#naiméa answers

[miraculousfrenchculture]

Your post about Adrien="dark one" got me thinking about another name thing. A popular misconception I saw in fics is Marinette means "she who rises" and some people try really hard to make it work so they could combine it with her last name (which apparently puns as "maker of bread"?). No one believes me when I tell them, even with sources (aka no sources before 2015 ever state that name meaning). Just how common is "Marinette" as a name and are there actual different meanings/context in French?

Hello!

Dupain indeed means "bread"/"from the bread", so it's a last name that could be given to a baker. Marinette on the other hand is a bit more complicated.

The origin of the name is unsure, it could be from the latin word marinus meaning marine/from the sea, just like the similar French name Marine. It has been used as a nickname for Marine but also for Marie (Marinette means little Marie). French people would likely think about the sea when hearing the name Marinette, as marine is an actual word in French.

If Marinette comes from Marie (Mary), the name would be from the Hebrew name Myriam "the one who's loved", the sister of Moses. I have indeed found websites listing the signification as "celle qui élève"; that could be translated as "the one who rises/breeds/brings up", but I am unsure about it relating to bread. I can't say for sure that a pun was intended. Just like you, I think the fanfics are trying really hard to make it work better than it actually could.

The name Marinette itself was pretty common from the 30s to 60s but pretty non-existent since the 1980s. That's why many French speakers see Marinette as an old lady's name. But who knows, maybe with the popularity of the series the name could become mainstream again!

We celebrate the Marinettes on September 4th in case you're interested! A bit too late for this ask, but cool to know!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

What is the French equivalent for deez nuts jokes, like "ligma balls" "deez nuts" or other dirty jokes that are common in the States? Are they the same in France?

Oooh boy here goes an interesting ask 👀 hide the children quick!

So we don't really have the same jokes, but we have some dirty ones:

"ta mère" (your mom) : whenever someone asks who that is or about a person. Variants can be "ta daronne" or even "ton daron" (your father)

"comme ma bite" (just like my dick) : whenever someone says something is tall/big/small/whatever, the weirdest the word the funniest it can be, girls say it too btw

"titre" (title) : when someone says a sentence that you think could be a title to a porn movie, just say "title". Again, it can get very weird and funny.

"dans ton cul" (in your ass) : whenever someone asks "where?" or is looking for something. Even funnier when the person is annoyed because they can't find what they're looking for 🙃 A similar one can be "il est où?" "dans ton trou" (where is it? in your (ass)hole), funny because it rhymes

"yo mama so fat" exists in French too : "ta mère est tellement grosse"

Of course we have non-dirty ones, that Miraculous characters could use (that you will use too in your fanfics, of course you won't use the dirty ones above, right?)

"quoi" "feur": whenever someone asks "quoi" (what?) we say "feur" because it sounds like "coiffeur" (hairdresser, don't ask me why), another similar is "pourquoi" "fer" (why?) -> sounds like "coiffer" (do someone's hair). This joke is very bad and everyone will judge you if you say it, but tbh it's kinda fun too. Variant is "quoi" "la" (sounds like koala)

"allô" "à l'huile" : this one we say on the phone. "allô" (hello but on the phone only) sounds like "à l'eau" (of water) so we answer "à l'huile" (of oil). Makes sense in French but I don't really have a good translation in English. It's even worse than the previous one, only dads say it

"oui" "stiti" : sounds like "ouistiti" (marmoset), a kind of monkey but also the word we say when we take a picture (instead of "cheese")

"hein ?" "deux" : "hein ?" (huh?) sounds like "un" (one) so we say "deux" (two), people can follow with "trois", "quatre" etc. A similar one would be when people say "ah" (sounds like the letter A in French), we say B then C, D, etc

"ouais" "stern" : sounds like "western". This one is uncommon.

There's another kind of joke, whenever someone says a word starting with "di" (example "dimanche"), the next person will say what comes after the "di" (so that would be "manche"). This is because "di" sounds like "dis" (say) -> "dimanche" sounds like "say manche/whatever the word is". A similar one is with words starting with "cri" ("crie" means "yell") so instead the person will yell whatever word comes next: "cristine" "STINE!"

There are other jokes but the post is becoming a bit long! Many French jokes are pun-based or quite difficult to translate because they play with the sounds of words. I hope that wasn't too hard (comme ma bite) to follow!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

Are there any things on the show that are American-style and that are out of place or annoy you?

