La pâte, les pâtes, la patte. Le pâté, la pâtée. How can a slight variation in spelling make such a difference in meaning? Which one of these homophones has legs? Which one is of the edible kind? Which one is a spread and which one is pet food? Can you guess? So many questions that we are about to answer in this lesson.

Let's begin with a homophone of the edible kind, les pâtes. This is the French word for "pasta," and unlike its English translation, it's always in the plural. You can learn how to make some delicious pâtes alla putanesca (pasta alla putanesca) in this cooking video:

Le temps de faire chauffer l'eau des pâtes et de les faire cuire suffit à préparer la sauce.

The time to heat the pasta water and cook them is sufficient for preparing the sauce.

Captions 31-33, Whoogy's Une recette italienne iconique, rapide et pas chère - Part 1

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When you make pâtes singular, la pâte, you get the word for "dough," "pastry," and "batter." You will have to rely on context to guide you as the culinary term la pâte will have different translations in English depending on the type of mixture. For instance, the word pâte can mean “bread dough,” which gave birth to a popular expression, mettre la main à la pâte, back when people mostly kneaded bread by hand. It literally means “put your hand in the dough” or “get to work”:

Je suis prête à me salir les mains et à mettre la main à la pâte.

I'm ready to get my hands dirty and to put my hand in the dough [get to work].

Captions 4-5, Marie et Sandra Atelier d'art - Part 17

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And now for a different kind of pâte, we have pâte à crêpe (crêpe batter). In her cooking video, Sophie explains that the consistency of pâte à crêpe is not as thick as pâte à pain (bread dough): 

Tu mélanges, tu mélanges et là t'en rajoutes jusqu'à ce que tu obtiennes une pâte qui soit assez épaisse, moins que la pâte à pain, mais assez épaisse pour faire un ruban

You mix, you mix, and then you add some until you obtain a batter that is quite thick, less than bread dough, but thick enough to make a ribbon

Captions 29-33, Sophie et Patrice Les crêpes

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Still in the kitchen, we have yet another type of pâte, “pastry." How do we know it’s pastry? Because we are making pâte à choux (choux pastry), as Asma explains in her cooking video: 

...en attendant de faire notre biscuit pâte à choux.

...while waiting to make our choux pastry sponge cake.

Caption 51, Asma Le roulé mangue, vanille et fruits de la passion - Part 1

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There's another type of pastry called pâte feuilletée (flaky pastry or puff pastry), which is what the delicious pain au chocolat is made of:

C'est constitué d'une pâte feuilletée avec à l'intérieur du chocolat.  

It's made of a puff pastry with chocolate inside.  

Captions 11-13, Leïa Le petit déjeuner

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Moving on to more savory flavors, how about une pâte (paste) to go on top of your pâte (dough)? Une pâte de tomate (tomato paste) is the perfect topping for une pâte de pizza (pizza dough), as Lionel demonstrates in his video:

Donc la garniture, on a commencé par tapisser la pâte de tomate.

So the topping, we started by covering it with tomato paste.

Captions 30-31, Claude et Lionel La pizza

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Note that une pâte can refer to any kind of paste including the non-edible kind. You can find more of its meanings here.

If we add an accent to the e in pâte, we get the masculine noun le pâté, as in pâté de foie gras (goose liver pâté). This is a French favorite during Christmas time:

Le pâté de foie gras est une spécialité gastronomique française.

Goose liver pâté is a French delicacy.

While un pâté de foie gras may be a delicacy, its feminine counterpart, la pâtée, is not for human consumption! This is the word for “pet food,” or “swill” for pigs. It usually comes in a mushy wet mix sold in cans at the supermarket. 

Le chat a mangé la pâtée du chien, et il n’est pas content !

The cat ate the dog’s food, and he is not happy! 

Speaking of animals, let's take a look at our final word, la patte, a feminine homophone of pâte but spelled with a double T and no accent. We are now talking about an animal part, the paw:

Piggeldy plongea sa patte avant droite dans l'eau.

Piggeldy dipped his right front paw into the water.

Caption 33, Piggeldy et Frédéric Le ciel

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Did you know that les pattes d’éléphant (literally, "elephant paws") were once a fashion item? These are known as "bell bottoms" in English, though the word can refer to any type of long pant:

Avec un beau jean pattes d'eph [d'éléphant], et tout, tu vois.

With nice elephant paw [bell bottom] jeans and everything, you see.

Caption 62, Elisa et Mashal Les fringues

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Now that you've familiarized yourself with the various meanings of the words pâte(s), pâté(e), and patte, you will be able to make safe choices at the supermarket and have a better grasp of French recipes. Thank you for reading!

