{"id":22157,"date":"2015-06-22T13:55:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T11:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22157"},"modified":"2017-10-23T15:33:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:33:42","slug":"reader-request-french-expressions-using-tomber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/reader-request-french-expressions-using-tomber\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader Request: French Expressions Using “Tomber”"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of our readers wrote in and mentioned hearing the following phrase:\u00a0\u00a0son embauche \u00e9tait tomb\u00e9e \u00e0 pic.\u00a0<\/i>Many French learners might find this expression confusing without more context. If\u00a0son embauche<\/em> refers to someone’s job, would using the verb “to fall” (tomber)\u00a0<\/em>necessarily\u00a0mean something bad happened at that person’s place of employment?<\/p>\n

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Idioms can be tricky in general because understanding them requires\u00a0cultural, and not just linguistic, knowledge. French idioms using\u00a0tomber\u00a0<\/em>can be particularly tricky for English speakers because, in English, “to fall” can have a somewhat negative connotation and we simply do not have many idioms using this verb (how many can you think of besides “falling in love”?). In French, however, it’s a different story:\u00a0tomber\u00a0<\/em>is used in many common idioms and has a neutral connotation.<\/p>\n

To get back to the previous example:\u00a0a\u00a0pic\u00a0<\/em>is the French word for either the peak (of a mountain, for example) or for a tool (like the pick-ax). However, the word in this expression plays on a game called\u00a0le jeu de paume.\u00a0<\/em>This game dates back nearly 300 years and was a precursor to tennis. In this game, you could score points at a particular moment by hitting a very precise part of the court; this was called\u00a0la chasse pic.\u00a0<\/em>From this game,\u00a0the word\u00a0pic\u00a0<\/em>in this expression comes to mean “a precise point or moment in time.”<\/p>\n

Thus, the expression\u00a0tomber \u00e0 pic\u00a0<\/em>means to arrive or happen just at the right time.\u00a0Son embauche \u00e9tait tomb\u00e9e \u00e0 pic\u00a0<\/em>means that s\/he found his\/her job at just the right time.<\/p>\n

Here are some other common idioms\u00a0that use the verb\u00a0tomber:<\/em><\/p>\n

tomber dans les pommes —\u00a0<\/em>to faint<\/p>\n

tomber<\/em> au poil\/pile poil —\u00a0<\/em>to happen at the perfect\/right time<\/p>\n

tomber sur un bec —\u00a0<\/em>to hit a snag<\/p>\n

laisser tomber —\u00a0<\/em>to let (something) go<\/p>\n

tomber dans le panneau —\u00a0<\/em>to fall in the trap; to be gullible<\/p>\n

tomber des nues —\u00a0<\/em>to be flabbergasted<\/p>\n

tomber du ciel —\u00a0<\/em>like tomber \u00e0 pic<\/em>, this means to happen at the right moment<\/p>\n

mal tomber —\u00a0<\/i>to occur at the wrong time; to be unlucky<\/p>\n

tomber enceinte —\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0to get pregnant<\/p>\n

tomber amoureux\/amoureuse —\u00a0<\/em>to fall in love<\/p>\n

Readers: Can you think of any other French expressions that use the verb\u00a0tomber<\/em>? What about English expressions that use the verb “to fall”? Leave your ideas in the comments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

One of our readers wrote in and mentioned hearing the following phrase:\u00a0\u00a0son embauche \u00e9tait tomb\u00e9e \u00e0 pic.\u00a0Many French learners might find this expression confusing without more context. If\u00a0son embauche refers to someone’s job, would using the verb “to fall” (tomber)\u00a0necessarily\u00a0mean something bad happened at that person’s place of employment? Idioms can be tricky in general…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":28768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22157","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28769,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22157\/revisions\/28769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}