The first thing that comes to mind, for example, that Adrien is called - "Cat Noir" and in the French voice acting, it seems to be corrected, "Chat Noir". But Marinette will always calling "Ladybug". Although it seems more logical to give her the name "Coccinelle". Or is that not much of a difference from the point of view of the French world within the series?

(I understand that many people watch the Show in English and therefore the names of the characters have English names, but my question is rather, how incorrect is this for those who, like the cartoon characters, are from France?)

P.S. Thanks for your reply and blog! A very good and interesting idea 💌

I don't recall any particular "very obvious American thing" in the show, given that it's pretty much the opposite and the writing goes way into the Parisian clichés.

The show of course is very inspired by American culture and super heroes, a lot of tropes come from here (also Japanese magical girls but that's another subject). We talked about it in the Discord server, here's our French/French speaking✨ opinion on English names:

Apart from the obvious lip-syncing problem it would lead to, naming our main heroine Coccinelle instead of Ladybug wouldn't sound as cool in our opinion. The name Ladybug has the advantage of including "Lady", just like many superheroes include "man", "woman" or other variations. Same for her superpowers, we like the English names! "Porte-bonheur" sounds cool but "Lucky Charm" is way better. On the other hand we think the Magical Charms were a bit too much, naming them "talisman" would have been an alternative.

We. do. not. like. Cat Noir. at all. Sorry, but it is an abomination 😂 Chat Noir all the way! We do like "cataclysme" tho, "chataclysme" would've been a bit too much. And we're used to English names in a lot of media we consume, so no problem here! It doesn't feel out of place at all. American names sound stylish in a lot of French people eyes because we watch a lot of American series, listen to American songs etc. Some French creators even give American sounding names to their creations, Totally Spies comes to mind for example. It's French-Canadian but feels very American.

Hope it helped, and thanks for your support ❤️

[miraculousfrenchculture]

I hope this isn't too broad... but could you guys tell us some French puns? Whether it's just common ones or ones used in the show? Thank you!

tHi!

We have a lot of puns, it would be impossible to list them all in one post, so I'll generalize a bit! Feel free to add your own puns in the notes. :>

Lots of our puns are based on wordplay, and pronounciation. We already have some in the show, especially character names (we're already making a post about these btw). One pun would be "cerf-volant"/"cerveau lent", which are pronounced the exact same way but mean "kite" and "slow brain". Or another one "cétacé dit la baleine, et elle se cachalot car elle a le dauphin" (literally "cetacean says the whale, and she sperm whales because she's got a dolphin", but pronounced the same way as "c'est assez dit la baleine, et elle se cache à l'eau car elle a le dos fin" which means "it's enough says the whale, as she hides in water because she's got a thin back"). So yeah:

cétacé (cetacean) = c'est assez (it's enough)

cachalot (sperm whale) = cache à l'eau (hides in water)

dauphin (dolphin) = dos fin (thin back)

Kinda hard to explain... A lot of our puns are like this which makes it difficult to translate! And dads love to make these puns, even if they don't make any sense.

We also have popular jokes called "Monsieur et Madame ont un fils/une fille" (Mister and Miss have a son/daughter) that goes like this:

Monsieur et Madame Cale ont 3 enfants, comment s'appellent-ils? (Mister and Miss Cale have 3 children , what's their names?)

The answer : Anna, Lise et (and) Mehdi.

Why? because when you say it out loud, "Anna Lise Mehdi Cale" sounds exactly like "analyse médicale" (medical analysis). It's basically a pun with the names that the other has to find out. You could make one with some characters from the show!

We also have knock knock jokes known as "toc-toc" jokes. And "les blagues de Toto" (Toto's jokes), basically jokes which all include a character named Toto, a dunce (a bit sassy too) student.

Another popular joke here is "pince-mi et pince-moi". It goes like this:

Pince-mi et pince-moi sont sur un bateau. (Pince-mi and Pince-moi are on a boat)

Pince-mi tombe à l'eau. (Pince-mi falls into the water)

Qui reste-t-il sur le bateau ? (Who's left on the boat?)

Then the other person answers: Pince-moi!