You may be familiar with the word fort as an adjective meaning “strong.” But are you aware of its many other uses and various meanings? And did you know that fort can be used not only as an adjective, but as a noun and an adverb?

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In our previous lesson on adjectives used as adverbs, we learned that fort as an adjective means “strong,” or sometimes, in a more historical context, "fortified," as in un château fort (a fortified castle). Let’s go to France with Daniel Benchimol to find out more about the château fort of Gisors:

Le château fort de Gisors est un château dit à motte féodale.

The fortified castle of Gisors is a so-called feudal motte castle.

Caption 32, Voyage en France Vexin Normand - Gisors - Part 1

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We'll leave le château fort de Gisors to go to Canada to explore un fort (a fort)—Fort Chambly, to be exact. This is one of the few instances when fort is used as a noun:           

Ça, le Fort Chambly c'est un fort de... peut-être une auberge dans le fond.

That, Fort Chambly is a fort of... possibly an inn, in fact.

Caption 1, Le Québec parle aux Français - Part 11

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Now let’s move on and discuss fort as an adverb. In the lyrics of the Stromae song Formidable, fort is equivalent to the adverb très (very). How do we know it’s an adverb and not an adjective? Because fort modifies the adjective minable (pathetic):

Tu étais formidable, j'étais fort minable

You were amazing, I was very pathetic

Caption 54, Français avec Nelly 12 Songs to Improve Your French - Part 2

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You'll also find fort used as an adverb in the French description of the video Manon et Margaux - Le Corbeau et le Renard:

« Le corbeau et le renard », la fameuse fable de Jean de La Fontaine, nous est contée puis expliquée d'une façon fort amusante par nos deux jeunes amies françaises.

The Crow and the Fox, the famous fable by Jean de la Fontaine, is recited then explained to us in a very amusing way by our two young French friends.

Notice how fort stays the same even though amusante takes a feminine ending. Fort is acting as an adverb modifying the adjective amusante, not the feminine noun façon. 

Here is a third example of fort meaning “very,” in the expression fort bien. But this time, fort is modifying another adverb, bien (well):

Fort bien assumé, petit homme ! Je te prends à mon service.

Very well executed, little man! I'll take you into my service.

Caption 48, Il était une fois: Les Amériques 9. Cortés et les Aztèques - Part 3

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Now, just to make life more interesting, fort can sometimes be equivalent to bien (well)! 

Non, pas vraiment, non, ça... Ça marche pas très fort, quoi.

No, not really, no, it... It's not going too well, you know.

Caption 41, Le Jour où tout a basculé J'ai été séquestré par mes amis - Part 2

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The speaker could also have said:

Ça ne marche pas très bien, quoi.

It's not going too well, you know.

You can even combine bien and fort in the expression pas bien fort (not too well):

Ça ne va pas bien fort.

It’s not going too well.

Conversely, in an affirmative sentence, fort bien means "very well." But note the change in word order:

Ça va fort bien.

It’s going very well.

In addition to meaning “well" or “very," fort can also mean “strongly” or "hard." In the following example, the adverb describes the action of appuyer trop fort (pressing too hard), which is what Marie did. She pressed trop fort (too hard) on her charcoal pen:

Ben, tu as appuyé trop fort. -Je fais des dégâts.

Well, you pressed too hard. -I'm making a mess.

Caption 56, Marie et Sandra Atelier d'art - Part 17

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Also as mentioned in our previous lesson, the adverb fort can also mean “loudly,” as in parler fort (to speak loudly):

Le mieux, c'est d'ouvrir la fenêtre et de parler fort. -Voilà, d'accord.

The best thing is to open the window and to speak loudly. -Right, OK.

Caption 59, Lionel L'écluse de Réchicourt-le-Château - Part 3

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Finally, let’s go back briefly to fort as a noun. Here is a useful expression that you might like to use for yourself when you don’t feel too confident about something: c’est pas mon fort (it’s not my forte). Note that the expression is mostly used in the negative form. In the song "Les mots d'amour," the singer tells us he is not great at speaking:

Parce que parler c'est pas mon fort

Because speaking is not my forte

Caption 2, Debout Sur Le Zinc Les mots d'amour

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You might also like the expression c’est plus fort que moi (it’s beyond my control) when you feel powerless or can’t help yourself:

Mais là j'avoue que ça a été plus fort que moi.

But there I admit that that was beyond my control.

Caption 15, Melissa Mars From Paris with Love

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In conclusion, if French grammar, c’est pas ton fort (is not your forte), you can click on this link for more examples, and of course, Yabla videos and grammar lessons will come to the rescue. Before you know it, you will be fort en français (great at French)!

