Today I got an email from french.about.com on the many expressons of tomber. It's a lot....I mean a lot of uses for it. Maybe one day, I'll remember them all.
The verb tomber literally means to fall.
An example of that would be:
Goofy est toujour tomber. Goofy is always falling.
(Btw, that was a sentence of my own creation. Hopefully, it's grammatically correct...)
But tomber is not only used in that context. It can also be used in many, many ways.
Some meanings of tomber:
- to fall (over, down)
- to happen
- (familiar) to be/get busted/nicked
- (day) to end
- (fever) to drop
- (fabric) to hang
- (mustache) to droop
- (noise) to drop, fall away
- (number) to fall, drop
- (shoulders) to slope
- (wind) to die down, abate
Expressions of tomber:
tomber à/dans l'eau
to fall into the water
tomber amoureux de quelqu'un
to fall in love with someone
tomber bien bas (figurative)
to sink really low
tomber dans
to become, take to, lapse/fall into
tomber dans la marmite (familiar)
to fall under the spell, become passionate (about)
tomber dans le domaine public
to be in the public domain/out of copyright
tomber dans le panneau (informal)
to fall for it, be gullible
tomber dans le piège
to fall into a trap, be trapped
tomber dans les pommes (informal)
to faint, pass out
tomber dans l'excès inverse
to go to the opposite extreme
tomber de
to fall from/out of/off
tomber de la lune (figurative)
to have dropped in from another planet
tomber dessus
to happen/show up unexpectedly
tomber de (tout) son haut
to crash to the ground, fall headlong
tomber du ciel
to be a godsend, heaven-sent
tomber du haut
to fall from a height/(figurative) to come down with a bump
tomber d'un excés dans un autre
to go from one extreme to another
tomber juste
to be correct, to hit the nail on the head
tomber le même jour
to fall/occur on the same day
tomber par terre
to fall to the ground
tomber sur
to come around to, light upon; to run/bump into; to come across/upon
bien tomber
to occur at the right time; to be lucky
faire tomber
to knock down, over; to drop; to bring down
laisser tomber
to drop; to let down, abandon, leave in the lurch
mal tomber
to occur at the wrong time; to be unlucky
se laisser tomber dans un fauteuil
to drop into an armchair
ça tombe bien
that's fortunate/convenient
ça tombe à point/pic (informal)
that's perfect timing
ça ne pouvait pas mieux tomber
it couldn't come/happen at a better time
l'eau tombe en cascades
water is cascading down
et il a fallu que ça tombe sur moi! (ironic)
it (just) had to be me!
la foudre est tombée
lightening struck
il est tombé sur la tête (informal)
he's got a screw loose, he must have been dropped on his head as a child
il les tombe toutes
he's a real ladykiller
il m'est tombé sur le dos/paletot/râble (familiar)
he laid into me, went for me
il nous est tombé dessus
he showed up unexpectedly
il tombe de la neige
it's snowing
il tombe quelques gouttes
it's sprinkling/spiting (with rain)
laisse tomber! (informal)
forget it, let it go, never mind
la maladie, ça peut vous tomber dessus n'importe quand
you can fall ill any time
la nouvelle vient de tomber à l'instant
the news has just broken
la nuit tombe
night is falling/it's getting back
quand la solitude vous tombe dessus...
when you suddenly find yourself alone...
une quantité de problèmes leur est tombée dessus
they had a whole series of problems
qu'est-ce qu'il tombe! (informal)
it's pouring/coming down in buckets/ tipping it down!
un téléfax vient de tomber
a fax has just come through
...And you thought I was kidding, huh?
...And you thought I was kidding, huh?
To also make up for not posting for a few days, I have some good news for those who are serious in not learning only French, but for any other language that they are currently learning.
I currently follow Benny the Irish Polyglot and he's always doing some crazy new challenge for him to either learn a new language or improve on one he knows. He's just amazing!!
Well, he currently talked about how he uses italki to practice conversing Arabic. I checked it out and basically it's a great way to get a partner and practice each other speaking the language you are currently learning. He talks more in dept on his page about it as he has been using it for almost a year and has actually met with the CEO of italki.
Since I know English and Spanish, I can practice conversing Spanish and English with them and practice my French.
I'm going to slowly try it out because I'm very paranoid over things like that, especially when I don't know the person at all. You have to be careful who you meet.
But if someone who is already familiar with italki, I would love to hear your input on it.
Until next time...
Since I know English and Spanish, I can practice conversing Spanish and English with them and practice my French.
I'm going to slowly try it out because I'm very paranoid over things like that, especially when I don't know the person at all. You have to be careful who you meet.
But if someone who is already familiar with italki, I would love to hear your input on it.
Until next time...
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