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
Hear some French idioms:
Brought to you by FrenchPod101
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/
Information about French | Phrases | Numbers | Family words | Terms of endearment | Idioms | Colours | Time | Weather words | Tongue twisters | Tower of Babel | Articles | Links | French learning materials
- Learn French with FrenchPod101
- French Uncovered - Learn French Through the Power of Story
- Frantastique: French learning Online
- Learn French with Glossika
- French learning software
- Learn French with Lingoda
Find French Tutors with LanguaTalk
If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.
It's all Greek to me | It's raining cats and dogs | As easy as falling off a log | A sandwich short of a picnic | It's small world | When pigs fly | Out of sight, out of mind | Crystal-clear | Penny Pinching | Practice makes perfect | The grass is always greener | As Snug as a Bug in a Rug
Czech | French | Greek | Icelandic | Lithuanian | Manx | Russian | Slovak | Spanish | Swedish | Welsh
Useful phrases | Silly phrases | Numbers | Numerals | Colours | Telling the time | Dates | Weather words | Family words | Terms of endearment | Language names | Country names | Idioms | Proverbs | Tongue twisters | Signs | Compass directions | UDHR | Tower of Babel | Songs | Omniglot | Seven dwarfs | Zodiac signs | Computer parts | Compass directions | Animal sounds
[top]
You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, and if you like what you see on this page, you can use the buttons below to share it with people you know.
If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.
Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com
[top]
