A collection of idiomatic expressions in French with English equivalents and translations.
| Idioms | English versions |
|---|---|
| faire la tête | to sulk ("to do the head") |
| garder la tête froide | to keep one's cool ("to keep the head cool") |
| se creuser la tête / les méninges | to think really hard / to try to remember something ("to dig into your head / brain") |
| se casser la tête | to go to a lot of trouble; to worry about sb/sth ("to break your head") |
| coûter les yeux de la tête | to cost an arm and a leg ("to cost the eyes from the head") |
| se mettre le doigt dans l'œil | to put your foot in it - to make a mistake ("to put your finger in your eye") |
| être bouche bée | to be open-mouthed; gapping; flabbergasted ("to be mouth open") |
| être sans voix | to be speechless ("to be without voice") |
| donner sa langue au chat | to give up ("to give one's tongue to the cat") |
| avoir (un mot) sur le bout de la langue | to have (a word) on the tip of your tongue |
| avoir les dent longues | to be ambitious; to have lofty goals ("to have long teeth") |
| avoir un poil dans la main | to be lazy; to avoid work ("to have a hair in the hand") |
| manger sur le pouce | to grab a bite to eat; to eat on the run ("to eat on the thumb") |
| ne rien faire de ses dix doigts | to be lazy ("to do nothing with one's ten fingers") |
| prendre ses jambes à son cou | to take to one's heels; to run away ("to take one's legs to one's neck) |
| casser les pieds à quelqu'un | to get on someone's nerves ("to break someone's feet) |
| enlever une épine du pied à quelqu'un | to help / get someone out of a fix ("to remove a thorn from someone's foot) |
| couper la poire en deux | to meet someone halfway ("to cut the pear in two") |
| pédaler dans la semoule | to go round in circles / to get nowhere fast ("to pedal in the semolina") |
| tomber dans les pommes | to faint / pass out ("to fall in the apples") |
| tondre des œufs | to be cheap / a skinflint ("to mow/crop/shear the eggs") |
| sucrer les fraises | to be a bit doddery ("to sugar the strawberries") |
| c'est la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase | the straw that broke the camel's back ("it's the drop of water that made the vase overflow") |
| casser du sucre sur le dos de quelqu'un | to gossip about someone behind their back ("to break some sugar on someone's back") |
| appuyer sur le champignon | to drive very fast; to accelerate; to floor it; to put the pedal to the metal ("to press on the mushroom") |
| étre dans le pétrin | to be in a mess / a jam; in serious trouble ("to be in the kneading-trough") |
| avoir la tête dans le guidon | to be overwhelmed; to be striving; to be working hard ("to have one's head in the handlebars") |
| mettre son grain de sel | to butt in; to put one's oar in; to make one's point ("to put one's grain of salt") |
| se regarder le nombril | to be egocentric; pretentious; selfish; to think the world/universe revolves around oneself ("to gaze at your navel") |
| être soupe au lait | to be quick-tempered ("to be milky soup") |
| prendre la mouche | to go off in a huff ("to take the fly") |
| faire mouche | to score a bull's-eye ("to do a fly/button") |
| rouler à tombeau ouvert | to go at breakneck speed ("to roll with the tomb open") |
| sentir le sapin | to have one foot in the grave; have a graveyard cough; be not long for this world ("to smell of fir trees") - fir is used for coffins |
| (faire quelque chose avec) les doigts dans le nez | as easy as falling off a log ("[as easy as putting] one's fingers in one's nose") |
| tomber de sommeil | to fall asleep; to be asleep on one's feet; to be very sleepy |
| coûter un œil / un bras | to cost an arm and a leg ("to cost un eye / an arm") |
| (c'est) une autre paire de manches | (it's) another kettle of fish, (it's) a whole different story ("another pair of arms") |
| avoir les pieds et les poings liés | to have one’s hands tied ("to have one's feet and fists tied") |
| avoir le cul entre deux chaises | to sit on the fence ("to have one's arse between two chairs") |
| avoir d’autres chats à fouetter | to have other fish to fry ("to have other cats to whip") |
| Être comme un poisson dans l’eau | to be like a pig in clover/to take to something like a duck to water ("to be like a fish in the water") |
| taper dans le mille | to hit the bull’s eye/hit the nail on the head ("to hit 1,000") |
| mettre du beurre dans les épinards | to give one a bit more money (possibly ‘to put jam on the bread’/’to put bread on the table’..?) ("to put butter on the spinach") |
| être sur la paille | to be skint ("to be on the straw") |
Idioms were provided by Jan Underwood, Ludovic Martin and Lynette Raven. Corrections by Sylvain Bouchard
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More French idioms
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:French_idioms
http://www.one.under.btinternet.co.uk/list.html
https://frenchtogether.com/french-idioms/
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