vocabulary

once again, i ask help to read this great book, which was made into a great movie by Jean Claude Melville in the 50's or 60's;

the protagonist's body is "de couleur mate";

i've looked in the french english dictionary on my 'puter, and in my copy of Larousse; and neither one had it; i'm thinking the book will be full of these idioms, or vernacular expressions;

anyone know?

isabelle hayes

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Permalink Reply by Marc Vonhalmen on June 29, 2009 at 10:11pm

Hi,

Maybe you should look for "mat" and not "mate" ;) mate is the female form (because "couleur" is a "female noun") of the adjective mat

It means : dull, matt

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Permalink Reply by isabelle hayes on June 30, 2009 at 12:58pm

gotcha; wouldn't a really good web dictionary alert one to this?

i've given myself the pleasure of translating this book for my sister, and exercising my knowledge of the languages at the same time; i can see i'm going to learn a lot...