Like its English counterparts, you can use this expression in a figurative sense, not just when someone or something is literally dying. Fir wood was traditionally used to make coffins, so if you can feel the fir, then you're close to death, or have one foot in the grave. In French, you can say “Je pourrais le faire les doigts dans le nez!” – I can do it with my fingers in my nose! 12. In English, when something is very easy, you might say that you can do it with your eyes closed or with your hands tied behind your back. When will Asterix and Obelix surrender to the Romans? In English we might say that something so unlikely will happen “when pigs fly” or “when hell freezes over.” In France you can say quand les poules auront des dents – when chickens have teeth!Īpparently the person who invented this expression was unaware that on rare occasions chickens have in fact been observed to grow teeth! 11. Like the English expression “to have a frog in your throat”, this means that you have a sore throat or a heavy cough. Avoir un chat dans la gorge means to “have a cat in your throat”. Once you've shaved your palms, you might want to get the cat out of your mouth. Idiomatically, it means “to be lazy” – so lazy that you've let a hair grow out of your palm! 9. “Avoir un poil dans la main”Īvoir un poil dans la main means “to have a hair in one's hand”. The meaning isn’t completely lost when translated – it means “to go crazy” or “to get very angry”. Péter un plomb literally means to break or blow a fuse. It's like the English expression, except they specify exactly how many pieces you're splitting the hairs into. In France, you'd say tu coupes les cheveux en quatre – “you're cutting the hair into four pieces”. In English, if someone is being meticulous or pedantic, we might accuse them of splitting hairs.
PAS TOUCHE MEANING IN ENGLISH FULL
It's similar in meaning to the English expressions “to be full of yourself” or to be “big-headed”. In French you say someone has swollen ankles if they're being excessively proud or arrogant. If a French person tells you that your ankles are swelling, it doesn't necessarily mean that you should see a doctor. “Avoir les chevilles qui enflent”Īvoir les chevilles qui enflent means “to have ankles that swell”. I guess the sight of a cockroach isn't typically something that cheers people up. If you avoir le cafard you literally “have the cockroach”, which means to feel sad, be depressed, have the blues or be down in the dumps. “Avoir le cafard”Ī cafard is a cockroach. Just imagine how you'd feel if you inhaled a big dollop of mustard! 4. It's easy to imagine where this expression comes from.
This colourful expression literally means to have mustard going up your nose, and it can be translated as to lose your temper or simply to be angry. Because you're saying “gueule” instead of “bouche”, you're implying that the person you're talking to is an animal.
“shut up!' or “be quiet!”, but it has an extra layer of meaning that's hard to convey in an English translation. So “ferme ta gueule!” in French – often shortened to just “ta gueule!” – means “shut your mouth!”, i.e. ( Gueule might also be translated as “muzzle” or “maw”.) There's bouche, which means the mouth of a human, and gueule, which is used for the mouth of other animals. “Ta gueule!”įrench has two words for “mouth”. This is a French way of saying that the weather is very bad – similar to the English expression “it's raining cats and dogs!”. Your friend curses, and exclaims il fait un temps de chien! – literally, “it's dog weather!”. Imagine you're walking around Paris with a friend and it starts to rain heavily. They should be handy if you want to understand what French people are saying – just try not to think about them too literally. What does this all mean?īelow I'll share some weird and wonderful examples of widespread French idioms. Spend enough time in France and you may hear people talking about having mustard up their nose, a hair in the hand, a wooden mouth, or a hand in the bag. Like all languages, French is rich in idioms – expressions that mean something other than their literal meaning. Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
0 kommentar(er)
