie aux personnages"
Haha yes Bon appétit has a completely different meaning, that's why I never use Google Translate, but I am in love with linguee. By the way it's very strange that you don't have an expression to say "bon appétit" in English!
I love this "meo" word, I have never heard about this before but it's so sweet. In English I love the expressions "give a hand" or to "daydream" !
