Oldelaf’s latest song featured on Yabla, “Vendredi” (Friday), is a sort of satirical ode to boring weekends: 

Je m'ennuie

I am bored

Je me sens tout chose

I feel peculiar

Captions 42-43, Oldelaf - interprète "Vendredi"

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You might have been able to guess that je m’ennuie means “I am bored” here because it contains the word ennui, which the English language borrowed from the French as a synonym for “boredom.” But in French, l’ennui and its related words don’t only have to do with being bored. They can also involve being bothered, worried, troubled, or annoyed. In this lesson, we’ll see how these multiple meanings play out—and we promise it won’t be boring!

First, there’s l’ennui, which usually just means “boredom”:

Je meurs d’ennui.
I’m dying of boredom.

However, if you pluralize l’ennui (les ennuis), you don’t get “boredoms,” but “problems” or “troubles”:

On évite certains ennuis.

We avoid certain problems.

Caption 16, Le Village de la Bière - Ceci n'est pas un bar!

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Quant à Socrate, il a de sérieux ennuis.

As for Socrates, he has serious troubles.

Caption 27, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès

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(Speaking of philosophers with ennui(s), there's also l'ennui pascalien, or "Pascalian ennui," named after the seventeenth-century polymath Blaise Pascal. It corresponds to the notion of "existential ennui" in English.)

As we saw in the first example, the reflexive verb s’ennuyer means “to be bored.” But the non-reflexive verb ennuyer can either mean “to bore” or “to bother”:

Ça vous ennuie que je vous photographie?

Will it bother you that I photograph you?

Caption 36, Le Journal - Marion Cotillard

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Marc ennuie ses enfants avec ses longues histoires.
Marc is boring his kids with his long stories.

You’ll have to pay attention to context to determine whether ennuyer means “to bore” or “to bother.” In the case of the examples above, taking a photo of someone is probably more likely to bother them than bore them, and kids are probably more likely to be bored than bothered by their dad’s long stories. That said, sometimes ennuyer can have both meanings at once. For example, you could say that Marc is bothering his kids by boring them with his long stories. You could also say that he is annoying them—in fact, the word “annoy” is etymologically related to the word “ennui,” which should make this additional meaning of ennuyer easier to remember.

Context is also key with other ennui derivatives like ennuyeux/ennuyeuse (boring, annoying, tiresome) and ennuyé(e) (bored, annoyed, worried):

Y a rien à dire

There's nothing to say

C'est ennuyeux

It's boring

Captions 39-40, Melissa Mars Music Videos - Et Alors!

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Toutes ses questions sont vraiment ennuyeuses.
All his questions are really annoying.

On peut être fasciné, agacé, déçu,

We can be fascinated, annoyed, disappointed,

énervé par le ton, captivé par l'intrigue

upset by the tone, captivated by the plot,

ou tout bêtement ennuyé...

or, quite simply, bored...

Captions 29-30, Manon et Clémentine - Vocabulaire du livre

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Tu as l’air ennuyé. Mais ne t’inquiète pas! Tout ira bien.
You look concerned. But don’t worry! Everything will be all right.

Hopefully you aren’t bored, annoyed, bothered, or worried at the moment, but if you are, Oldelaf’s new video is a perfect antidote to all the various shades of ennui!

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And for more information on the usage and history of the word "ennui" in English, check out this interesting article. 

Who doesn't like to quietly sip a beer?

...s'attabler au comptoir et boire tranquillement sa bière...

...sit at the counter and quietly sip his beer...

Captions 11-12, Le Village de la Bière - Ceci n'est pas un bar!

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But at the Village de la Bière, in Strasbourg, a sip is all that you are going to get, as this emporium of brew has only une licence-dégustation (tasting license). This permits them to supply you with a mere sampling of, for example, une bière brune (dark beer), une bière blonde (light-colored beer), or une bière rousse (brown ale), before you settle on the bouteille de bière (bottle of beer) that most meets your approval. (You won't find many canettes de bière or "cans of beer" in this establishment!)

Owner Alain Pesez is passionate about his calling, and he will guide you through a vast selection:

J'ai entre trois et quatre cents sortes de bières...

I have between three and four hundred kinds of beers...

un assortiment qui bouge, qui varie et on vend de la bière

a selection that changes, that varies, and we sell beer

des quatre coins du monde.

from the four corners of the world.

Captions 6-7, Le Village de la Bière - Des bières de partout

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Stocking over three hundred types of beer in one single shop is no small feat! We might even say, Ce n'est pas de la petite bière! On the surface, we might read that as, "This is not a little beer!" but, in actuality, this expression means "It's no small thing / It's no small matter" or "It's really something / It's a big deal." The expression dates back to the eighteenth century, when une petite bière was a weak, poor-quality beer, created by reusing the grains from an earlier batch.

The phrase can not only imply that a matter is significant, but also that something or someone is of high caliber, of quality.

Un Nikon, c'est un très bon appareil photo. Ce n'est pas de la petite bière.

A Nikon is a very good camera. It's not a piece of junk.

These days, you might drink a high-quality bière pression (draft beer) to accompany a tarte flambée at your local Flam's:

Donc c'est tout de suite plus sympathique accompagnée

So it's nicer right away accompanied

d'une petite bière pression.

by a small draft beer.

Caption 28, Le Restaurant "Flam's" - Les tartes

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Bière pression originates in un baril (a barrel/keg) and flows out of le robinet (the tap) and into une chope (a mug). Of course, you might prefer un panaché with your meal: that's a very popular mixture of beer and lemonade.

There is another meaning of bière that has nothing to do with fermenting grains to create a delightful effervescent beverage. The expressions mettre quelqu'un en bière and la mise en bière both refer to placing a body into a bière or "coffin." Note that, apart from these expressions, "coffin" is usually not referred to as une bière, but rather un cercueil.

On that note, remember that life is short! Tune in to these and hundreds of other fun and interesting authentic videos here at Yabla that will help quench your thirst for French mastery!