Here are some French abbreviations

Just like you English people out there, we French people have some acronyms.We use “lol” like you guys but we also have our own, which is “mdr” (mort de rire).When young people talk to each other, they use it sometimes, for instance:

Person A: l’autre soir je suis sorti j’ai vu Madonna ! (the other night I went out and I saw Madonna)

Person B : oui, c’est ça ! MDR. (Yeah right ! LOL)

You guys also use a French acronym, possibly without being aware of it: RSVP (= répondez s’il vous plaît).We also use our own acronyms that don’t necessarily have an equivalent in English.I’m going to give you a list of some of the ones that we use:

RAS: rien à signaler (nothing worth mentioning)

A : Quoi de neuf ? (What's up?)

B :RAS

HS: hors service (out of order)

A: Aujourd’hui je suis complètement HS! (today I am totally exhausted!)

QG: quartier general (headquarters)

A: On se retrouve où déjà ce soir? (Where are we meeting again tonight?)

B : Ben, à notre QG habituel ! (Well, at our usual place!)

BG: beau gosse (handsome guy)

BCBG: bon chic bon genre ("good style, good class"-- it is used to describe an upper-middle-class lifestyle reflected especially in expensive but conservative clothes)

ils ont une clientèle plutôt BCBG (they have a largely upper-middle-class clientele)

VDM: vie de merde (FML: F#*@!? My Life)

Now a bit vulgar:

DTC: dans ton c** (in your a**)

CTB: comme ta b** (like your d***)

I am sure there are others out there that we use daily, but I can’t think of any right now off the top of my head. I will add some more to the blog when I come across them.I am giving you a link where you can find a pretty well-rounded list of abbreviations that we use.

http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-acronyms.htm

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Sayings to express "I don't care what you are talking about"

When you are listening to someone and he's rambling on and on and it seems to be an eternity, the French unlike Americans are much more blunt and have some colorful expressions to express this state of frustration. They would not stay, pretend to be listening and smile to someone who is talking endlessly!
They would say something like:

-Et le shérif! il est mort à la fin? (which refers to western movies which are usually long)

-T'as pas soif? (since the person is talking non-stop, and you're just sarcastically asking him if he's not thirsty!)

-Et je t'ai pas demandé si ta grand-mère fait du vélo? (this is kind of rude! You're are actually telling him: I didn't ask you if your grandmother rides a bicycle? I know it's kind of awkward, isn't it? But that's what we say when someone is not answering your question straight away ;-) )

How a TV commercial enters popular culture

I remember when I was in high school, there was a commercial that aired all the time on TV!
It was about a chocolate bar. In the ad you can see a little quaint scene with mountains in the background. And then you can also see inside a lovely chalet a groundhog wrapping a chocolate bar in aluminum foil.
People started to love the commercial. And young people started to use the expression that the man says at the end of the video:

"Et la marmotte, elle met le chocolat dans le papier d'alu!"

Now this expression is still in use in France! When someone uses it, he actually means that he doesn't believe you. You are basically talking nonsense or not telling the truth. This expression is commonly used among young people and as far as I know it's culturally specific to France.
For instance I used it once when I was talking to two friends of mine, one of them was French and the other one French Canadian! The second one had no idea whatsoever what I was referring to, but the first one got it straight away :)

For instance that blog refers to this expression.

http://agen-demain.typepad.fr/alain_veyret/retraites-jean-dionis-main-dans-la-main-avec-lump.html

Let me introduce myself!

I've always been interested in the English language. One of my main goals back when I was an English language learner was to become as fluent as I could be. I also wanted to lower my French accent and sound good. I was obsessed and still am to a lesser extent with English and I am always trying new ways to improve. When I was starting to learn the language I was interested in everything, I was really passionate about it and eager to learn new words, expressions and whatnot. But I was more interested in the daily English, I mean I was into the English that people actually speak more than the language that you can learn in books. Don't get me wrong, I love books!!!!! But I was really interested in cultural expressions that English people use and I was not into the ones that you can learn through the dictionary! In fact I used to live in the US and when I lived there I learned plenty of expressions that you can't find in a dictionary, such as : " going cold turkey, you stole my thunder, that really hit the spot, etc."
And then I got the idea that I should reciprocate in a way, and give away some expressions which are cultural. (And by cultural, I mean from France, since I don't know the expressions used in the other French-speaking countries :)
So that's pretty much what my blog is about, nothing major or fancy.
Just a useful and interesting journey in the world of expressions and slang that French people use!!!
Alors! C'est parti mon kiki!!!