Today’s topic is a particularly exciting one! 

Selected just for you, the fans of the Transparent French Blog, our Top Five French idiomatic expressions which make a fine use of the verb SAUTER (To JUMP.)

Now, sans transition (without further ado), let us jump right to it, shall we, mes amis?

• NUMÉRO CINQ (Number Five): Sauter aux yeux

Literally, “to jump to the eyes.”

You say that when something is blatantly obvious, or, as the English expression goes, that is “as plain as the nose on your face.”

Of course, no need to be Pinocchio for that (although that would help. Quite a lot, actually.)

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• NUMÉRO QUATRE: Sauter au cou de quelqu’un 

Mot à mot (word for word), this idiomatic expression means “to jump to the neck of someone”, as contrasted with the one above involving “the eyes” (thus making it a heck of a lot safer, as you can imagine.)

When you say in French that someone has “jumped to your neck”, it means that the person in question has thrown his/her arms around you.

For example: “Dès que la petite fille a vu son papa, elle lui a sauté au cou” (“As soon as the little girl saw her father, she threw her arms around him.”)

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• NUMÉRO TROIS: Sauter du coq à l’âne:

When people jump from one topic to another topic completely unrelated, or at least seemingly so (the six degrees separation theorem applying to topics as well as persons. But I digress), you say ils sautent du coq à l’âne.

And literally translated?

“They jump from the rooster to the donkey”!

• NUMÉRO DEUX: Sauter au plafond:

Ever wondered how French people say “to flip out“, “to freak out“?

One informal idiom is “sauter au plafond“, i.e. “to hit the roof.”

But you can also say “perdre la raison” or “perdre la tête” (“to lose one’s sanity”, “to lose one’s head”, “to lose it”), or even more informally, “voir rouge” (“to see red”), “pêter un cable“, etc.

• “ZE” NUMBER ONE: Et que ça saute!

Often said in this fashion, “Allez, et que ça saute!“

Best by picturing yourself yelling it (authoritatively if possible, for maximum dramatic effect) whenever you want something to be done sur-le-champ (at once, immediately.)

It’s the equivalent of the English “snap to it“, or as our American friends like to say, “make it snappy!“

Of course, in French as in any other language (German included, mind you), it doesn’t hurt to ask gentillement (kindly.)

You can say “peux-tu s’il te plaît…” (“can you please…”), or more formally “pouvez-vous s’il vous plaît…” (“could you please…”)

Even more formally, you can say “auriez-vous l’amabilité de…” (“would you be so kind as to…”), and pretty please, notice that the word above is “AMAbilité“, not “aimabilité“, as many mistakenly spell it.

Finally, most formal of all would be “auriez-vous l’obligeance de…“

The latter has essentially the same meaning as the former expressions—only with more “style.”