To be on cloud nine

to be extremely happy and excited. être aux anges

"Was Helen pleased about getting that job?" "Pleased? She was on cloud nine!"

Gullibility

credulousness.-naïveté, crédulité

Ahead of the curve

Similar to ahead of the pack, ahead of the curve literally refers to your position on the statistical bell curve, where the top of the curve represents the median, average result. 

By being ahead of the curve you represent the top percentile of results that either has the advanced skills or understanding that sets you apart.

to be behind the curve:
not keeping up with current thinking or trends

Chipmunk

Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia.










Photograph by Susan Breau
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/chipmunk/

Right up (down) my alley

up one's street ( alley): well suited to one's tastes, interests, or abilities.- Cela me convient parfaitement, c'est fait pour moi. 

• this job would be right up your street
• Skiing is right down my alley. I love it. 
• This kind of thing is right up John's alley.

Artic Monkeys - I Wanna Be Yours

"I Wanna Be Yours"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JkaoOzb-PY

I wanna be your vacuum cleaner

Breathing in your dust

I wanna be your Ford Cortina

I won't ever rust

If you like your coffee hot

Let me be your coffee pot

You call the shots babe

I just wanna be yours

Secrets that I have held in my heart

Are harder to hide than I thought

Maybe I just wanna be yours

I wanna be yours, I wanna be yours

Wanna be yours, wanna be yours, wanna be yours

Let me be your 'leccy meter and I'll never run out

And let me be the portable heater that you'll get cold without

I wanna be your setting lotion (I wanna be)

Hold your hair in deep devotion (How deep?)

I'll be at least as deep

As the Pacific Ocean

I wanna be yours

Secrets that I have held in my heart

Are harder to hide than I thought

Maybe I just wanna be yours

I wanna be yours, I wanna be yours

Wanna be yours, wanna be yours, wanna be yours

Wanna be yours, wanna be yours, wanna be yours...

I wanna be your vacuum cleaner

Breathing in your dust

I wanna be your Ford Cortina

I won't ever rust

I just wanna be yours

(Wanna be yours)

I just wanna be yours

(Wanna be yours)

I just wanna be yours

(Wanna be yours)

To hunker down

hunker down:  US, figurative (prepare to endure, resist). - se replier, tenir bon
 

• Any company that wants to survive this recession must hunker down, reduce costs and cut investment to the bare minimum.

Other meanings:

1. To sit on the heels with the knees bent forward; squat: My personal trainer hunkered down to help me with the barbells. - s'accroupir
2. To take shelter or refuge: The campers hunkered down in the cabin during the blizzard. - se réfugier
3. To hold stubbornly to some position: The candidates hunkered down and refused to admit their mistakes.- se braquer
4. To apply oneself and start working seriously at something: You need to hunker down and study if you're going to pass that test.- tenir bon

Happy Boxing Day!

Boxing Day is a holiday traditionally celebrated the weekday or Saturday following Christmas Day, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a "Christmas box", from their masters, employers or customers, in the United Kingdom. 

Today, Boxing Day is the bank holiday or public holiday that generally takes place on 26 or 27 December. (from Wikipedia)

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestations of the term as being from England in the 1830s, defining it as 'the first week-day after Christmas-day, observed as a holiday on which post-men, errand-boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas-box'.

For hours on end

Four hours on end, for many hours. durant des heures

• We sat and waited in the emergency room for hours on end. 
• The children were happy to play video games for hours on end.

The final/last straw

The last straw (also the straw that breaks the camel's back). le coup de grâce, la goutte qui fait déborder le vase

• Losing my ​job was ​bad enough, but being ​evicted was the ​final straw.
• She's always been ​rude to me, but it was the last straw when she ​started ​insulting my ​mother.

To show off

He's showing off to impress her. frimer, se la pêter (très familier)

show [sth/sb] off (display proudly). montrer, exhiber, mettre en avant

• When his famous mother came to school, he showed her off to all his friends.

show [sth] off (draw attention to). mettre en valeur

• He bought a close-fitting shirt that showed off his newly developed muscles.

For my English speaking friends:

In French "alors heureuse" is a joke to mock men thinking that they are sooo irresistible that their presence is enough to make a woman happy ;=) 

Credit where credit is due

The use of the phrase credit where credit is due in an absolute sense (without a verb such as give, take or deserve) is far more common in UK English than US. The phrase is more likely to be used in the grudging sense in UK than US English.
Comment for my English speaking friends: a common expression to translate this idea in French is:"Rendons à César ce qui appartient à César"

• Credit where credit is due, he's a good player.
• We must give credit to our sponsors who helped pay for this new building.
• I'll give her credit for her beautiful handwriting, but the answers she gave in the test were all wrong!
• Give me credit - I worked all night to get the project finished!

to offer/hold out an olive branch

an offer of reconciliation.