Thank you for reading!

French verbs tend to be trickier to conjugate than English verbs, and dire (to say) is no exception. For the most part, though, the verb dire presents few difficulties as it doesn’t have many irregularities. And yet, it has a few grammatical quirks worth highlighting, not to mention that this common verb comes with a multitude of interesting expressions in various tenses. So, let’s dissect dire and see what it has to say!

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First, let’s look at this verb in its most basic form, the infinitive (dire), which is used in a variety of idiomatic expressions, as in vouloir dire (“to mean," literally "to want to say"):

L'expression "c'est du pipeau" veut dire c'est pas sérieux.

The expression "it's a pipe" means it's not serious.

Captions 12-13, Le saviez-vous? Les expressions inspirées de la musique - Part 3

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Besides "to say," dire can sometimes mean “to think,” but in a negative kind of a way, as in to be unable to "think" or "bear the idea" of something:

Et dire qu'il s'était servi de Nino aussi.

And to think that he'd used Nino as well.

Caption 19, Le Jour où tout a basculé J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils - Part 9

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Now let’s take a look at dire in the present indicative tense. No big surprises here, but watch out for this one important irregular form, vous dites (you say/you are saying), NOT “vous disez”:

Encore une fois, c'est n'importe quoi ce que vous dites, maître.

Once again, what you're saying is nonsense, sir.

Caption 1, Le Jour où tout a basculé À l'audience - Volé par sa belle-mère ? - Part 8

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Also, don’t be tempted to add a circumflex accent to vous dites, as French speakers sometimes mistakenly do. If you add an accent, you will end up with the passé simple or past historic tense, vous dîtes (you said). Fortunately, this tense is rarely used. Here is an instance of it in an article about COVID tests:

Comme vous le dîtes, plus de 700 000 tests étaient réalisés quotidiennement la semaine dernière, augmentant les détections.

As you said, over 700,000 tests were carried out daily last week, thus increasing detections. 

And don't forget the s in (vous) dites—otherwise you'll have dite, which is the feminine singular past participle of dire (the masculine singular is dit, "said"). In the example below, the singular feminine direct object la raison is placed before the verb, which means the past participle must also be feminine singular:

Mais oui, pour la raison que je vous ai dite.

But yes, for the reason that I told you about.

Caption 76, Le Jour où tout a basculé À l'audience: Mon chirurgien était ivre - Part 2

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Incidentally, dites is also the plural feminine past participle of dire. So if the speaker in the above example were referring to multiple "reasons," the sentence would be:

Mais oui, pour les raisons que je vous ai dites.

But yes, for the reasons that I told you about.

(To learn more about agreement rules for past participles, see our lesson on the subject.)

You may also come across dit/dits/dite/dites in front of a noun or adjective, in which case it means “known” or “so-called”:

C'est la maison Maurice Ravel dite "le Belvédère" de son vrai nom.

It's the Maurice Ravel House, known by its real name "Le Belvédère."

Caption 9, Voyage en France Montfort-l'Amaury - Part 1

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Mais il existe aussi une autre astrologie, l'astrologie dite savante

But there's also another astrology, so-called scholarly astrology

Captions 13-14, Le Monde L’astrologie fonctionne-t-elle ?

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“So-called” in the sense of being inappropriately named is soit-disant in French, injecting some skepticism into the sentence. In the video below, Sophie and Patrice discuss politics and are skeptical about the soit-disant centrist politicians:

Christiane Taubira, Anne Hidalgo. Et puis, dans une zone un peu indéfinie, soi-disant le centre

Christiane Taubira, Anne Hidalgo. And then, in a somewhat undefined zone, the so-called center

Captions 8-10, Sophie et Patrice Les élections présidentielles

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Soi-disant can also mean "supposedly":

Soi-disant qu'à la télé, ils ont dit: pacte pour l'emploi.

Supposedly on TV they said "employment pact."

Caption 52, Le Monde Comment la Marche des Beurs a révélé la crise des banlieues - Part 1

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Finally, in the conditional tense, we have the impersonal expression on dirait ("it looks like," literally "one would say") that you can use anytime you have an impression about something or someone. This handy phrase has a multitude of meanings that you can explore in this lesson. In the video below, Marie gives the impression of being a real artist and gets a compliment from Sandra, her art teacher:

Mais on dirait une vraie artiste.

But you look like a real artist.

Caption 2, Marie et Sandra Atelier d'art - Part 17

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In conclusion, dire means a lot more than "to say”! Feel free to explore the many forms and ways of using dire in our Yabla videos. And stay tuned for another lesson on dire and its “cousins” (derivatives). Thank you for reading!