November is a big awareness month. You’re going to see guys growing their facial hair out till the 30th for No-Shave November. You’re going to read posts about Alzheimer’s Disease Month. There will be tweets about American Diabetes Month. November is also Healthy Skin Month, Epilepsy Awareness Month, and Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. But wait, there’s more! In addition to Lung Cancer Awareness Month and Bladder Health Awareness Month, November is also… Sweet Potato Awareness Month.

Maybe you’re not aware of sweet potatoes, but they’re really quite delicious. You can find them in any grocery store – they’re the orange-fleshed beta-carotene filled root vegetable with  surprising health benefits. Baked and topped with a little butter, and you’ve got a perfect side.

Not only does this starchy goodness fill our plates and bodies, the word is also sprinkled throughout our everyday language. Prefer to lounge around watching TV all day? You’re a couch potato. Something hard to deal with? It’s a hot potato. Looking for the most important details of something? You just want the meat and potatoes!

French also has potatoes hanging out in their vocabulary. Let’s take a look!

When you’re learning food vocabulary, you probably learned potato as une pomme de terre, literally apple of the earth (a fitting name, really). It’s very common to hear une patate instead in informal conversation, but it’s part of the standard name for November’s special guest, la patate douce (sweet potato).

la pomme de terre – potato
la patate – potato (also a dated word to describe an idiot)
la patate douce – sweet potato
un sac à patates – sack of potatoes; used to describe either an obese person or someone who isn’t comfortable
avoir la patate – to be in great shape
avoir lourd sur la patate – to have a gripe against someone
avoir une patate d’enfer – to be in your top form
avoir l’air patate – to have a lot of energy
bailler des ronds de frites* – to be motionless from surprise
en avoir gros sur la patate – to have something weighing on your heart OR to hold a grudge
lancer une patate – to punch someone
refiler la patate chaude – to pass the buck
se renvoyer la patate chaude – to drop something like a hot potato

* frites=fries. Come on, they’re techincally potatoes.

Can you think of any other expressions with the word potato?