Transcript

Welcome to another French lesson. Today we're going to talk about a song. "I want love, joy, good mood".

It's "Je veux" by Zaz. A few months ago, I made a video where I explained that you shouldn't say "je veux" when you're at the bakery or in a shop, but that it's better to say "je voudrais", because it's more polite. You should never say "je veux" in French when you are addressing someone.

And many of you commented on this video telling me that Zaz was always saying "I want". So I realized that this song is very well known abroad, almost even better known than in France. This song is quite interesting because it's really fast French. There are many contractions in the sentences. It's really "fast spoken French".

Even if you have a good level of French, this song can be complicated to understand because of the different contractions of words and the references Zaz makes.

That it refers to things that you may not know. So we are going to analyze together the lyrics of this song and I am going to put each time the complicated words in English or put you images so that you understand what we are talking about. The first lyric of the song is "give me a suite at the Ritz, I don't want one".

The first difficulty is the Ritz. The Ritz is a palace, it's a big hotel in Paris, it's a luxury hotel "le Ritz". A suite, a suite in a hotel, is a large room where generally, in addition to the bedroom, there will be a living room or two living rooms, there will be several rooms. It is a very large hotel room that is generally found in luxury hotels, in palaces.

I don't want it, it's not for me, keep it. Chanel jewelry, I don't want it. Chanel, you probably know this brand. It's a big luxury brand that makes bags, jewelry, that also makes clothes.

It is a brand like Yves Saint Laurent for example, or Dior. Here she says jewelry, so jewelry is earrings, necklaces, bracelets. Give me a limousine, what would I do with it? A limousine is a very, very long car, which is often used to be noticed in the city.

There is a driver. Often, it's quite rich people who use it to go to parties, for example. Again, she says, "If you give me a limo, what would I do with it? So I won't use it.

"Offer me staff, what would I do with them?" Staff is implied to be house staff. These are people who will work for you. For example, cooking, cleaning, babysitting your children. She doesn't want anyone working for her.

A mansion in Neuchâtel is not for me. So it's not for me. Neuchâtel is a city where there are many rich people in Switzerland.

There are a lot of millionaires who live there or have a house there. And a mansion is like a little castle. It's a big old house. So again here, she's saying that if she's offered a house among millionaire people, she's not interested.

"Give me the Eiffel Tower, what would I do with it?" So the Eiffel Tower, I guess you know what it is, it's the iconic building of the city of Paris. So often, when we represent France, we use this symbol of the Eiffel Tower. Again she says even if we give her the Eiffel Tower, she wouldn't know what to do with it. She's not interested.

So, after saying everything she didn't want in the first verse, we go to the chorus where she talks about everything she likes, everything she wants. And so she says I want to assert herself.

I want love, joy, good mood. Of course, it's I want love, joy and good mood.

It's just that it contracts, so it's joy, love. So joy is joy, love is love and good mood is good mood. It's not your money that will make me happy. Again here, to keep the rhythm, there are contractions. So it's not your money that will make me happy. It's not your money that will make me happy. Your money won't make me happy.

Here what she means is that it is not money that makes you happy. It is an expression used in French to say that it is not thanks to money that we are happy. There are more important things in life than money. I want to die with my hand on my heart. Again, a contraction. I want to die with my hand on my heart. Here, she says me, I want to die with my hand on my heart. So here, it's not really a real expression in French. In French, there is another expression that is very close. It means that we are generous.

Here, she twists this expression a little. And what she certainly means is that she would rather die with honor and honesty than die very rich. Let's go together to discover my freedom. Together is "together". Freedom is "freedom". So forget all your clichés.

Clichés in French are stereotypes, stereotype. They are preconceived ideas, here she says "forget your stereotypes, your preconceived ideas". And then she says welcome to my reality. Basically, it's welcome to my world. Welcome to my world. Welcome to my world, welcome into my reality.

This is the life I live, this is my reality. Let's move on to the second verse. I'm tired of your good manners. It's too much for me. Again here, your good manners, it's I'm sick of your good manners. She says of your good manners. She contracts. The good manners it is the politeness. It is a way of behaving in a polite way. For example, when you enter a store, say hello.

Saying "I would" and not "I want" is good manners. It's politeness. It's good manners. I'm sick of it, it means we don't want it anymore, "I can't stand it".

I eat with my hands and I'm like that. Me, I eat with my hands, I eat with my hands means that she doesn't use cutlery, no fork, no knife, only her hands. And "chui" like this and "je suis" like this. So this is my way of being, this is who I am.

So I'm like, "this is who I am". I'm loud and I'm outspoken, excuse me. I'm loud and I'm honest. I'm loud and I'm honest. Again, the contraction. Loud is like I do, it's raising my voice. It's almost shouting. I talk loud.

To be frank or straightforward for a woman. Frank is the masculine adjective and frank is the feminine adjective. It means to be honest, to say what you think. In French, we say "ne pas avoir sa langue dans sa poche". When you don't have your tongue in your pocket, "tongue in the pocket". We say what we think. We are frank.

When you think something, even if it's negative, you say it. For example, I can say, I'll be honest, those pants don't fit. No more hypocrisy. I'm out of here. So here, there is a double difficulty I'm out, I'm out. First the little contraction. And then se casser, it's a verb in slang, in colloquial French, French slang or colloquial French.

Se casser, it means to leave. It's also a synonym of se barrer in colloquial French. So I'm leaving. Hypocrisy is precisely the fact of not being frank, of not saying the things you think. So when she says "fini l'hypocrisie", it means stop, finish, stop.

I'm tired of the wooden tongues. Tongue in cheek, so tongue, tongue and wood is wood. That's the literal translation. Often, it is said that politicians use wooden language, that means that they try to make everybody happy, to agree with everybody and they don't say what they think to be elected, they use wooden language.

So Zaz says that she's tired of people talking out of turn, she's tired of people who are not sincere. Look at me, anyway, I don't blame you. Look at me, look at me, anyway, I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad, at you. Anyway, anyway, anyway.

Anyway, it's anyway in English. Here, there is a double contraction too, I don't blame you, at the same time there is the "e" of the "I" which leaves and the negation. So "I don't blame you", I don't blame you. So it can be complicated to understand. And I am like that and I am like that. This is who I am, I'm like that.

That's it for this video. In the description, I will give you the complete lyrics of the song and especially a link to listen to the music.

I'll see you soon.