According to the Biblical story, after the great flood, Noah sends out a dove to see if the waters have subsided. The dove returns with a fresh olive leaf in her beak and since then the dove became a symbol of peace.

• the government is holding out an olive branch to the demonstrators

to hear something through the grapevine

To hear news from someone who heard that news from someone else, to learn of something informally  by means of gossip and rumor. The information was passed person to person by word of mouth.

• I heard through the grapevine that she was pregnant, but I don'tknow anything more.

El Condor Pasa - lyrics

"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" SIMON & GARFUNKEL
https://youtu.be/pey29CLID3I

Original version a melody from the Incas: 
https://youtu.be/i8eGnOM7YCg

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Away, I'd rather sail away
Like a swan that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world it's saddest sound
Its saddest sound

I'd rather be a forest than a street
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Forewarned is forearmed

If you know about something beforehand, you can prepare for it, prior knowledge of possible dangers or problems gives one a tactical advantage. Un homme averti en vaut deux

To click with someone

to catch on with someone. - le courant est passé avec quelqu'un

1. [for something] to be understood or comprehended by someone suddenly. 

• His explanation clicked with Maggie at once. It rings the bell.

2. [for someone or something new] to catch on with someone; to become popular or friendly with someone very quickly.

• The new product clicked with consumers and was an instant success. 
• I clicked with Tom the moment I met him.

Fiery/feisty temper

Fiery personality, fiery temper: enthusiastic, ardent, fiery, feisty, dashing.- caractère, tempérament fougueux, enflammé, ardent

The Mediterranean island of Corsica had come under French jurisdiction shortly before Napoleon’s birth in 1769. Its dramatic landscape and distinctive culture, characterised by strong family ties and volatile feuds, are often held to have shaped Napoleon’s nature and values.
(feud=querelle, dispute)

• He gets feisty when he talks about politics.

Skeleton(s) in the closet/cupboard

To have a secret of any sort that you don't want revealed, a hidden and shocking secret.- un cadavre dans le placard

• My uncle was in jail for a day once. That's our family's skeleton in the closet.

Origin:

The phrase 'a skeleton in the closet' was coined in England in the 19th century. Since then the word 'closet' has become used primarily in England to mean 'water closet'. The English now usually use 'a skeleton in the cupboard', with 'skeleton in the closet' more common in the USA.

'A skeleton in the closet' undoubtedly originated as an allusion to an apparently irreproachable person or family having a guilty secret waiting to be uncovered. The close-at-hand domestic imagery of a closet or cupboard gives a sense of the ever-present risk of discovery.

Windbag

slang, figurative, pejorative = [sb] who talks excessively.- grande gueule, moulin à paroles, pipelette

syn: bigmouth, babblermouth, gasbag

To be gobsmacked

utterly astonished; astounded- être baba
gob= la bouche, clapet    smacked= bise



being totally speachless.unable to think of anything to say.

• Mate, that's such a wicked surprise! I'm gobsmacked (wicked= sacré)

At the eleventh hour

At the eleventh hour (figurative): at the last possible moment.- au tout dernier moment, in extremis

Just before the last clock hour, 12

• At the eleventh hour, the supplies reached the starving villagers.
• Negotiators reached agreement at the eleventh hour, just in time to avoid a strike.

To be cheesed off

to be cheesed off by so, to get cheesed off with sth. (informal) - en avoir marre de quelque chose 

Syn: to be browned off, to be exasperated, to be pissed off (informal) 

annoyed and disappointed with something or someone: greatly annoyed; out of patience; "had an exasperated look on his face"; "felt exasperated beyond endurance

• I was really cheesed off that they made me go to the back of the queue
• She's a bitcheesed off with her job.

To paint the town red

to go out and celebrate; to go on a drinking bout; to get drunk. - Faire la bringue

• They were out painting the town red last night.

Origin

The expression is American slang meaning to go on a reckless debauch, to be wildly extravagant. Originally, the metaphor applied to bonfires painting the sky or scenery red. An old Irish ballad contains the lines: The beacon hills were painted red/ With many a fire that night. 

