What is the meaning of the French Phrase "C'est rien, mon ami"

Hi advaith1998

Translated literally, this phrase means "It's nothing, my friend". It
would most probably be used in similar situations to those in which an
English speaker might say "don't mention it" or "don't worry about it"
in response to an apology or similar statement.

"I'm very sorry that I pushed my way past you, I didn't realise you
were waiting for this train".
"C'est rien, mon ami".


Source: my knowledge of French dredged up from school days, coupled
with a quick Google web search (this doesn't appear to be a
particularly common phrase, there only being one hit), and as a
double-check, the use of Altavista's "Babelfish" online translation
service at http://babelfish.altavista.com/


I hope this answers your question satisfactorily.


Regards
iaint-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by advaith1998-ga on 12 Nov 2002 12:43 PST

How best can you re-create the phonetical pronunciation of the above
phrase in English ?

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Clarification of Answer by iaint-ga on 13 Nov 2002 01:16 PST

Hi again advaith1998

The basic pronunciation of this phrase, for an English speaker, would
be approximately:

say   ree-UN mon A-mee
c'est rien   mon ami

If you're trying to impress a French speaker then here are a couple of
tips to try to get the accent more correct. You can also check the
many resources on the web which give you French pronunciation guides,
for example:
http://www.jump-gate.com/languages/french/french1.html

The final -n on many French words is pronounced in a nasal fashion:
this means that it's hardly an "N" sound at all -- to get an
indication of what it might be like try saying a word such as "when"
without letting the tip of your tongue touch the inside of your mouth
or the back of your teeth. This is the sound that you're aiming to get
at the end of both "rien" and "mon".

The other point to note is that in English most common vowel sounds
"glide" towards the end; for example "reap" is subconsciously
pronounced "ree-y-p". In French, as in other Romance languages, vowels
rarely lengthen in this way and almost never turn into a diphthong
gliding towards a "y" sound. For example, when I tell you that "c'est"
is pronounced like "say" then that's correct but try to say "say"
without the "y" on the end (if that makes any sense)! A similar idea
should be used for the other vowel sounds.

I hope this gives you some idea of how to say this phrase.


Regards
iaint-ga


Google search:
pronunciation french

Thank You. That was quick. I apologise for my delay in reply.

Bon jour, comment ca va?

I want to mention is that in our French classes in high school (many
moons ago and in Canada) the language taught to us was French but it
was Parisian French. I've often times heard bits on the radio about
people visiting from France having a problem with understanding the
French spoken here, most notably in Quebec.

My mother's side of the family was French and I usually heard 'de
rien' rather than the more literal 'c'est rien.' A college course I
took in conversational French also used 'de rien.'

Au revoir, eh?
revbrenda1st