Keywords – Page 2 – The Paris Savannah Connection

Temperatures: Centigrade and Fahrenheit

It’s easy to translate temperatures between Celsius and Fahrenheit. You just need to know the formula.

Remember these key figures: 0° C = 32°F and 100°C=212°F

Here it is!

Remember these figures: 0° C = 32°F and 100°C=212°F

Remember these: 0° C = 32°F and 100°C=212°F

Remember: 0° C = 32°F and 100°C=212°F

Necessity is the mother of invention

There’s a proverb that says: “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it!”

So it’s raining. That’s nourishing the earth.

Burt as the French say: “Après la pluie, le beau temps.”

So be it! The sun and fair weather will make our gardens grow!

Another proverb that came up today was one of my mother’s favorites. Sorry … From now on, I’m going to write it this way: Favoritz. Well it was this one:

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Mothers like to talk about their children. In the same way that when a woman sits in the passenger seat of a car, she checks the quality of the mirror when the visor is pulled down. Just checking…on the children in the back seat?

Necessity gives birth to invention. When you need something … you find a way to get it, to do it, to solve the problem. We burst with creative power. Inventiveness.

After reading today’s news, good news! We have a very creative and inventive future just ahead of us.

And for a major boost of inventiveness …

the opposite of thoughtful?

… how about … thought… less. “Thoughtless.” “Inconsiderate.”

pronunciation : why? = y

Why ??? Why ??? = Why not?

pronunciation & spelling: way … weigh

Just a few sound clips … to show you how easy it is to pronounce and spell these homonyms!

We all know “one way street …” ((sens unique dans tous ses sens)) [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex18171d1.mp3|titles=one way street] and we know that there’s more than “one way” : Which way? Oh dear … No way! ((impossible!))[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex18064a1.mp3|titles=no way]

Talking pounds and kilos … How much does it weigh?

weigh <pronunciation> way [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/mf18171.mp3|titles=way]

Oh dear I just realized … the noun form of weigh is … weight. Which is pronounced just like wait. “Heaven can wait” wasn’t that the name of a movie?

weight <pronunciation> wait [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/mf18165.mp3|titles=wait/weight]

surely there are others … any suggestions?

If you need to practice your pronunciation and spelling … subscribe to the Paris Savannah Connection!

The vocabulary of “Green”

The “Greening of America: An Opportunity for Europe” conference held on Monday, April 12th was hosted by Microsoft at their new Parisian Campus in Issy les Moulineaux. Discussion centered around one major theme: Public and Private Partnerships, local and trans-Atlantic.

US policy is to export know-how and to welcome job creating innovative green projects.

I think French policy is about the same. So … maybe there’s some business to be done.

Most of the conference was in English and I was struck by the vivacity of the language used. I’d say I could understand upwards of 90% of the speeches. There were a few accents and some unusal pronunciations my ear had to get used to. But they were all informative, rich and intelligent.

Here are a few of the most frequently used terms:

green, sustainable and sustainability, partnerships, cloud (as in cloud computing);

There were lots of comparatives used and especially this one: cleaner. More efficient came out frequently as did the word “new” often as an adjective with both a prefix (re-) and a suffix (able): renewable.

These conferences are always good for scrabble players : renewability was used about every 15 minutes .

The prefix re- and the sound re- was heard in these words: reward … re-energize.. and recovery…. and responsible.

Innovation was a key word as was the subject: energy. And of course: energy efficient…which is, I learnt, what the Empire State Building will soon be!

Self-funding is a neat concept. I don’t recall if that came from a “public” or a “private” institution. Of course, investment was used over and over again but I have no recall of the word ‘cost’ … except in the phrase “low-cost.”

“Paperless” “Paper-free” : Someone in the audience translated these as “sans-papiers.”

More than one speaker used a very clear and easy to pronounce expression:

“At the end of the day …” This expression, which means … the end result …. is roughly synonomous with

“When all is said and done” or “The bottom line”

and in French … maybe something like … Tous comptes faits … En fin de compte … and I will say that today, at the end of the day, there was a lot of goodwill, lots of business cards exchanged and promises made!

I couldn’t help but note that one other word, a word which immigrated into American English from Europe, was used: Chutzpah!

Bravo to all the participants and thanks to the hosts and sponsors. This is a step in the right direction.

I’ll = isle = aisle

three words with the same pronunciation … so if you can pronounce one … you can pronounce all 3, can’t you?

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/MF58195.mp3|titles=I’ll]

Concept map for “achievement”

This document allowed me to enumerate, elaborate and visualize how the (my) brain sees this idea. What I associate with the idea of achievement. As you’ll see there are two poles: success and failure, one positive and one negative.

achievement

success
to succeed
to win
antonym= to lose/lost

won
victory
1. antonyms: defeat to give up – to surrender – to abandon

successful
profitable
satisfaction
1. antonyms – failure – to fail
2. unsuccessful
3. unprofitable
4. dissatisfaction/ insatisfaction

III. to achieve

to attain

complete

finished

antonyms: incomplete

unfinished

achievement

fulfillment

triumph

It may well be that different cultures, different backgrounds see this differently. To each his own!

What does “sustainability” mean?

I can’t say that this question prevented me from getting a good night’s sleep but maybe it should.

Nonetheless, when I woke up, the question was going through my brain: Just what do they mean when they talk about “sustainability” ? Is it ecology? Is it perennial? Is it anything “green”?

“Acting responsibly in accordance with what we know about our environment” is sort of what I come to. Here’s what a specialist has to say:

MIT urban studies prof Judy Layzer.

Thank you for helping us out, Judy.