Christmas is coming. This is a season when we should be aware of how much God has blessed us. We should always be grateful and remember to share our good fortune with other people.
This year, instead of only singing English Christmas songs, why not sing the most famous French Christmas song: Petit Papa Noël On my linguistics blog I posted several different YouTube versions. Let's sing along!
cute-linguistics.blogspot.com/2011/12/petit-papa-noel-best-french-christmas.html
Please visit my linguistics blog and leave a comment.
French songs are not really difficult. You can use your English to learn French, and learning French words can help you improve your English vocabulary.
There are many French words in Petit Papa Noël which are similar to English words (cognates are words which are similar because they came from the same place [like cousins] or borrowed words). Here are three stanzas from the song. Can you recognize the words which are similar to English?
1 C'est la belle nuit de Noël
2 La neige étend son manteau blanc
3 Et les yeux levés vers le ciel
4 À genoux, les petits enfants
5 Avant de fermer les paupières
6 Font une dernière prière.
belle: French = "beautiful," English = "a beautiful young woman"
nuit: Fr = "night", Eng ~nocturnal = "occurring at night [ADJ]"
Noël: Fr, Eng = Christmas
1 = Fr, C'est la belle nuit de Noël = Eng, "It is a lovely Christmas Eve"
étend: Fr ="spreads out", Eng extend = "stretch out, spread out"
manteau: Fr =coat, Eng ~mantle = "cloak"
blanc: Fr =white, Eng blank = "not written or printed on"
2 = La neige étend son manteau blanc, Eng, Snow spreads its white coat
7 Petit papa Noël
8 Quand tu descendras du ciel
9 Avec des jouets par milliers
10 N'oublie pas mon petit soulier.
11 Mais avant de partir
12 Il faudra bien te couvrir
13 Dehors tu vas avoir si froid
14 C'est un peu à cause de moi.
