found a great little site that's a real help if, like us, you're new here and learning every day!
google translate is my first 'go to' but this one is much more intuitive...
http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/pebble
we call it pebble - that's the translateion we were looking for - and it's much nicer than the actual name - (in all honesty i thought it was called pebble for the longest time) my builder husband kept hearing it at his (french) work...
keeping warm
xteresa
"cale" is any old wedge from the verb "caler" to wedge and so can be any old bit of wood to wedge something."coin" is normally a wedge used for splitting wood not for wedging something in place, just checked with French OH and she agrees, perhaps they've got some wood splitting wedges on site and use them as cale...!
I was pretty sure that they were using cailloux (and not gallets) for stones etc - some dictionaries give pebble as the translation which is why I wanted to point out the fact that many dictionaries are full of mistakes - gallet being the translation for a pebble - just a word of warning, some translations, especially on-line, and especially technical stuff are way off the mark!
Stay warm and enjoy the snow ;-)
ooh "chantier" slang! as specific in French as it is in the uk! but you're right, you cn get a long way with ça, là-bas etc!
actually, also andrew - (we're snowed in AGAIN here - so at home chatting) husband asks... 'cale' and 'coin' -they're using both for 'wedge' - would it be that coin is always small, and cale can vary???
thanks!
(here endeth today's building site traduction)
... interesting - they were using caillou - they're renovating a big old stone farm - rebuilding most of it. the guys he works with use lots and lots of slang, and also a 'building site' vocab... ca & la bas being most often heard... it's all good and him being irish they're impressed with his ability to swear more often than them...
Hi Teresa, which were they using caillou or gallet... gallet is a pebble but not often used in building, caillou is a stone from the ones you get in your shoe to big bolders ;-)
Just had a quick look. Seems pretty good.