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French expressions you won't learn at school | ||
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A - C - D - E - F - H - I - J - L - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V
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À boire ou je tue le chien! Bring me something to drink or I kill the dog! |
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Arriver comme un cheveu sur la soupe About a remark in a conversation, to be completely irrelevant (literally: "to arrive like a hair in the soup") |
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Attaquer bille en tête He didn't beat about the bush (literally: "to attack with a marble in head") |
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Avoir chaud aux plumes To escape a danger (literally: "to have one's feathers hot") |
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Avoir des atomes crochus avec quelqu'un To have a lot in common with someone (literally: "to have hooked atoms with someone") |
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Avoir le cul entre deux chaises To be caught between two stools (literally: "to have one's ass between two chairs") |
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Avoir les dents du fond qui baignent To be overfed (literally: "to have one's back teeth swimming") |
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Avoir les jetons To be scared (literally: "to have the tokens") |
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Avoir les chevilles qui enflent To be very full of oneself (literally: "to have one's ankles swell") |
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Avoir des casseroles au cul To be haunted by a scandal (literally: "to have saucepans hung on the ass") |
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Avec ma bite et mon couteau To do something with very few tools (literally: "with my dick and my knife") |
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Avoir le cul bordé de nouilles To be lucky (literally: "to have the ass full of noodles") |
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Avoir trois métros de retard To always be one step behind (literally: "to be three metros late") |
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Avoir un chat dans la gorge To have a frog in one's throat (literally: "to have a cat in one's throat") |
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Avoir un fil à la patte To be tied down (literally: "to have a thread at the leg") |
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Avoir un poil dans la main To be lazy (literally: "to have a hair in the hand") |
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Avoir une peur bleue To have a bad scare (literally: "to have a blue fear") |
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Ça me fait une belle jambe A fat lot of good that does me! (literally: "It makes me a nice leg") |
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Ça ne casse pas des briques It has nothing to write home about (literally: "It doesn't break bricks") |
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Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard It has nothing to write home about (literally: "It doesn't break three legs to a duck") |
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Ça va chier des bulles There'll be one hell of a row (literally: "It will shit bubbles") |
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Ça va être pour ma pomme It's for yours truly (literally: "It will be for my apple") |
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Ça vaut son pesant de cacahuètes Ironical: That's priceless (literally: "It is worth its weight in peanuts") |
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C'est dans la poche It's in the bag (literally: "It's in the pocket") |
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C'est le pied That's great (literally: "It is the foot") |
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C'est une autre paire de manches That's another story (literally: "It's another pair of sleeves") |
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Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide Once bitten, twice shy (literally: "A warmed cat fears cold water") |
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Coincer la bulle To bum around (literally: "to wedge the bubble") |
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Courir sur le haricot Get one someone's nerves (literally: "to run on someone's bean") |
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Découvrir le pot aux roses To discover a secret (literally: "to discover the roses' pot") Note: This expression does not spell "découvrir le poteau rose" (i.e., "to discover the pink pole"). |
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Démerden Zie sich German-like expression for "solve your problem yourself" (literally: "get out of the shit yourself") |
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Dire tout et son contraire To say contradictory things (literally: "to say everything and its contrary") |
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Donner du fil à retordre To make life difficult to someone (literally: "to give threads to twist") |
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Donner sa langue au chat To give up a riddle (literally: "to give one's tongue to the cat") |
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L'enfance de l'art Its child play (literally: "the childhood of art") |
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En voir de toutes les couleurs To be through the mill (literally: "to see some of all colors") |
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Enfoncer le clou To drive the point home (literally: "to drive the nail in") |
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Essuyer les plâtres To have all the initial problems to put up with (literally: "to wipe the plasters") |
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Être de mauvais poil To be in a bad mood (literally: "to be of bad hair") |
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Être fagoté comme l'as de pique To be dressed any old how (literally: "to be dressed like the ace of spades") |
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Être habillé à la six-quatre-deux To be dressed any old how (literally: "to be dressed like six-four-two") |
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Il en a bavé des ronds de chapeau His eyes nearly popped out of his head (literally: "he dribbled hat circles") |
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Enfoncer des portes ouvertes To state the obvious (literally: "To break down open doors") |
