-aine

My partner and I were in the supermarket the other day and we were looking at buying some charcuterie for the week.  We always buy a fair amount of chorizo, as I could probably live off the stuff.  So we were talking about how much we would need, and we decided on about 12 slices.  So when he was speaking to the charcutier, may partner said "une douzaine."  So of course, this directly translated in my mind.  It was too similar to a dozen to not make the connection. 

Now a week later or so, we were with my sister in law.  She was buying something and we were talking about how many we would need.  So we were thinking about how many people we were buying for, all that, and eventually we decided on about 10.  So when she's speaking with the woman at the counter, she uses the phrase "une dizaine." After realizing she had not in fact said "douzaine," my little American mind was blown.

Apparently this is something rather common in France though.  The "-aine" ending can be put on just about any number of things.  So you could have about 20 of something, resulting in French to be described as, "une vingtaine."  You can do the same with any number in the tens, except once they start to get too high.  However, once you're back in the hundreds place, you can do it again.  Let's not go crazy with this theory though.

That's all on this end for now, but I should be back with some interesting information on filming in France.  I'm going to be in a movie here!  I have lines to learn and all that kind of stuff.  I will try and post a link when/if it's available.