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Should "manger des yeux" be understood literally or is it an idiom?

I am reading Alexander Dumas' “La Reine Margot” and came across this phrase: Le roi de Navarre ne voit rien de cela car, de son côté, il mange des yeux Madame de Sauve… In the context, it seems like it would mean that the king is being stared at…
pasawaya
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Limits on the Use of the Indirect Object Pronoun to Indicate Possession

I would like to understand why there are times when you can use the indirect object pronoun to indicate possession, and other times when you cannot. For example, you CAN say: Je lui ai pris la main. ("I took her hand.") but you CAN'T say: Elle lui a…
Scitosol
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Quand peut-on mettre 'avec' à la fin de la phrase ?

Quelques exemples : Les résultats ne sont pas satisfaisants pour le moment, mais il faut faire avec. On a perdu le match, mais il faut faire avec. Il avait pris un bâton et faisait des moulinets avec. Ça ne vous appartient pas et il ne faut…
Dimitris
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Putting two prepositions next to each other

Is it possible to put two prepositions next to each other in the following manner? Je ne me souviens pas de à qui il parlait.
Shakir Rather
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Tousser in the reflexive?

I'm reading the lyrics to Le Grand Jour, a song from the musical Les Misérables. I found this line from Javert. Leur émeute en culottes courtes, Je la suivrai dans leurs rangs; Je les tousserai sans qu'ils s'en doutent... Demain c'est le jugement…
colorlace
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Prononciation : "aidée" contre "aidé"

J'ai consulté un psychothérapeute, qui m'a aidée à... J'ai consulté un psychothérapeute, qui m'a aidé à... Nous avons consulté un psychothérapeute, qui nous a aidés à... Nous avons consulté un psychothérapeute, qui nous a aidées à... Le…
Dimitris
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Pourquoi les enfants croivent-ils ?

Pourquoi les enfants disent-ils souvent 'croivent' pour 'croient' ? Il ne s'agit pas d'une irrégularité oubliée ('vous disez'). Et il n'y a aucun 'v' dans la conjugaison de 'croire'.
Mathieu Bouville
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Translation of "cirons"

I'm reading Guignol's Band II by L.-F. Céline, and there's a dancing scene in which the narrator has to hit the bar bed, prompting the beat. As he was injured in the war, he is quickly exhausted, and to describe this particular moment appears the…
user23005
8
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2 answers

How are defunct spellings pronounced when read aloud?

Older French texts often use defunct spellings, such as -oi instead of -ai in verb conjugations or spellings that contain consonants that were later dropped, like in doubter. When these texts are read aloud by modern French speakers, are these words…
Maroon
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Behaviour of verb that looks pronominal but doesn't have a "se" entry in the dictionary?

Suppose I want to translate "I pinched myself". I see that "to pinch" in French is "pincer" , and that there (more or less) isn't a "se pincer" entry. I know that a typical pronominal verb, such as "se demander", uses être instead of avoir when in…
silph
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Equivalent en français courant, et aussi en linguistique française de "mondegreen"

Quel est le terme courant en français, et en linguistique française (deux termes s'ils sont différents), équivalents à "mondegreen"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen En espagnol, c'est par exemple "pomporruta", voir…
Quidam
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How and when was the name "Pays de Galles" constructed in French?

I am asking this in relation to this Linguistics question: When was the name of Wales first mentioned in Romanian, and in which form?. At the same time I have posted this on English SE: Etymology of the name Wales/Welsh in modern English: which one…
cipricus
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"La femme de Dupont brise son silence sur son état" : ambiguous or not?

"La femme de Dupont brise son silence sur son état". Should it be understood that it conveys the meaning of "Dupont's wife breaks HER silence about HIS (state)". or does the meaning depend rather upon the context?
Dimitris
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How to say "I only speak one which is English" in French?

I'm having trouble finding how to say "I only speak one language, which is English" in the following context. Person 1: Which languages do you speak? Person 2: I only speak one, which is English. So far I have: Personne 1: Quelles langues parles-tu…
SFR
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French hyphenation in printed books and publications

When printing books and articles in French, can the last word in a paragraph be hyphenated if part of the word is on a separate line by itself? In French books, can the last word on a recto (right-hand side with odd page numbers) be hyphenated and…
Mary Meyers
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