Today we’ll have a look at the feminine noun la balle, which translates to ball, bullet and buck. Specifically, balle is used for small-sized balls such as tennis or base balls (compared to ballon, which is used for big balls such as basketballs or beach balls). Balle comes from bǫllr (round thing) in Old Norse.
la balle
ball, bullet, buck
Pronunciation [la bal]
La balle – ball
Example sentences
For this first sentence, the l’ is a shortening of la, which is a direct object pronoun meaning “it”.
Mon ami jette la balle et je l’attrape.
My friend throws the ball and I catch it.
For this second sentence, two other words for gun are un flingue (slang) and un fusil (rifle; the final -l is silent).
Monsieur Bouchard achète des balles pour son pistolet.
Mr. Bouchard is buying bullets for his gun.
For this sentence, balle means “bucks” euros or dollars. The verb filer is slang for prêter (to lend). Pourrais-tu is the conditional form of pouvoir (can, to be able). Pourrais-tu (could you) is a more polite form of peux-tu (can you).
Jean-Luc, pourrais-tu me filer cinq balles, s’il te plaît ?
Jean-Luc, could you lend me five bucks, please?
Expressions with balle
- Se renvoyer la balle – to blame each other
- C’est de la balle – to be cool, awesome, to rock
- Enfant de la balle – to be a child of a family in show business
- La balle est dans ton camp – the ball is in your court
- Prendre (or saisir) la balle au bond – to take the ball and run with it
Related lessons
Reference
Word of the Day archive | Lessons by David Issokson
