With another week comes another French word! Welcome back to our weekly blog – this time we’ve chosen the word mince.
Before we get into its meaning, use the audio clip below to hear how to pronounce it. You should notice that it’s nothing like how we’d pronounce the same word in English:
First of all, let’s set the record straight – mince in French has nothing to do with ‘mince’ or any type of ground meat as per English. This is a good example of a ‘false friend’, which are types of words you’ll need to be wary of as you continue to learn French.
Mince is an adjective meaning ‘thin’, ‘slim’ or ‘meagre’. Adjectives normally have different spellings that change depending on the noun you want to describe. This is called the adjectival agreement. Most of them have four forms to cover both masculine and feminine, singular and plural. But mince only has a different spelling when describing plural nouns:
- mince (singular)
- minces (plural)
Now that you know what mince means and how the grammar works, let’s have a look at some examples:
Mon grand-père est petit et mince. My grandad is small and thin.
Il faut couper ce saucisson en tranches minces. This cured sausage needs to be cut in thin slices.
La vétérinaire nous a dit que notre chien est trop mince. The vet told us that our dog is too skinny.
mince espoir (f) slim chance/hope
On a vu de minces résultats pour un tel effort. We saw poor/mediocre results for such a lot of effort.
de minces informations meagre/hardly any information
In casual and conversational French, mince has another use. But its meaning might not be immediately obvious. When used as an exclamation or interjection rather than an adjective, it translates as something totally different:
Mince (alors) ! Dammit! Crikey!; Wow!; Oh dear!
Ah, mince ! J’ai perdu mes lunettes ! Darn, I lost my glasses!
« Ouah ! Tu as vu cette belle maison ?! » « Oui, mince alors ! » “Wow! Did you see that beautiful house!?” “Yes, crikey!!”
After reading our blog, we hope that you feel ready to use mince in French. There should now be a very slim chance that you get it mixed up with the English word. But if you really want to know, it’s la viande hachée – maybe we’ll cover these words in another edition of our blogs… Until next time!
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
