Sur leur trente et un! All dressed up!

Madame Mallard et ses 8 canetons s'étaient mis hier sur leur "trente et un" pour les festivités du Nouvel An. Cette sculpture en bronze, créée par l’artiste Nancy Schön, a été installée dans le jardin public du “Boston Common” en 1987. Elle rend hommage à Robert McCloskey, l’auteur du célèbre livre pour enfant “Make Way for Ducklings” (faites la place aux canetons) qui raconte l’histoire d’un couple de canards (Monsieur et Madame Mallard) parcourant Boston à la recherche d’un endroit sûr pour élever leurs enfants. Nancy Schön a utilisé le livre et les esquisses fournis par l’auteur pour réaliser sa sculpture. Tous nos meilleurs voeux pour une très Bonne et Heureuse Année 2008 !

Mrs Mallard and her 8 ducklings were dressed up for the New Year's Eve festivities. This bronze sculpture created by artist Nancy Schön was installed in the Boston Common Public Garden, in 1987. It is a tribute to Robert McCloskey the author of the famous children book “Make Way for Ducklings” that tells the story of a pair of ducks (Mr and Mrs Mallard) going all the way through Boston to look for a safe place to raise their ducklings. Nancy Schön used the book and original sketches given by the author to make her sculpture. Our best wishes for a very Happy New Year.

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Grammaire / Grammar

"ses, leur and sa" are possessive adjectives. There are 15 of them altogether.
They agree in gender and number with the noun they modify and with the thing(s) possessed, not with the possessor (as it is the case in English).

...... EXAMPLES......

• ses canetons: (masc. pl). Her ducklings.
• leur trente et un: (masc.sing). Their best clothes.
• leurs enfants: (masc.plur). Their children.
• sa sculpture: (fem.sing). Her/his sculpture.
  ------> Note that son, sa, ses means either "her" or "his"
  ------> "sa" becomes "son" in front of a vowel or mute h: son amie (her/his friend), mon hotel (my hotel).

Lesson / Exercises

Vocabulaire / Vocabulary

• un caneton (masc): a duckling. ("un canard": a duck male and "une cane" a duck female)
• le nouvel An (masc): New Year's Eve.
• un endroit (masc) : a place.
• célèbre: famous

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EXPRESSION DE LA SEMAINE / EXPRESSION OF THE WEEK

se mettre sur son trente et un (31): to dress up "to the nines".

The origin of this expression is controversial. The most common explanation would go back to the Middle Age expression "mettre son trentain" (trentain was a luxurious piece of fabric). Over the years, "trentain" became trente et un. Others claim it could be related to a famous card deck played in France in the 19th century where 31 was the game point. A third possibility would refer to a military origin when Prussian soldiers were given extra money on the 31st of the month. For that occasion they celebrated and dressed up.
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