![]() ![]() Oh là là ! - perhaps the most obvious example of a French phrase which uses reiteration is ‘oh là là’, which is used – both in France and across the Channel – to express surprise, particularly with relation to admiration.įor example, you may say ‘Oh là là, c’est trop beau !’ (Wow, it’s so beautiful).Thank you to the Connexion readers who have shared their own reduplication examples with us here are some: Louise may become Loulou, Florence goes to Flo Flo, Annie to Nini, Laurence to Lolo, André to Dédé and Christophe might be Totophe. People’s names might also be transformed into affectionate diminutive or pet names involving reduplications. Like in English, animal noises often get doubled up, which adds to their onomatopoeic quality an English duck’s ‘quack quack’ is a French duck’s ‘ coin-coin’, a crow would ‘crôa crôa’, a cat might ‘ronronne’ (purr) and a dog would ‘ ouaf ouaf’ (woof woof). For example, ‘dada’ is used to mean ‘horsie’ and ‘toutou’ is ‘doggy’. Reduplication also occurs regularly in vocabulary relating to animals, especially for children. Family member names also become reduplicated, with ‘tati’ (auntie) instead of ‘tante’ (aunt), and ‘tonton’ instead of ‘oncle’ (uncle). In English, you might ask a child if they want to go ‘pee-pee’, just as in French you would say ‘ pipi’. While in English, for example, you might say ‘okey-dokey’, ‘bye-bye’ or ‘fifty-fifty’ in colloquial speech, in French you also might hear ‘ ciao ciao’, ‘ moitié-moitié’ (half and half, or to go halves) and ‘ coucou’ (hello, or perhaps in some circumstances, cooee!). ![]() The French language often uses reduplication – the doubling up of just the stem or of the whole word, perhaps with a very slight change – either in familiar speech or while talking with small children.
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