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Être comme une poule qui a trouvé un couteau To be at a complete loss (literally: "To be like a chicken who has found a knife") |
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Être un peu long à la détente To react slowly to something (literally: "To have a slow trigger") |
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Faire d'une pierre deux coups To solve two problems with one solution (literally: "To do with one stone two hits") |
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Faux cul Hypocrite (literally: "fake ass") |
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Faux jeton Hypocrite (literally: "fake token") |
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Fumer comme un sapeur To smoke like a chimney (literally: "to smoke like a fireman") |
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Haut comme trois pommes About a person: small (literally: "tall as three apples") |
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Il n'y a pas de quoi fouetter un chat It is nothing to make a fuss about (literally: "It's no reason for whipping a cat") |
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Il y a de l'eau dans le gaz Things aren't running too smoothly (literally: "there is water in the gaz") |
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Il y une couille dans le potage There is a problem here (literally: "there is a ball (i.e., testicule) in the soup") |
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Jeter un froid To put a damper on things (literally: "to throw a cold) |
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Je ne vais pas faire long feu ici I will be leaving soon (literally: "I will not make long fire here") |
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Je te vois venir avec tes gros sabots Now we are finally getting to the point (literally: "I see you coming with your big clogs") |
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La vache! Expression of surprise (literally: "the cow!) |
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La cinquième roue du carosse To be like a spare part (literally: "the fifth wheel of the coach) |
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Laisser pisser le mérinos Don't react to a provocation (literally: "to let the merino piss") |
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Laisser tomber quelqu'un comme une vieille chaussette To jilt somebody (literally: "to drop somebody like an old sock") |
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Les bras m'en tombent I am stunned (literally: "my arms are falling") |
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Ne pas avoir inventé la poudre To be a little dumb (literally: "not to have invented gunpowder") |
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Ne pas savoir sur quel pied danser Not to know what to do (literally: "not to know on which foot to dance") |
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Ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère There is no half-measures with him/her (literally: "not to go there with the back of the spoon") |
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Noyer le poisson To evade an issue (literally: "to drown the fish") |
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On n'est pas sorti de l'auberge We are not out of the woods yet (literally: "We are not out of the inn yet") |
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Parler à tort et à travers To blather (literally: "To speak wrongly and crosswise") |
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Pas piqué des hannetons Great (literally: "not bitten by cockchafers") |
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Peigner la girafe To do something useless (literally: "to comb the giraffe") |
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Poule mouillée Coward (literally: "wet chicken") |
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Prendre entre quatre z'yeux To have an argument with someone (literally: "To take someone between four eyes") |
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Quand les poules auront des dents Never (literally: "when chickens will have teeth") |
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Ronger son frein To champ at the bit (literally: "to gnaw one's break") |
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Sauter du coq à l'âne To jump from one subject to another (literally: "to jump from the rooster to the donkey") |
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Se faire chier comme un rat mort To be extremely bored (literally: "to make oneself shit like a dead rat") |
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S'en donner à coeur joie To have a tremendous time (literally: "to give oneself heart joy") |
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S'entendre comme larrons en foire To be thick as thieves (literally: "to get along like thieves in a fair") |
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Sortir de la gueule d'une vache This is said about a clothing item that looks cumpeled (literally: "to come from a cow's mouth") |
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Sucer les pissenlits par la racine Be dead (literally: "to suck the dandelions by the root") |
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Surveiller comme du lait sur le feu To keep an eye on (literally: "to keep an eye on like milk on a fire") |
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Tirer le diable par la queue To have money problems (literally: "to pull the devil's tail") |
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Tiré par les cheveux Far-fetched (literally: "pulled by the hair") |
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Tirer des plans sur la comète To build castles in the air (literally: "to draw plans on the comet") |
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Tomber à plat About a joke: not to trigger any reaction by the audience (literally: "to fall flat") |
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Tous les 36 du mois Never (literally: "each 36th day of the month") |
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Un peu mon neveu! Of course! (literally: "a little bit, my nephew!") |
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Vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué To count one's chickens before they are hatched (literally: "to sell the bear's skin before killing it") |
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Guillaume PierreLast Modified: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:36:52 GMT