The immediate source of the phrase may be traced to the times when a Mississippi steamboat captain would want to defeat his rival. `Paint her, boys!' he would command his men as they heaped fuel upon the fires at night, casting a red glare upon the surrounding scenery. The phrase was helped into popularity by the fact that `to paint' (ie to paint the nose red) was an old slang term for drinking. [Source: Handybook of Literary Curiosities, by William S Walsh (Lippincott 1892).]
Peter Whitehead, Shaw Heath

To get a kick out of something

get a kick out of something/doing something - profiter de quelque chose
to enjoy doing something very much 

•  Anyone who gets a kick out of horror movies will love this show. 
• I get a real kick out of shopping for new shoes.

Glory box PORTISHEAD

The song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uciibl0rcs

The movie:
The song is one of the audio tracks taken from the movie "Wild":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2-GSqPyl0

A true story about a woman who went on a long journey in the mountains to find herself back....

On spotify:
http://www.pcta.org/wild/2014/11/14/listen-wild-movie-soundtrack-spotify/

Vocabulary:

temptress: une séductrice, femme fatale

• a woman who is considered to be dangerously seductive
• a woman who tempts someone to do something, typically a sexually attractive woman who sets out to allure or seduce someone.

Lyrics

"Glory Box"

I'm so tired of playing
Playing with this bow and arrow
Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play
For I've been a temptress too long

Just...

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
I just wanna be a woman

From this time, unchained
We're all looking at a different picture
Through this new frame of mind
A thousand flowers could bloom
Move over and give us some room

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
I just wanna be a woman

[INSTRUMENTAL]

So don't you stop being a man
Just take a little look from outside when you can
Show a little tenderness
No matter if you cry

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
It's all I wanna be is all woman

For this is the beginning of forever and ever

It's time to move over...

To take a chill pill

To relax, to take it easy.- décompresser, se relaxer, prendre du recul

The best time to relax is when you don't have time for it!

• She was getting so stressed about what her boss said to her that I told her to just take a chill pill – everything would be fine.
• My wife's working so hard, she needs to take a chill pill, otherwise she'll make herself ill.

Examples from the BBC "The English we speak"

Pep talk

a talk during which someone encourages you to do something better or to work harder.- discours de motivation, paroles d'encouragement

• We got a pep talk from our coach.
• The manager gave the team a pep talk at half time.

To nitpick

To be overly critical, concerned with insignificant details - chercher la petite bête, être tatillon

• her husband nitpicks about everything: from how she puts the plates away to how she files the bills

to be nit-picky, to be a nit-picker

• For those nit-pickers out there, yes, the album wasn't released in 2004-in fact, disk one was actually released in 2001.

Spoon-fed

To provide (another) with knowledge or information in an oversimplified way. - mâcher le travail à quelqu'un

• By giving out printed sheets of facts and theories, the teachers spoon-fed us with what we needed for the exam

"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon" E.M. Forster

To battle for hearts and minds

The hearts and minds of somebody
the complete support of a group of people

• I thought the president could have done a better job of reaching the hearts and minds of the American people in his speech on television yesterday.

have/keep (all) your wits about you

to be ready to think quickly in a situation and react to things that you are not expecting. - avoir toute sa tête

• Cycling is potentially very dangerous in the city - you have to keep your wits about you.

Usually, wits.

• intelligent observation, keen perception
  using one's wits to get ahead.
  Synonyms: cleverness, cunning, wisdom, insight, perspicacity, sacaciousness, acumen.
  
• mental faculties
  to lose one's wits; frightened out of one's wits.

• scaring the wits out of: tout à fait effrayant
• to pit one's wits against sb: rivaliser d'esprit avec qn
• to have one's wits about one: avoir toute sa tête
• to pit one's wits against sb: se mesurer à qn
• to keep one's wits about one: garder la tête sur les épaules
• to frighten the wits out of sb: faire une peur bleue à qn
• to use one's wits to do sth: se servir de sa tête pour faire qch
• to gather one's wits: rassembler ses esprits
• be scared out of my wits: être mort de peur
• to engage in a battle of wits: jouer au plus fin
• to be at one's wits' end: ne plus savoir que faire
• wit: esprit,intelligence
• dim wit: imbécile
• dry wit: humour pince-sans-rire ; humour caustique
• Syn. : deadpan.
• half-wit: idiot
• quick wit: vivacité d'esprit
• ready wit: caractère spirituel
• flash of wit: boutade

Moral compass

ethical sense or guide. - sens moral

a natural feeling that makes people know what is right and wrong and how they should behave

• Some people believe that the increase in crime shows that society is losing its moral compass.

Keep a/the lid on something

1. To keep something secret. passer sous silence

• It's supposed to be a surprise, so try to keep a lid on it, will you?

