French colloquial phrases you never learnt at school

Posted on 21/01/2011by nessafrance

La vache enrage? See below
See also my post More Colloquial French Phrases.
For my other posts about the French language, please click on Language under Topics
in the right-hand sidebar.
French, like all languages, has its colloquial phrases. The pure French that we learnt at
school has only a tenuous connection with the everyday French that people speak here.
The grammar is recognisably the same, but a sub-culture of idiomatic French exists that
probably never sullies the portals of lAcadmie Franaise.
English is similar, of course. Where does Raining cats and dogs come from? Or He
knows which side his breads buttered. And I defy all but the most fluent French
speakers of English to get their heads around Cockney rhyming slang.
So it is that over the years in France, we have absorbed many of these phrases, either by
hearing them spoken or by reading them in novels. Ive written about Georges
Simenons Maigret books several times. Although their language is now a bit outmoded,
they are a great place to find the kind of colloquial phrases that 1950s Parisian coppers
and villains used.
Naturally, there are hundreds of these idioms. Here are some of my favourites, with the
English translation, both literal and figurative.
Some that are just plain odd
Tomber dans les pommes fall into the apples; to faint. Why? Unless youve been over-
indulging in the Calvados.
Cest pass comme une lettre la poste it went off like a letter in the post. This means
that something went very smoothly. This seems counter-intuitive. In my experience, the
post doesnt go very smoothly at all, unless its to deliver bills, which arrive with
unerring regularity.
But dont get me started on that; we are convinced that a number of letters we were
expecting have gone astray. In fact, our neighbours sent us a party invitation by post last
summer, which never arrived. We missed the party and they thought we were miserable
so and sos who didnt deign to reply. In fact, they probably said, Ils veulent pter plus
haut que leurs culs (see below). We all realised in the end that it was a
misunderstanding, but La Poste is not in my good books. Anyway, Ill save La Poste for
another post (no pun intended).
A few that are less than complimentary
Il veut pter plus haut que son cul he wants to fart higher than his arse (apologies to
any readers with delicate sensibilities); it means that he is overly taken with himself,
thinks hes the bees knees (and where did that one come from, in English?).
Ce nest pas terrible actually means the opposite of what it appears to mean, i.e. it
denotes that something is terrible or mediocre. Youll often hear French people
describing a restaurant as pas terrible. In other words, it wasnt much good.
Il est ct de la plaque hes next to/beside the plate (in the sense of metal plate or
sheet). He hasnt got a clue.
A number that are based on food
Elle ntait pas dans son assiette she wasnt in her plate. Means that she was feeling
off-colour.
Mettre les petits plats dans les grands still on the plate theme: put the little dishes in
the big ones. In other words, to lay on a slap-up meal.
Danser devant le buffet dance before the buffet. This means to go hungry or skip a
meal. It conjures up some delicious images.
Manger les pissenlits par la racine eat the dandelions from the root up, i.e. be dead.
Mettre du beurre dans les pinards to put butter in the spinach. This means to make
extra money or to make ends meet.
Several based on animals
Avaler des couleuvres swallow grass snakes, i.e. put up with a lot. It would be no
mean feat swallowing some of the snakes we have here, which are easily a metre long.
Avoir le cafard have the cockroach. Have the blues, be down in the dumps.
Une truie ny retrouverait pas ses petits a sow wouldnt find her piglets, i.e. this place
is a mess. A useful one for those of you with teenagers, or even just a husband.
Manger de la vache enrage to eat a rabid cow, i.e. to go through hard times or to
have lean times. There seemed to be a few rabid cows in the Aubrac (see photo above)
the day we went to the transhumance.
I think thats enough to be going on with. Id like to hear of others, especially the more
obscure ones.
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