Baobabjo
I heard a great one recently: āManger les pissenlits par la racineā meaning youāre dead and gone. It literally translates as āTo eat dandelions by the rootā.
Ex:
>The house will be ready by next summer. I canāt wait for you to see it Grandma!
>Oh donāt be stupid! Je mangerai les pissenlits par la racine before that house is done.
Grenouille de service
I recommend Charles Timoneyās book āPardon my French!ā, very funny!
By the way the former sounds disgusting. It probably was the intention, but it still doesnāt look like a good idea.
There are hundreds that are very well known: āon nāest pas la pour enfiler des perlesā, āon nāest pas sorti de lāaubergeā etc ā¦
Ć“rtaugraffe !
Iām French as well, and I didnāt know also the 1, the 6 and the 9. I donāt know anyone using these sentences.
and yes there are many othersā¦.
āva voir ailleurs si jāy suisā
āil pleut comme vache qui pisseā;
āparachuter un congolaisā / ācouler un bonzeā
and so many many others we use everyday and I canāt remember them now (Iām a young mummy, sorryā¦)
servan
Yep, but āparachuter un congolaisā itās kind ofā¦racist. Oh wait, actually it is TOTALLY racist.
Ping
non, mais Ƨa doit bien remonter au 20e siĆØcle ! Peut-ĆŖtre mĆŖme le 19e
servan
Open a book, go outside of your home, meet people Iā donāt know, but do something about your cultureā¦ These sentences are actually used very often everywhere. Just a matter of generation, I guessā¦
Nico
I know a guy who is using 6 ā¦ but heās from Britanny, thatās probably explain a lot of things.
(Never heard No. 9)
Mandise
Iām French, from Brittany and never heard of this one ā¦. so that doesnāt really explain anything at all !
Bibique
no number 6 exists, but it does not mean to be cheap, it means to do something stupid. Obviously if you tie your dog with sausages, he will eat them and be free
servan
Yep, youāre right, itās a part of the explaination. But if you used to tie your dog with sausages, maybe you just donāt mind about the price of the sausages.
servan
No, they are notā¦ You are just not very smart, or maybe youād better shutdown your PC more frequently.
Cath
never heard 6 nor 9 eitherā¦ But I love āje vais mettre la viande dans le torchonā to say āIām going to bedā. Literally I go put the meat in the clothā¦ I heard it for the 1rst time in a movie, āla vie est un long fleuve tranquilleāā¦
Tf
You have āLa cerise sur le gateauā ( Cherry on the cake ). I let you guess what it mean ā¦
ā āLes carottes sont cuitesā : āthe carrots are cookedā => usually used to mean that the end is nigh/inevitable, all luck has run out, etc. For ex: āThe tunnel collapsed, but I am sure rescue is on its way.ā āWe are in the middle of nowhere and who knows how long they will take. I think that les carottes sont cuites for us, buddyā¦ā
ā āCāest la fin des haricotsā : āIt was the last long green peaā => same as above.
ā āUne tempĆŖte dans un verre dāeauā : āA storm inside a glass of waterā => similar to #3. Kind of making a big whoop about some small thing. Over-exaggerate on an issue or topic. For ex: āI gave my boyfriend a piece of my mind yesterday after I saw him chatting enthusiastically with our pretty newly-arrived neighbor.ā āYou are making a tempĆŖte dans un verre dāeau, he was surely just having a friendly chat with her, thatās all.ā
Jack McKinney
Actually, the third one is also a common English idiom, āA tempest in a tea cupā. As for the others, number one is at least passingly similar to āOur goose is cookedā but the others donāt have an obvious English analog.
Thierry
Im French, and instead of āaller faire teter les pucesā that I have never heard about, Iād rather suggest āAller mettre la viande dans le torchonā, literally translated with āto put the meat in the tea towelāā¦
Karine
Iām afraid No. 6 means the opposite. If you tend to buy expensive things, people will say that youāre the sort of person that ānāattache pas son chien avec des saucissesā. The idea being that if you attached your dog with saussages, it wouldnāt last, so you pay more for better quality and long-term results.
Clinton Spriggle
Do you not say āheās got bats in the beffroyā, āto drink like a fishā, and evenāitās raining cats and dogsā? yes iām french
Oooolala
I just had my French friend look at these and she said sheās heard of maybe four of these. Itās a good thing I didnāt start using them in France.
jean Traverien
Itās : chier UN pendule, not une pendule- meaning to shit a pendulum not a clock
servan
No at allā¦ Youāre wrong.
Erwan
About No 3 sometimes we say āchier une pendule a 13 coupsā pooping out a 13 beats clockā¦
servan
No, youāre wrong. Guys can āput down a rabbitā. Actually, the original meaning is more likely āset on a trapā, cause you can put a rabbit in a trap to catch a wolf, for example.
Mary Kissane
Iāve only heard of a few of these, myself, but since Iām not a native
speaker, Iāll just quibble with the title of the article. Several of
those the author cites have close English equivalents. We āchionsā a brick instead of a clock. We have bats in
our belfry instead of a spider on our ceiling. And we say āSleep tight;
donāt let the bedbugs biteā [ew] instead of getting sucked by fleas
[ew].
I think it mean, ādonāt be pushed aroundā
But iām french and i havenāt a great level un english !
Alex
As a French person, I donāt know, let alone use these idioms, except no 4. Not to mention how terrible they all are ā they sound like something a lower-class person from the 18th century would say. There are tons of other much popular idioms that are not outdated (yet).
PH
