Every language has its own quirks and funny sayings that seem quite strange if you don’t speak the language. French, for example, has many strange sayings that make tons of sense to them, but if you translate them in English, then they make zero sense. If you’re interested in learning typical French sayings, here are 8 popular French sayings and their English translation (with an explanation of course!).
Who knows, you might like so much that you’ll use them in your everyday life. We bet people will admire your deep knowledge of the French language. And it’s always funny to know some fun facts about a language!
Learn These 8 French Sayings
Avoir un chat dans la gorge (have a cat in the throat)
Obviously, if you want to understand French sayings, you can’t take them literally or else you’ll be quite freaked out by the French and their customs. To have a cat in the throat obviously does not mean to have a real cat in your throat. It means that your throat is scratchy or tickling, this usually happens out of nowhere when people start coughing and they’ll say they have a cat in their throat.
Courir sur le haricot (run on the bean)
A human cannot run on a green bean of course. This French saying comes from the 19th century, and it means that someone is really bothersome. Some say the saying comes from the folktale of Jack and the Beanstalk (when an actual human can run on a giant green bean).
Avoir la gueule de bois (have a wooden mouth)
If you’ve had a long night of partying and drinking, you probably wake up the next day with a gueule de bois. This saying means that you are hungover, in the sense that you are parched, dehydrated and need to drink 40 litres of water because your mouth feels like the Saharan desert. If you like to drink and party, you can easily include it in your daily vocabulary.
S’occuper de ses onions (take care of your own onions)
This onion can be taken more literally. If everyone takes care of their own onions, it means they aren’t getting into anyone else’s business. Same goes with this saying, you mind your own business and you don’t go around sniffing around other people’s business. Does it apply to the famous soupe à l’oignon, a delicious French food?
Raconter des salades (tell salads)
There is so much you can say about salads…To tell salads means telling lies. So, if you think about it, it makes sense that telling salads means you are saying lies since salads don’t mean anything. Like a salad, there are a lot of ingredients in lies: some true things, a lot of false ones.
Être sur son 31 (be on your 31)
Why 31? What is so important about this number? Some say it comes from the word trentain which is a very luxurious sheet or it could be because, on the 31st of July, novices would receive new cassocks to celebrate a Jesuit celebration.
Tomber dans les pommes (fall in the apples)
Fall in the apples??! What is that suppose to mean? Well, I guess it would kind of hurt if you fell in a sea of apples since they are hard and don’t have any elasticity. So it kind of makes sense that to fall in the apples is to faint. This saying comes from a letter written by George Sand from a letter of Madame Dupin who says she’s in “the cooked apples”, which means to be in a very advanced state of tiredness.
Manger sur le pouce (eat on the thumb)
No, you can’t really eat anything off your thumb unless it’s jam, peanut butter, Nutella or other spreads. This saying means to eat on the spot, quickly and then leave right away. You often see people eating at counters, standing up and then leaving right when they are finished eating.
Do these French sayings make sense to you? Do you know any other French sayings? If you’re curious about weird expressions, check our article!
Sources:
theculturetrip.com