At this moment the teller of the joke pranked the other one by saying "Pince-moi", which is the name of this character but also means "pinch me'. They can now pinch their poor victim (usually a child because we like to annoy children and also they fall easily into this trap haha). Another similar one would be Embrasse-mi and Embrasse-moi (embrasse = kiss)... So they would say "kiss me".

There are many other jokes but I'll stop there because the post is gonna be too long. Hope you liked these and they could make you smile!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

Is Adrien's aunt's name supposed to be spelled Amélie, or just Amelie? Wiki said latter, but I wanted to sanity check that. For that matter, Émilie or Emilie?

Hello!

Amélie is the French version of the name, but many non French-speaking people don't have the letter "é" (e with accute accent) in their language, which might explain why they spell it Amelie. In French you'll always write Amélie.

Same goes for Emilie/Émilie, although many keyboards don't have the É letter (including French keyboards) so it's common to write Emilie instead of Émilie. Same goes for other letters such as À, È, Œ etc.

[miraculousfrenchculture]

What's so special about cheek kisses in France (we see them in "Despair Bear" and "Weredad", for example)?

Hi! Well cheek kisses (la bise in french) are an usual way of greeting someone you know well, while you would greet a stranger with a handshake.

The way you do la bise depends on many things. First, the number of kisses isn't the same everywhere, as shown on this map. Most of the French departments do two bises, and Belgium does only one for example. It can go to four bises, in which case I hope you don't have many people to greet!

The side you go first may vary too! Be aware or it could end in a very awkward kiss on the lips but mostly crunching your noses together haha. This map on reddit shows what cheek you should begin with (gauche being left and droite means right) depending on where you live. It's not exact but gives a pretty good idea.

You do la bise with family and friends. But with friends, there's a nuance. In some parts of France boys don't do it and prefer a classic handshake or fist bump, as la bise is seen as a feminine greeting. They still do la bise when greeting girls. Say Nino meets Adrien, he would do a fist bump (customised or not) but if he meets Marinette he could do la bise. Marinette and Alya would do la bise as well.

There's a lot of different ways to do la bise. Some people actually kiss on the cheek while some only do a quick touch cheek against cheek. In that case you can do a light kiss noise with your mouth or not. In every case this is a greeting and not a way of showing affection, so it's very quick. Emsy made a post about actual kisses on her blog a few times ago, check it out!

If you are sick you can tell your friends/family and not do la bise, unless they don't care and answer by a "oh then we'll be sick together" and do it anyway (stubborn french people). Or if there's too many friends, it's not as polite but you can make a general greeting instead of going one by one.

With covid la bise kinda disappeared because of obvious sanitary reasons. We instead do an "elbow bump" or "feet bump" by simply saying it out loud : "check de coude/de pieds!" and knock each other elbow/foot. Mostly seen among young people tho.

Now in the miraculous episodes, the two cheek kisses you're talking about are more than simple greetings. In "Despair Bear" Marinette and Chloé don't want to do it because they are not friends. The fact they do it anyway show how they're willing to do a truce for the party. In "Weredad" it could go the same way, showing Marinette and Chat Noir as friends/acquaintances.

Looks complicated but really isn't and people won't judge you if you mess up, but if you wanna laugh a bit about it here's a link to a video about la bise by Paul Taylor!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

How well known is Dr. Seuss in France?

Hi!

We asked the French members of the blog, and it seems like not everyone knows who he is. Those who lived / have family in the UK know him, but other French members had no idea who he was.

We still knew some of his work, The Grinch in particular because of the movies that made it more known in France. We also heard about him in news but nothing much.

In the show, Adrien may know his work (since he's got family in London) but other characters like Marinette probably wouldn't except for the Grinch.

Here in France some more popular similar authors would be Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Claude Ponti and Yvan Pommeaux. Some English speaking authors known in France would be Beatrix Potter, Roald Dahl and Tomi Ungerer. Of course there are many more, so if you're interested we could do a proper list!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

Sorry if this was answered previously, but I was curious after rewatching some episodes. I notice the characters drink orange juice a lot and at the end of Ikari Gozen, Marinette and Kagami go get orange juice at the end of the episode. Is orange juice a big part of French culture?

It just kinda stood out that these kids make plans to go get orange juice in the same way they made plans to get ice cream.

Hello!

Orange juice isn't especially a big part of French culture, although it's the most popular fruit juice here! Other popular fruit juices are apple and multifruits.

