Measures, quantities, change

The list for reading a chart out loud. In the middle of it is excéder, and beside the sense English shares it has one English cannot reach. With a number it is « to exceed »: le cumul des heures excède le contrat. With a *person* it means to exasperate, to wear somebody down — ça m’excède is « that drives me up the wall », and je suis excédé means at the end of one’s patience, not exceeded. English « exceed » never does this, and neither do « excess » or « excessive ». The noun splits too, which is worth having: l’excédent is the surplus — a quantity you have too much of, un excédent de bagages — while l’excès is the excess as a fault, l’excès de vitesse being a speeding offence. One verb, two nouns, and only half of it visible from English.