2. to control the level of something in order to stop it increasing, to maintain control over something.- garder sous controle 

• His forces kept a lid on unrest for nearly eight years.
• Economic difficulties continued and the government intervened to keep a lid on inflation.

Pry into something

to snoop into something; to get into someone else's business. - se mêler de, s'immiscer dans, être indiscret

• Why are you prying into my affairs all the time? 
• I wish you wouldn't pry into my personal life.

Stave off something

stave off something also stave something off = prevent, ward off.- contrer, éviter

• so you get good about using the technology to figure out how to stave off that boredom.
• to keep something away or keep something from happening 
• The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to boost the economy and stave off a recession.
• Death is natural and inevitable - we can't stave it off forever.
• He could stave his thirst off no longer.
• They say that if you take extra vitamins, you may be able to stave off the flu.

Stuck in a rut

bored by routine. - enlisé dans une routine

• But people often feel they want to change their life, to change their job. They might feel stuck in a rut. 

To eat humble pie

to be forced to admit that you are wrong and to say you are sorry 

• The producers of the advert had to eat humble pie and apologize for misrepresenting the facts.

faire amende honorable, reconnaître son erreur, admettre son erreur

Under the radar

To slip or to go under the radar. To go unnoticed, especially for a long period of time.- passer entre les mailles du filet

• They know they're buying links and choosing to go under the radar to avoid penalties
• While the majority are well looked after, we know in extreme cases that things go very wrong for these children because they go under the radar

Small talk

chat, converse about trivial subjects.- papoter, bavarder, faire la causette

• I'm no good at making small talk at parties.

Fluffy

covered with soft fur

fluffy toy : peluche

fluffy duck: duveteux, duveteuse
(nuage) floconneux, floconneuse
(nourriture) léger, légère, aérien, aérienne
(chat) au poil soyeux adj
(serviette) doux, douce adj

Go viral

 "Turnip for What"

the video which featured the first lady dancing with a turnip to the hit song “Turn Down for What” has been “looped” more than 1 million times. 

This video has gone viral!

http://youtu.be/7nngvq9C-0Q

Creed

belief system, ethos

• no matter what race or creed (= religious belief).-croyance

• their creed of self-help (= principles).- philosophie

In the line of duty

while doing a job. 

• The fireman was injured in the line of duty -  dans l'exercice de leurs fonctions, en service

Thanks Charlie!

Drawing by Lucille Clerc.
Free speech  is the way ideas are tested, in contrast to orthodoxy being owned by the most powerful trying to impose their ways of thinking.  
Without freedom to challenge orthodoxy, any other freedoms will not last long...

banger

His car's an old banger:
Sa voiture est un vieux tacot, vieille bagnole

Bangers and mash:  
les saucisses à la purée  

Reverso dictionary

This dictionary is a valuable tool, it’s free, online and collaborative. Words are put into context so it’s easier to understand the scope of the new vocabulary you've just learned. 

It also provides a feature that allows you to save a word or an expression in your personal list, then you can go through this list from time to time to commit those words to memory. 

To activate this functionality, you need to set up an account for free:

German version : http://woerterbuch.reverso.net/

French version: http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/francais-anglais/

There is version for Android for those who have an android device such as a tablet or a smartphone. There are plenty of other languages but the English one is the most comprehensive.

To be tickled pink

I'm tickled pink. - Je suis aux anges
to tickle = chatouiller

Bread and Roses

Review of the film "Pride" from The Guardian
featuring the song "Bread and Roses"

"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by Rose Schneiderman; a line in that speech ("The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.") inspired the title of the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West." The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers.

It is commonly associated with the successful textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January–March 1912, now often known as the "Bread and Roses strike".

The slogan pairing bread and roses, appealing for both fair wages and dignified conditions, found resonance as transcending "the sometimes tedious struggles for marginal economic advances" in the "light of labor struggles as based on striving for dignity and respect", as Robert J. S. Ross wrote in 2013. 
(more on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Roses)

Spin out of control

Brussel on the 6 of November 2014...

If activities or events spin out of control, they change very quickly and in an uncontrolled way

cars on fire in Brussel on November the 6th

To go out of control, to get off track - déraper

• The country's economy seemed to be spinning out of control.

http://www.rtbf.be/video/detail_violences-durant-la-manifestation-nationale?id=1969097


Following the simultaneous federal elections and regional elections of 25 May 2014, Belgium has finally a new government since mid-October...the schedule is pretty good if we remember that we had to wait 536 days after the previous election to form a new government. As usual, the formation of the Belgian government led  to a strike but this time it went out of control: more than a hundred police officers were injured, the demonstration spinned out of control when dockers from Antwerpen came into action.