Words in a French Life by Kristin Espinasse

Author:Kristin Espinasse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A TOUCHSTONE BOOK
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Haleine

(al-ehn)

noun, feminine

breath

There are two things that cause bad breath.”

My son is seated at the kitchen table explaining la mauvaise haleine to his little sister. I’m at the sink, sleeves rolled up and peeling potatoes, pausing only to heed Max’s lesson on halitosis.

“Onions and Camembert,” he informs her.

“Ah!” she says. “What is bad breath?”

“It’s when somebody smells bad from the mouth.”

With that he puts down his fork, leans toward his sister, drops his jaw, and exhales, “Haaaahhhhh.”

This causes her to giggle. “Now you try,” he says. “Go ahead, breathe out!”

Jackie leans forward, rolls her noisette -colored eyes to the sky, and pushes out her tongue with a dramatic “Haaaaahhhh.”

Max’s face contorts. His little freckled nose bunches up, drawing with it his upper lip, exposing a row of new front teeth. A veritable grimace of dégoût.

“Your breath smells like Camembert. Beurk!”

“Haaaahhhh,” Jackie repeats.

“Arrête, Jackie!”

“Haaaaahhhh.”

“Ça suffit! Stop!”

Jackie is glowing from the discovery of yet one more way to embêter her brother. With this new torture information safely filed into her six-year-old brain, she rolls her eyes back level with mine and pulls in her tongue in time to say, “Encore du Camembert, s’il te plaît!”

REFERENCES: noisette = hazelnut; le dégoût (m) = disgust; arrête (arrêter) = stop; ça suffit! (suffir) = that’s enough!; embêter = to annoy; encore du Camembert, s’il te plaît! = more Camembert, please!

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