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Muet comme une carpe
Channel your inner fish and don't say a word. Muet comme une carpe - mute as a carp - is today's curious French expression and it requires silence.The expression is used to describe someone who refuses to share information about a certain...
Continue readingC'est un navet!
This phrase is something you wouldn't be surprised to hear at a farmer's market, since un navet (with silent t) is French for turnip. But what would you make of it if you heard the phrase at the Cannes Film Festival?It so happens that, by a...
Continue readingÀ fleur de peau
Here is an elegant and visual expression that will impress any audience. Être à fleur de peau is used figuratively to describe a person with heightened sensitivity. It can be used as a semi-compliment to characterize someone who is easily moved...
Continue readingTenir la chandelle
Tenir la chandelle may sound like an easy task but it can leave you desperate for an escape plan! Tenir is to hold and une chandelle is an old word for une bougie, a candle.To hold the candle means to be the third wheel, i.e. the unwanted person...
Continue readingChanter comme une casserole
Francophones seem particularly bothered by the clattering of saucepans and this has inspired a...
Read moreJeter l'eponge
Literally to throw the sponge, jeter l'éponge is the French equivalent of the English expression...
Read moreJouer l'Arlésienne
This expression is a unique French idiom that translates literally to playing the girl from...
Read moreDécouvrir le pot aux roses
This charming expression involves roses, presumably sitting in a planter - pot - which must have...
Read moreUn autre son de cloche
Literally, the expression translates into another (a different) bell sound. When you strike or...
Read moreRire comme une baleine
Perhaps you have heard of La Vache Qui Rit - The Laughing Cow? Well, move over Laughing Cow! ...
Read moreAvoir le coup de foudre (pour...)
Foudre means lightning, and un coup de foudre is a lightning bolt - useful vocabulary if you're...
Read morePlein comme un oeuf
Literally translated as, “full as an egg,” it is a colloquial simile applied to a thing or a...
Read moreLe gratin
As cooks may already know, gratin is the generic French term for preparations (often involving...
Read moreChercher midi à 14h
Admittedly, Einstein taught us that time is relative. But looking for noon when it's 2pm seems...
Read moreUn ange passe....
At first sight, all words in this expression are easy to translate from French into English: un...
Read morePendre la Crémaillère
If you are invited to a pendaison de crémaillère, you may be surprised to find out this has...
Read moreMettre les pieds dans le plat
This French expression litterally translates as putting (one's) feet in the dish. In the...
Read moreLa Bûche de Noël
Head into any pastry shop in France in December, and you’ll find a number of incarnations of the...
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Traîner des casseroles
Frequently used in politics, the expression is one for the image conscious. It translates...
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