A little while ago, Joyce requested we look at lyrics by Bernard Adamus. So far, we’ve looked at the wording donne-moi-z-en here, and an informal pronunciation of the subject pronoun elle here, both of which were taken from his lyrics.
Let’s look at something new from him:
un vingt dins poches
This is taken from his song Donne-moi-z’en. What does dins mean?
First, dins is pronounced as if it were written dain in French. It rhymes with the French words bain and main. In other words, the ins of dins is the nasalised in sound.
Dins is in fact a contraction. It’s a contraction of dans + les.
un vingt dins poches
= un vingt dans les poches
a twenty(-dollar bill) in her pocket (literally, a twenty in the pockets)
In another song by Bernard Adamus (Arrange-toi avec ça), he uses:
dins chars
dins parcs
dins rues
These mean in the cars, in the parks, in the streets. Dans les chars, dans les parcs, dans les rues.
What if the word after dins begins with a vowel?
dins années 50
In this case, the liaison is heard. The s transfers to the beginning of the next word. So that last example sounds like:
dins z’années 50
The s on the end of dins comes from the s of les. In its uncontracted form, the s of les would also be transferred:
dans les z’années 50
Dins is a spoken, informal usage.
