As everybody knows, our dear Monsieur Bonnefoy is a romantic man, and what’s more romantic than calling your lover a thousand things that aren’t their actual name! ♥ Pet names are extremely common in french, you can use them for practically anybody but beware! Some names are adequate for friends but not lovers, young people but not older people, men but not women-
I’ve seen these pet names used wrong in many, many fanfics I’ve read online so I think a bit of a crash course would be good for anybody who writes fic with Francis!
NOTE: French is, like many other romance languages, a gendered language with a grammatical masculine and feminine. French does not have a gender-neutral pronoun (at least, not officially) and thus no gender-neutral way to refer to words.
This is important to keep in mind for the sake of grammar alone. Thank you.
1/ The basics
The most used pet name is chéri, which means dear. Mon chéri = my dear.
Chéri/e is a ‘cuter’ version of the words cher/chère which also mean dear (but can also mean dear as in ‘expensive’- it’s considered a little old-timey or sarcastic to call someone mon cher/ma chère nowadays!)
The most common mistakes people make are mixing up gender-relative pronouns and the gender of the word itself. Chéri is a variable word, meaning it has a feminine; chérie.
Mon chérie and ma chéri are both incorrect.
As you may have noticed, there’s a change of pronoun whether the word is masculine or feminine. Mon and ma both mean ‘my’ but are both respectively the male and female possessive pronoun.
2/ Variable/Invariable words
Nouns in french can be variable or invariable, meaning that some of them have an ‘other gender’ equivalent or not! Chéri is variablebecause it has a female equivalent, chérie (also note: the letter e at the end of a word often denotes the feminine form BUT NOT ALWAYS! ahhhh… French.)
Amour (love) is invariable on this point. Amour is a masculine word with no feminine equivalent, therefore one would always call their lover mon amour regardless of them being a man or a woman.
Mon trésor (my treasure) is masculine, ma puce (my flea) is feminine (I swear it’s used! ;o; ), mon ange (my angel) is masculine, mon cœur (my heart) is also masculine, ma biche (my doe) is feminine, etc…
Animal names as pet names will more often than not have a feminine. Mon loup/ma louve (my wolf) is an example of this. Always check if your preferred animal nickname has a masculine or feminine equivalent! Some animal names are only used in one form- But that’s anther story.
Anyway, I’m rambling. Let’s get to what we were all here for!
3/ Use of pet names and terms of endearment
For a male lover, Francis would most likely use…
Mon cher (my dear)
Mon chéri (my dear) *
Mon amour (my love)
Mon cœur (my heart)
Mon canard (my duck)
Mon trésor (my treasure) *
Mon loup (my wolf) [ variant: loulou * (also a diminutive for the name Louis) ]
Grand fou (translates to crazy man, supposedly a man who is crazy about you) *
Mon étalon (my stallion – with OBVIOUS SEXUAL CONNOTATIONS)
Mon beau(my handsome (man) )
Mon ours (my bear)
(*) These can be used without the possessive pronoun
For a female lover, Francis would most likely use…
Ma chère (my dear)
Ma chérie (my dear) *
Mon amour (my love)
Mon cœur (my heart)
Mon ange (my angel)
Mon trésor (my treasure) *
Ma tigresse(my (female) tiger – kind of sexual) *
Mon chaton(my kitten) *
Ma biche (my doe)
Ma belle (my beautiful (girl/woman) )
Ma colombe (my dove)
Ma poupée (my doll)*
(*) These can be used without the possessive pronoun
For your convenience, here’s a list of terms of endearment that are mostly gender-neutral, regarding the person you use it with.
Mon amour (my love)
Mon cœur (my heart)
Mon ange (my angel)
Mon trésor (my treasure)
I’m sure I’ll find others soon enough. Chéri/e can be used verbally since both words are pronounced exactly the same way!
BONUS:
(I wanted an excuse to draw Monmon)
Let me explain to you the use of mon chou.
There is actually no good translation for this word (cauliflower isn’t an accurate equivalent) but it goes in the same vein as chéri. It’s an invariable word which is always masculine regardless of who you use it for. It can be honest, friendly, loving, motherly- or downright condescending. (think- oh honey…) Context is always important for this. I personally hc that Monaco uses it a lot for this ambiguity!
That’s all I have for now! I apologise if it was a bit rambly or complicated- but feel free to ask questions in the replies or my askbox!
Look what I found while grocery shopping earlier today ! Apparently Prince Lestat has just been published in French !? (I thought it was the case since like a year and a half but apparently not)
Aaaand the best part is, the local store decided to put it in the YA fictions, just between Percy Jackson and John Green’s books. I really don’t know what happened for them to make that decision (maybe they just read the first two pages and were like “Oh my god, 1st person narrator and that main protagonist bitching about everything, must be one of these post-apocalyptic teenager thing”. Anyway, I’m sure Lestat would appreciate.
~~~VC has infiltrated the YA section, it’s official!~~~
//ooc: Mun’s going to take this one bc I know there’s some debate about his name, and part of the confusion is bc
in movie!IWTV it is pronounced more like “Les-CAT” with a somewhat softened second T, and there’s canon that has him indicating that alternate, “less-DOT” wackiness.
My headcanon is that he prefers the “Les-CAT” version, in especially domestic moments, Louis will call him “ ‘Stat,” which, incidentally, is also the abbreviation for a medical emergency, which they both find humorous.
I just cut a random set of three shots w/ different characters pronouncing his name; Claudia, Louis, and Armand: I even did subtitles theses are the lengths I go to for you!
IIRC, we don’t actually see Lestat say his own name in the movie, but he presumably told Louis and Claudia how he prefers it.
Personally, I prefer the IWTV film adaptation version, it feels warmer to me than that harsh “DOT.” AR was involved with that adaptation so she could have made a point to have it pronounced however she wanted, and Neil Jordan had worked with her very closely, so I doubt he would have overrode her on that but it’s possible he decided it should be pronounced differently to how she preferred.
IIRC, the books don’t actually indicate the pronunciation until several books in, and many ppl do not consider these later books canon anyway, but here’s a quote re: his name’s pronunciation:
From Blackwood Farm (2002), when asked his name: “ ‘Lestat, Madam,’ he answered, pronouncing it “Les-dot,” with the accent on the second syllable.“
TBH I wouldn’t even consider a native French speaker a total authority on this since “Lestat” was an invented name which came from Anne’s husband’s name, Stan, with “Le” added to the front for “The,” and she has said that she intended for the name to be “Lestan” but made a typo and VOILA! we have “Lestat.” So it’s not a name that’s really based on Frenchness other than the “Le.”
ANYWAY here’s an older post with some more thoughts on his name… and one of our fandom’s native French speakers (who is also a language teacher!), @takemetocoffin-or-losemeforever, even made a video pronouncing Louis’s name (and Lestat’s!):
So it’s up to you how you want to pronounce it but I go with movie!IWTV.
I-want-my-IWTV 