The verb craquer (to crack)—not to be confused with croquer (to crunch/bite)—is an interesting word as it can be used in a variety of ways, often in situations that involve strong emotions, either positive or negative. When used informally, craquer has many meanings that range from “breaking down” to “falling in love."
In a negative context, craquer can mean to crack up, or crack under pressure:
François est dégoûté. Il craque.
François is disgusted. He's cracking up.
Caption 35, Oldelaf - Le monde est beau
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Craquer can also describe something or someone cracking under pressure:
Continue à faire des films aussi flingués et les cités vont craquer.
Continue making gun movies like always and the housing estates are going to crack.
Captions 51-52, Alain Etoundi - Allez tous vous faire enfilmer! - Part 1
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It can also refer to someone "giving in" or "caving":
Bon, j'ai craqué parce que...
Well, I caved because...
Caption 52, Le Jour où tout a basculé - À l'audience - Arnaque en couple ? - Part 3
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While craquer means to crack under pressure, faire craquer quelqu’un means to cause someone to crack or to break someone’s spirit, like the mother in the video below who tried to faire craquer (break down) her son’s girlfriend:
Sa mère voulait me faire craquer.
His mother wanted to break me down.
Caption 34, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Ma mère fait tout pour briser mon couple - Part 3
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At the other end of the spectrum, however, craquer can describe a positive experience. It's slang for “to fall in love." In the example below, the French pianist Christine Ott is asked:
C'est ce qui t'a fait craquer, toi, pour cet instrument?
Is that what made you fall in love with this instrument?
Caption 4, Alsace 20 - Femmes d'exception: Christine Ott
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And the singer Melissa Mars "fell head over heels" for her project "Et Alors!":
Et voilà, donc du coup, ben évidemment j'ai craqué sur ce projet,
And there, so as a result, well of course I fell head over heels for this project,
Caption 23, Melissa Mars - Et Alors!
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In the following example, shoppers "fell" for some Christmas ornaments:
Et ben on a craqué sur des choses un petit peu typiques, euh...
And, well, we fell for things that are a little bit typical, uh...
Caption 10, Alsace 20 - Ouverture du marché de Noël de Colmar
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And, of course, craquer sur also means to fall for a person:
J'avais complètement craqué sur elle
I'd completely fallen for her
Caption 68, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai piégé mon fan - Part 2
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Likewise, faire craquer can mean to make someone fall for someone:
Je pouvais avouer, ouais, qu'elle m'a fait craquer
I could confess, yeah, that she made me fall for her
Captions 32-33, Harmelo - Mets Ton Masque Ft. Jade L x Ghetto
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On a spookier note, craquer can mean to creak, as in the sound the floor makes in this couple’s haunted apartment:
Ah, c'est le plancher qui craque.
Ah, it's the floor that's creaking.
Caption 17, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Notre appartement est hanté - Part 3
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And for a little bit of humor, craquer (to rip) can describe a wardrobe mishap. In this video, Elisa and Mashal look at old photographs, and Mashal remembers when her pants ripped in the middle:
Enfin, quand j'avais dansé mon pantalon qui avait craqué au mil'...
Well, when I'd been dancing, my pants, which had ripped in the mid'...
Caption 82, Elisa et Mashal - Photos
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Or when referring to shoes, you can say that they are sur le point de craquer (about to burst). In "J'aurais bien voulu," the singer of the ska band Babylon Circus talks about his battered ego sagging down to his socks to the point that his godasses (shoes) are sur le point de craquer (about to burst):
J'ai l'ego dans les chaussettes et les godasses sur le point de craquer
My ego's in my socks and my shoes are about to burst
Caption 30, Babylon Circus - J'aurais bien voulu
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There’s another colloquial expression that paints a similar picture, plein à craquer, which means “bursting at the seams” or “overcrowded”:
Les hôpitaux sont pleins à craquer.
The hospitals are completely overcrowded.
Don't confuse craquer with the English loanword cracker, which means "hacker":
Des crackers ont piraté le logiciel.
Some hackers hacked into the software.
(Un cracker can also be of the edible kind… a cracker!).
The noun un craque doesn’t refer to "cracking" at all. It's slang for un mensonge (a lie):
Mais si tous mes craques t'indiffèrent
But if all my lies leave you indifferent
Caption 28, Mademoiselle K (avec Zazie) - Me taire te plaire
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The English noun “crack,” as in a crack in the wall, is une fissure in French, and the verb is fissurer (to crack), as mentioned in this video about the Liverdun Church during the Second World War:
Parce qu'elle a été fissurée pendant la dernière Guerre mondiale.
Because it was cracked during the last World War.
Caption 76, Lionel - L'église de Liverdun - Part 2
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There are other instances when “crack” doesn’t translate as craquer in French. For example, “to crack a joke” is simply raconter une blague (to tell a joke), Lionel’s specialty in his Yabla videos:
Lionel adore raconter des blagues sur Yabla.
Lionel loves telling jokes on Yabla.
And when you "crack up" at a joke, you éclater de rire (burst out laughing):
Les blagues de Lionel me font toujours éclater de rire.
Lionel's jokes always crack me up.
