Bizarre French Expressions: March
oui nide you!
Harness your most appalling French accents and get ready to horrify your French friends: it’s time for a recap of the past four weeks’ weirdest French expressions! 🇫🇷 🥖 En garde!
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
être en carton
Literal translation: To be made of cardboard.
Meaning: To describe someone who lacks competence, determination, or value.
Example: “No, I don’t want Janet to help me on the project, she is made of foam cardboard.”
Origins: Very recent, derived from fighting video games where weak characters look like cardboard cut-outs, the expression is more of a slangish one.
PS: You can decline it for humorous effect: “il est en carton pâte, en carton mousse, carton plat, etc.” (cardboard paste, foam cardboard, flat cardboard.) It makes it much more specific visually and can balance sentences' rhythm.
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
Faire la grasse matinée.
Literal translation: To have a fatty morning.
Meaning: To stay in bed all morning. To have a lie-in.
Example: “Anonymous reports suggest the prime minister missed the emergency meeting because he was having a fatty morning.”
Origins: This refers to the delicious feeling of being as indulgent and luxurious as soft cream, unctuously dawdling in bed…
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
Avoir la tête dans le cul.
Literal translation: To have the head in the ass.
Meaning: To be tremendously tired.
Example: “I went to the pub with Nigel last night… I have the head in the ass…”
Origins: What a delicate and exquisite expression. It’s used quite often by younger generations, but my mother would never ever say this.
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
Se faire un sang d’encre
Literal translation: To make oneself ink blood.
Meaning: To be very worried.
Example: “I tried to call her all day, I was making myself ink blood…”
Origins: Originated in the 19th century, this pretty expression takes blood, which represents the temperament, and mixes it poetically with the color of ink, black like bile.
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
À cor et à cri
Literal translation: By horn and by cry.
Meaning: Vociferously insistent.
Example: “After blocking the country, the French strikers demand, by horn and by cry, an immediate rise in their wages.”
Origins: Originating from the 16th century, this expression comes from large hunts, where the horn and cry would respond to the dogs.
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
Se mettre la rate au court-bouillon
Literal translation: To put one's spleen in a light broth.
Meaning: To get all worked up.
Example: “It’s ok to lose a bunch of subscribers every time you post; don’t put your spleen in a light broth.”
Origins: Very mysterious. The spleen is the symbol of humors and passions poetically, so the image of literally cooking it in a broth is pretty strong.
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
Mettre du beurre dans les épinards
Literal translation: To put butter in the spinach.
Meaning: Improve one’s financial situation.
Example: “Becoming a paid subscriber to Enfant Terrible will help Remy put some butter in the spinach.”
Origins: Butter used to signify riches. Also, to be fair, spinach is only really acceptable with butter…
Bizarre French Expression of the Day
S'ennuyer comme un rat mort
Literal translation: To be bored like a dead rat.
Meaning: To be bored stiff.
Example: “Michael went to see an all-silent reimagining of Macbeth; he mentioned being bored like a dead rat.”
Origins: A dead rat, dried and forgotten in a basement, is surely the ultimate symbol of abandonment and neglect.
PS: This is actually used quite often. You can also use the much more satisfying ‘se faire chier comme un rat mort.’ Just more intense, more pleasant on the tongue… More everything.
Thank you, Rémy! I am learning French for the fourth time in my life and must be making better progress, as I understood a few of these before the translations! I love the poetry of these expressions.
Avoir le cul entre 2 chaises ... j'ai lu les 2 autres articles sur les expressions françaises je crois qu'elle n'y est pas....haaaa c'est un régal de se rappeler la beauté de ma langue maternelle 😂