Skunk – French Story & Translation

Practice French with a fun and lively French story about an unfortunate skunk encounter – it’s a situation a lot of you may be familiar with! French story, audio, hide/reveal English translation / French story vocabulary.

Practice French with a French Story + Audio

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Listen to the audio a couple of times, then learn the French English vocabulary, then listen again. Only check out the translation if you absolutely need to.

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French Story Vocabulary

  1. Un putois: a skunk.

I have to add here that I’ve learned after this post that there was a difference between “un putois” which is brown and lives in Europe, and “une mouffette” which is the American black/white skunk. They both stink :-)

I didn’t know, and it’s a common mistake since Pépé the skunk is… Pépé le Putois, and not Pépé la Mouffette !!

Here is a picture of des putois, as you can see, they are quite a different animal. So sorry for the translation error in this post… but as I said, it is a VERY common mistake.

putois
  1. un buisson: a bush
  2. un aboiement: barking
  3. une odeur pestilentielle: a putrid smell
  4. un tuyau d’arrosage: a hose
  5. J’ai entendu dire que: I heard that
  6. le pipi: pee
  7. la chasse: hunting
  8. empêcher: prevent
  9. le mien: mine
  10. déménagement: moving
  11. une de leur tanière: one of their dens
  12. un piège: a trap
  13. relâcher: to free
  14. son ex-femme: his ex wife

3 – French Story

Are you ready for the French story? Press play to listen to the audio.

Use the floating blue icon in the bottom right to hide/reveal the English translations below or just click here.

Ce weekend j’ai acheté un nouveau barbecue et pour fêter ça, on a invité les voisins à dîner chez nous. Mais quand ils sont arrivés nos chiens ont trouvé un putois qui se cachait sous un buisson.

This weekend, I bought a new barbecue and to celebrate, we invited our neighbourgs over for dinner at our place. But when they arrived, our dogs found a skunk hiding under a bush.

Soudainement il y a eu beaucoup d’aboiements, et une odeur pestilentielle

All of a sudden, there was a lot of barking and a putrid smell.

J’ai pris un tuyau d’arrosage et j’ai projeté de l’eau sur les chiens et le putois, pendant que mon pauvre dîner brûlait sur le barbecue… Et puis j’ai essayé de sauver le dîner pendant que ma femme lavait les chiens dans la douche. (Si vous avez besoin de la formule pour laver les chiens après une rencontre avec un putois, vous pouvez me demander. J’ai beaucoup d’expérience…)

I took a garden hose and threw water on the dogs and the skunk while my poor dinner was burning on the barbecue … And then I tried to save the dinner while my wife was washing the dogs in the shower. (If you need the formula to wash dogs after meeting a skunk, you can ask me. I have a lot of practice …)

J’ai entendu dire qu’un bon moyen pour faire partir les putois est de mettre du pipi de renard, d’ours ou de coyote dans le jardin (vous pouvez en acheter dans les magasins de chasse). Les putois le sentent et ils ont peur car ils croient qu’il y a un prédateur.

I’ve heard that a good way to get the skunks out is to put fox, bear or coyote pee in the garden (you can buy it at hunting stores). The skunks smell it and they are afraid because they believe there is a predator.

Mais moi, je n’en avais pas. Alors, j’ai essayé de faire pipi dans le jardin pour empêcher l’arrivée des putois… Mais ils n’ont pas eu peur de moi, et ma femme n’a pas beaucoup aimé ça. Je lui ai dit que peut-être son pipi ferait plus peur aux putois que le mien. Elle n’a pas ri.

But I didn’t have any. So, I tried to pee in the garden to prevent the skunks for coming … But they were not afraid of me, and my wife did not like it very much. I told her that maybe her pee would scare the skunks more than mine. She did not laugh.

Lundi matin au moment où je suis parti pour le travail, un de nos chiens est encore rentré avec l’odeur de putois. Cet après-midi –là, j’ai appelé une entreprise de déménagement de putois…

Monday morning when I left for work, one of our dogs came home again with the smell of skunk. That afternoon I called a skunk moving company …

Peut-être vous pouvez imaginer un spécialiste de putois d’Idaho (?) C’est un homme qui n’a pas beaucoup d’amis (vous avez vu le film Caddie Shack ? Il est comme Bill Murray). C’est un homme très intéressant. Il sait tout ce qu’il y a à savoir sur les putois. Il pense comme un putois…

Maybe you can imagine an Idaho skunk specialist (?) He’s a man who doesn’t have many friends (did you see the movie Caddy Shack? He’s like Bill Murray). He is a very interesting man. He knows everything there is to know about skunks. He thinks like a skunk …

Il a trouvé une de leurs tanières sous notre terrasse et il a placé des pièges à l’entrée. Il en a placé d’autres dans le jardin, et d’autres encore dans le jardin de notre voisin. Je dois les vérifier tous les matins, et faire attention à ne pas laisser sortir mes chiens ni mes chats.

He found one of their dens under our patio and set traps at the entrance. He placed some more in the garden, and more in our neighbor’s garden. I have to check them every morning, and be careful not to let my dogs or cats out.

Quand il attrape des putois, il les emporte dans une ville voisine et il les relâche. Ma femme pense que son ex-femme doit habiter là-bas.

When he catches skunks, he takes them to a nearby town and releases them. My wife thinks his ex-wife must be living there.

Follow the link to read the next article on this topic : Les problèmes de John avec les animaux sauvages continuent (with audio)

John H.

Un peu sur moi: I am an anesthesiologist in Boise, Idaho. I fell in love with France forty years ago when I spent my senior year of high school in St. Cloud (une des banlieues de Paris). The French that I learned 40 years ago has long since evaporated. I've been taking French phone and Skype lessons from Camille for a while, and now "graduated" to take advanced conversation lessons with Olivier. Their lessons have been a very big help.

More Articles from John H.

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