If you’ve always wondered why “it’s pouring buckets” is “it’s raining cats and dogs” in English, here’s the French equivalent – “it’s pouring like a cow pees” (Il pleut comme vache qui pisse). However, I must say that in seven years I’ve never actually heard anyone use “cats and dogs” firsthand; people usually just say it’s pouring.
https://lemagdesanimaux.ouest-france.fr/dossier-1058-pleut-vache-pisse.html
Found a toy for myself. Duolingo – French language. Even managed to reach the first place in the bronze league ranking. Mixed feelings about it. Overall, the tasks are quite simple for 27 units. But the principle is interesting – the more mistakes you make, the more you pay. However, it’s frustrating when most mistakes come from not paying attention. Many tests are designed in such a way that the only way to get them wrong is to completely misunderstand the task. There’s a lot of repetition of the same words and grammatical structures, which makes the test feel childish. On the other hand, if it were more difficult, I’d quickly run out of the money I don’t mind spending on this, as I would definitely make more mistakes. But, I must say, the overall mechanism works – you won’t get far without understanding.
I asked OpenAI to draw a picture and come up with a story: “Create a short story about Liza and her cat whose name is Lion. Liza is a student and lives in Blacksburg”. That’s all, I gave no more information. See what AI came up with (translated into Russian via deepl, which is also AI. I only changed the name Liza to Liza and added a couple of commas):
—-
Liza is a student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. She loves her life in the small town and enjoys spending time with her friends and family. One source of her happiness is her cat Lion.
Lion is a fluffy orange tabby with bright green eyes. Liza adopted him from a local shelter when he was just a kitten, and since then, they have been inseparable. Lion was a curious and playful cat, always getting into mischief and causing trouble for Liza.
One day, Liza was preparing for her upcoming exams in her apartment. Lion was sitting on the windowsill, watching the birds outside. Suddenly, he saw a squirrel, jumped off the windowsill, and dashed after it across the room.
Liza’s books and papers scattered as Lion chased the squirrel around the room. She tried to catch him, but he was too fast. Eventually, Lion managed to catch the squirrel and proudly brought it back to Liza, dropping it at her feet.
Liza felt both relief and annoyance. She picked up Lion and the squirrel, and took them both outside to release the squirrel back into the wild. Watching the squirrel run away, she couldn’t help but smile at her mischievous cat.
Despite the chaos he caused, Liza knew she wouldn’t trade Lion for anything in the world. He was her best friend and companion, and she was thankful to have him in her life.
Here is the original in English:
Liza was a student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. She loved her life in the small town and enjoyed spending time with her friends and family. One of the things that made her happiest was her cat, Lion.
Lion was a fluffy orange tabby with bright green eyes. Liza had adopted him from a local shelter when he was just a kitten, and they had been inseparable ever since. Lion was a curious and playful cat, always getting into mischief and causing trouble for Liza.
One day, Liza was studying for her upcoming exams in her apartment. Lion was sitting on the windowsill, watching the birds outside. Suddenly, he saw a squirrel and jumped off the windowsill, darting across the room towards it.
Liza’s books and papers went flying as Lion chased the squirrel around the room. She tried to catch him, but he was too quick. Finally, Lion managed to catch the squirrel and proudly brought it back to Liza, dropping it at her feet.
Liza was both relieved and annoyed at the same time. She scooped up Lion and the squirrel, and took them both outside to release the squirrel back into the wild. As she watched the squirrel scamper away, she couldn’t help but smile at her mischievous cat.
Despite the chaos he caused, Liza knew that she wouldn’t trade Lion for anything in the world. He was her best friend and companion, and she was grateful to have him in her life.
We live in interesting times!
Before traveling to Canada, I am refreshing my French. I thought it was Americans who add please to everything. But it turns out, the French add ‘s’il vous plaît’ even to the question “where is the toilet?” (Où sont les toilettes, s’il vous plaît) and how much will it cost (ça me fera combien, s’il vous plaît?).
Literally, ‘s’il vous plaît’ means “if it pleases you” or “if it pleases you” / “if it makes you happy” / “if it is pleasant to you”. Of course, no one translates it, but just puts it automatically, like an emoji. But you must agree, it’s unusual to add such a thing after asking “where is the toilet.”
I also learned how the French respond to sneezing. Here we say “Be healthy”. Americans say bless you (“God bless you”), and the French automatically say ‘à tes/vos souhaits’ (“may your wishes come true”). But that’s not all. If a friend sneezes a second time, they then say ‘à tes amours’ (“love to you”). And it’s said that if a friend sneezes a third time, they say “Qu’ils durent toujours” (“live long”). So, dinner table toasts probably started from here, I guess.
The original title of this Vasnetsov painting is “Alyonushka (simpleton)”. Proof – for example, the catalog of the Society of Itinerant Art Exhibitions from the year 1889. Nowadays, they write that orphans were called simpletons back then, but honestly, I can’t find any evidence for this. In Dal’s dictionary, a simpleton is someone mentally disabled or insane. But according to the fairy tale, she and her brother Ivanushka (who later turned out to be a goat) were left without parents, completely alone, so the term orphan would fit.
I did some research, and here’s what I found: an art journal from 1881, which published a review of the itinerant exhibition, and similarly described every interesting painting, including Alyonushka. I quote:
“…Strictly speaking, she is not a simpleton. She is named thus, as Ostrovsky named his Vera— a savage; everyone calls Alyonushka a simpleton. She is a homeless, shelterless orphan, she grew up among strangers; she has no kin, no corner of her own…”
Over time, the term ‘simpleton’ was dropped, and only Alyonushka remained. Fair?
Soon, everyone will be sending each other Christmas cards. Well, just so you know, all the birds depicted with bright red breasts are males. The females predominantly have grey plumage. Only in the last photo in the frame is a pair depicted correctly. Almost all the cards depict a gathering of two males. There’s nothing particularly wrong with such images, of course. Just something for you to know now.
A rotten egg, walled up inside a wall, can disastrously spoil life for all the inhabitants of the house.
But this is not because it is great and powerful. Not a cosmic evil, not a great emperor, but an old, stinking, rotten egg…
Yuki knows how to sleep sweetly! Right now, she is lying down, snoring loudly. The first two photos are from just now, the rest were taken at different times recently. It was impossible not to take them
In the mornings he is a tiger
We work with the tail
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 