Sorry! Search is currently unavailable while the database is being updated, it will be back in 5 mins!

Smartphone Vocabulary

In the Yabla video Sophie et Patrice - On m'a volé mon téléphone, Sophie had her phone stolen and shares her frustration with Patrice, who offers a few suggestions to solve her problem. In their conversation, you will learn plenty of phone-related vocabulary. Throughout the video, Sophie and Patrice use the generic term un téléphone, but they could have used the term un portable (a cell/mobile phone) instead:

 

Personne. -Personne. Sauf une fois, il s'est fait voler son... portable...

Nobody. -Nobody. Except once, he had his... cell phone stolen...

Caption 77, Actus Quartier Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois - Part 1

 Play Caption

banner PLACEHOLDER

Sophie and Patrice also didn’t use the English loanword un smartphone, which you might also hear:

 

Des témoignages que les visiteurs pourront bientôt découvrir sur leur smartphone

Accounts that visitors will soon be able to discover on their smartphone

Caption 13, Télévision Bretagne Ouest Concarneau: Un tournage sur la vie maritime

 Play Caption

 

Patrice simply uses the French cognate téléphone when he advises Sophie to faire bloquer son téléphone (have her phone blocked):

 

Tu as appelé pour faire bloquer le téléphone?

Did you call to have the phone blocked?

Caption 11, Sophie et Patrice On m'a volé mon téléphone

 Play Caption

 

It might preserve her privacy, since her whole répertoire (address book) was on her phone, as well as all her contacts:

 

Moi, j'ai... j'ai tout mon répertoire... Tu te rends compte? J'ai tous mes contacts.

I have... I have my whole address book... You realize? I have all my contacts.

Captions 6-7, Sophie et Patrice On m'a volé mon téléphone

 Play Caption

 

 

Losing her phone also means that Sophie can no longer access her agenda électronique (electronic calendar):

 

Mon agenda, il était dans... C'était mon agenda électronique dans mon téléphone.

My calendar was in... It was my electronic calendar in my phone.

Caption 52, Sophie et Patrice On m'a volé mon téléphone

 Play Caption

 

Unfortunately, she never thought to do une sauvegarde (a backup):

 

Pourquoi j'ai pas fait la sauvegarde?

Why didn't I do a backup?

Caption 78, Sophie et Patrice On m'a volé mon téléphone

 Play Caption

 

Still searching for a solution, Patrice asks Sophie if she has une puce (a chip) or une carte SIM (a SIM card) on another appareil (device): 

 

C'est la seule puce que tu as, euh... T'as pas un autre appareil avec la même carte SIM?

Is that the only chip that you have, uh... You don't have another device with the same SIM card?

Captions 58, 61, Sophie et Patrice On m'a volé mon téléphone

 Play Caption

 

You might be interested to know that in other situations, une puce is something entirely different. It’s actually "a flea"! In any case, Sophie has neither une puce nor une carte SIM on another appareilShe's going to have to call son opérateur (her provider):

 

Je vais appeler l'opérateur...

I'm going to call the provider...

Caption 84, Sophie et Patrice On m'a volé mon téléphone

 Play Caption

 

Sadly, it looks like Sophie and Patrice have run out of solutions. It might be time for her to start shopping for un nouveau portable (a new cellphone)—perhaps un smartphone compatible avec la 5G (a 5G smartphone)! 

Vocabulary

Silence, moteur, action!

Daniel Benchimol concludes his latest video, on the town of Montmorency, a little differently than he usually does. He introduces us to Philippe, the man behind the scenes of Daniel's numerous travel videos. Philippe does it all: he films, he directs, he edits. Daniel uses some basic film terminology in his description of Philippe: 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER 

 

Laissez-moi vous présenter mon compagnon de tournage, Philippe,

Let me present to you my filming companion, Philippe,

qui réalise, qui monte

who directs, who edits,

et qui fait l'ensemble de ce que vous ne voyez pas.

and who does everything that you don't see.

Captions 47-48, Voyage en France - Montmorency

 Play Caption

 

Tournage comes from the verb tourner, which, as you might have guessed, means "to turn." But in movie parlance, tourner means "to film" (and le tournage means "filming" or "film shoot"). To remember this, just think of film reels turning on an old movie camera. 

 

We discussed the verb réaliser in a previous lesson. Among its many meanings is "to direct" a film or stage production. The related word réalisateur (masculine) or réalisatrice (feminine) means "director" or "filmmaker"—in other words, the person who "realizes" the film.

 

Yabla has a lesson on monter as well! Its basic meanings are "to climb" and "to put up," but monter can also mean "to edit" a film. The English word "montage" refers to a specific technique of combining short clips to form a continuous sequence, but the French le montage refers more generally to the "editing" of a film. 

 

Another Yabla video takes us to Concarneau in Brittany, where a film crew documented the town's rich maritime heritage. You'll find some interesting film-related words at the beginning of the video:

 

Moteur!

Action!

Séance de tournage sur le port de Concarneau.

Filming session on the Concarneau harbor.

En face de l'objectif, le maître du port.

In front of the camera lens, the harbormaster.

Captions 1-3, Télévision Bretagne Ouest - Concarneau: Un tournage sur la vie maritime

 Play Caption

 

Moteur usually just means "motor" or "engine," but here it means "Action!" This is actually a shortened version of the phrase silence, moteur, action! (literally, "silence, motor, action!"), the French equivalent of "lights, camera, action!" You can also say moteur, ça tourne, action! ("motor, it's filming, action!"). 

 

You might be wondering what a "camera lens" has to do with an "objective." If you consider that un objectif also means "an aim," the relationship might be clearer. A filmmaker or photographer aims their camera lens at their subject, so it makes sense that objectif is the word for "camera lens." 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Check out this lesson for some more French film words.
 
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.

Vocabulary