One last thing you can do with craquer in French is craquer une allumette (strike a match):
On peut craquer une allumette pour voir dans le noir.
We can strike a match to see in the dark.
Nous espérons que vous avez craqué sur cette leçon (We hope you fell for this lesson)!
De nouveau and à nouveau both mean "again" (or more literally, "anew"), and you'll often find them used interchangeably in everyday speech. But technically there's a subtle difference between them. De nouveau implies a repetition of something that already happened:
Le lendemain il se retrouva de nouveau sur le bord d'un immense lac.
The next day, he found himself again on the edge of an immense lake.
Caption 13, Contes de fées - Le vilain petit canard
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Je ne vous ai pas entendu. Pourriez-vous m'expliquer de nouveau?
I didn't hear you. Could you explain it to me again [repeat what you just said]?
On the other hand, à nouveau implies something happening in a different way than before—that is, in a new way:
On retravaille à nouveau l'orthographe français [sic: française].
French spelling has once again been reworked.
Caption 46, Le saviez-vous? - L'histoire de la dictée
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Je ne comprends pas. Pourriez-vous m'expliquer à nouveau?
I don't understand. Could you explain it to me again [in a different way]?
Do you see the difference between the second sentences in the examples above? If you don't hear something someone said, you want them to repeat it. So you use de nouveau. But if you don't understand what they said, you want them to rephrase it, say it in a new way. So you use à nouveau.
Note that both these expressions only use nouveau, not the other forms of the adjective (nouvel, nouveaux, nouvelle, nouvelles). If you see any of these after de, you're dealing with "new," not "again":
...et de la mémorisation de nouveaux mots ou de nouvelles phrases.
...and the memorization of new words or new phrases.
Caption 49, Le saviez-vous? - Les bénéfices de la dictée
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If you forget when to use à nouveau versus de nouveau, you can always just use encore, the most basic equivalent of "again":
On espère te... te voir encore sur d'autres scènes en Alsace?
We hope to... to see you again on other stages in Alsace?
Caption 62, Alsace 20 - Femmes d'exception: Christine Ott
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Just keep in mind that encore can also mean "still," as we discussed in a previous lesson.
In this lesson, we'll take a look at some special uses of the elementary French word petit(e), which, as you probably already know, means "little," "small," or "short." Though it generally refers to something or someone of a small size, it can take on a variety of other related meanings. For example, since children are smaller than adults, petit(e) can also mean "little" as in "young":
Mais tu voulais vivre de la musique?
But you wanted to make a living from music?
T'étais attachée à la musique?
You were attached to music?
Oui. -Ouais. -Depuis toute petite. Oui, oui.
Yes. -Yeah. -Since [I was] very little. Yes, yes.
Captions 24-25, Alsace 20 - Femmes d'exception: Christine Ott
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In fact, if you turn the adjective into a (usually plural) noun, you get an informal word for "children":
Les petits sont à l'école.
The kids [or "little ones"] are in school.
But if you address someone as mon petit or ma petite, you're affectionately calling them "my dear." (You could also say mon chéri/ma chérie.)
Speaking of affectionate uses of petit(e), the words for "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" are petit ami and petite amie (literally, "little friend"):
Et pour parler de ma première petite amie,
And as for my first girlfriend,
l'une de mes premières petites amies est encore ma femme. Voilà.
one of my first girlfriends is still my wife, so there.
Captions 24-25, Mario Canonge - Ses propos
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Going back to petit(e) as in "young," the words for "granddaughter" and "grandson" are petite-fille ("little daughter") and petit-fils ("little son"). Note that these words are hyphenated, unlike petit ami/petite amie:
Les parents de ma petite-fille sont morts dans un accident de voiture, et c'est moi qui l'élève.
The parents of my granddaughter died in a car accident, and I am the one raising her.
If you're only a little bit hungry, you might want to eat something with une petite cuillère (a teaspoon):
Si vous avez une petite faim,
If you're feeling a little hungry,
je vous recommande de vous arrêter quelques minutes juste ici.
I recommend that you stop for a few minutes right here.
Captions 12-13, Voyage dans Paris - Autour de l'Hôtel de Ville
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...et pour finir, des couverts comme une fourchette,
...and finally, some cutlery like a fork,
un couteau, ou une petite cuillère.
a knife, or a teaspoon.
Caption 34, Joanna - Son nouvel appartement
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You can also use the word to give a rough approximation of something:
Il y a une petite dizaine de places...
There are barely ten seats or so...
Caption 25, Voyage dans Paris - Cité Florale
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The number of expressions with petit(e) is by no means small! Here are a few more, just to give you un petit goût (a little taste):
avoir une petite mine (to look pale)
avoir une petite pensée pour quelqu'un (to be thinking of someone)
une petite douceur (a little something sweet)
en petite tenue (in one's underwear, scantily clad)
chercher la petite bête (to nitpick)
à petite dose (in small doses)
une petite nature (a weakling)
une petite foulée (a trot)
une petite voix (a quiet voice)
petit à petit l'oiseau fait son nid (every little bit helps; literally, "little by little the bird makes its nest")
If you'd like to like to do your own petite enquête (investigation), you can do a search for petit or petite to find even more examples in Yabla videos.
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