Thing, gizmo, thingamabob, thingumajig, whatchamacallit, widget, doohickey, things, stuff...The French speaker’s equivalent to the English speaker’s substitute word “thing” are truc(s), machin(s), chose(s), trucmachin, machintruc (actually, the word chose does not seem to be used as much). Truc or machin, like our “thing” or “stuff” can be used when you are experiencing a lapse in vocabulary, or if you are feeling too lazy to find specific words.
Serge Gainsbourg has a funny song called "Machins choses" which can be found on his Intégrale Vol. 3. In the song, the guy (Gainsbourg, I guess), is talking to some girl, but the whole point is the he's never really specific about anything and replaces every place, name, thing, thought... with machin, truc or chose.
No comments:
Post a Comment