In the episodes, going to get orange juice would probably be a way of hanging out for the characters. Eating together is a way to strengthen friendship! Ice cream would be similar.

[miraculousfrenchculture]

What messaging app do you mostly use in France, or more specifically the young teens? From what I know, each country has different platforms that they mostly use. (Messanger, WeChat, WhatsApp, Telegram, KakaoTalk, LINE, iMessage or just a simple text message)

Hello!

We use multiple apps here! I'll try to name a few:

Facebook Messenger is very popular especially for groupchats (class groups mostly). This is because lots of people have Facebook and it's easy to find them. Facebook is becoming less popular among teens nowadays though

We also have WhatsApp, but mostly older people use it

Snapchat was really popular a few years ago (so for the ML class it would be popular since the show takes place in 2015). It's still used by a lot of teens

Discord has become more popular lately because of covid, but still not as much as Messenger or Snap

Text messaging is still very popular here.

We also send messages through DMs (messages privés), on Instagram, Twitter etc

KakaoTalk, LINE and WeChat aren't used here.

Here you go! I speak from my experience so not everyone may use the same texting apps but that's about what I know in general!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

Oooh, I have a question I need help with.

For people in North America, Mexico is the cheap vacation destination since it's relatively close (less expensive flights I guess?) and all-inclusive resorts mean that the full cost is known in advance.

Where would French people go for a similar type of vacation?

(Asking in the context of what a production company might choose for a reality tv show. Asking on anon because it relates to my big bang fic.)

French people like to go on vacation especially during the summer! One of the main destination is... France, mostly in the South where french people can enjoy the sun. We see a lot of tourism between regions and people like to go camping, or stay in a hotel. Corsica is also a very popular touristic destination. France itself is a touristic destination for other countries, mainly Paris because of its many attractions.

Apart from France, we mostly go to the closest European countries, since staying in the EU makes travelling easier (mostly because we can go by car and the currency is the same). Spain, Italy and Portugal are the main choices because it's sunny, the beach is nearby and the cost of living is not that expensive. But we also go to other close countries such as Belgium, Germany or the UK.

Regarding reality TV shows, it mostly depends on the type of show you're looking for. Popular TV shows such as Les Marseillais, Les Anges or Les Ch'tis like to show idyllic destinations : Ibiza, Dubai, Rio and Miami come to mind. The goal is to put all the participants in the same villa in famous places around the world, changing every season. But if the production doesn't have the budget, they'll likely choose cheaper destinations, as long as it feels like a holiday trip : Spanish islands would be great. Now some different types of shows choose different destinations. For example Koh Lanta (adapted from another show, Survivor) first took place in Thailand, then in various places around the world. Since the goal is to survive in the wild of an island, the landscapes are very different from an usual reality TV show.

It really depends on the type of show you're looking for!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

Hi! This blog is such a cool idea, thanks guys!

One thing I've noticed from watching the show is just how much Adrien touches other people (particularly Marinette). I'm someone who can be very touchy-feely, particularly with my close friends and family members, and yet I feel like even I'd be super-uncomfortable with that much close contact. Is this just a cultural thing?

Hi and thanks for your support!

This is a bit of a tricky question as being comfortable with touch depends largely on the person. My own acquaintances can go from very introverted to cuddly people in one same group of friends! Adrien may be a more affectionate person than others. Plus kids tend to be closer than adults (Marinette and Alya act almost like sisters for example).

To some extent however, it could be a cultural thing. This would be difficult to compare without having lived in several countries but there are some hints. For example, Mediterranean countries like Spain or Italy, and Latino America are rumoured to tolerate more physical contact than Asia, Canada or Australia. France would seem more high-contact than UK. A study was made comparing European countries.

Again, it depends on the customs and culture. For example, la bise (which I explained a bit in this post) is a very common way of greeting friends and family in France, but cheek kisses may seem uncomfortable for people from other countries. This doesn't necessarily mean French people kiss everybody unlike what people may think haha, but I agree it can seem a little odd for non French people.

[miraculousfrenchculture]

I wanna give a quick thank you to all the mods for running this blog! It really helps with writing not just miraculous ladybug but for other french shows as well! Thanks for running this blog it's super helpful!

Thank you very much for your support! We're glad this blog helps discovering french culture (in Miraculous or not)!

[miraculousfrenchculture]

This is my new favorite blog😁❤️🌼

Thank you very much for your support!❤️❤️