{"id":24321,"date":"2016-08-23T05:25:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T03:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=24321"},"modified":"2020-03-08T19:09:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T18:09:58","slug":"oh-la-barbe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/oh-la-barbe\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh la barbe!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nous avons re\u00e7u la visite de mes beaux-parents et de notre tante r\u00e9cemment. (We recently had a visit from my in-laws and our aunt.<\/em>)\u00a0 Ne me demandez pas comment (Don’t ask me how\/why<\/em>) but somehow we ended up talking about beards!<\/p>\n

\"Oh

Oh la barbe \/ I am so bored! \ud83d\ude09<\/p><\/div>\n

French has many great expressions that incorporate the word \u201cbarbe<\/em>\u201d or that incorporate beards\/facial hair in some way. One of my favorites is the title of this week\u2019s blog. The expression \u201cla barbe<\/em>\u201d (or \u201coh la barbe\u201d<\/em>) is a classic French expression of \u2013 depending on your tone and the context \u2013 everything from boredom to full on disgust! It can be translated as \u201chow boring\u201d to \u201cenough already!\u201d. It even has its own gesture (if you are talking to your French friends and you see one of them rubbing their cheek with the outside of their fingers . . . beware!).<\/p>\n

Here are some other useful related expressions:<\/p>\n

Au nez et \u00e0 la barbe<\/em> de quelqu\u2019un <\/em>\/ at the nose and beard of someone \u2013 to do something right in front of them that you simply don\u2019t care if they see . . . even if it might be annoying or bad for them<\/p>\n

Parler dans sa barbe<\/em> \/ to talk in one\u2019s beard \u2013 means to talk under one\u2019s breath, to grumble or speak ill of someone so they can\u2019t hear it<\/p>\n

Rire dans sa barbe<\/em> \/ to laugh in one\u2019s beard \u2013 like above, to mock or make fun of someone behind their back or out of earshot of them<\/p>\n

And some other expressions you might encounter:<\/p>\n

\u201cLa barbe ne fait pas le philosophe\u201d <\/em>\/ The beard doesn\u2019t make the philosopher. (Similarly \u201cL\u2019habit ne fait pas le moine\u201d<\/em> \/ The clothes don\u2019t make the monk)<\/p>\n

\u201cSi la barbe suffisait \u00e0 la sagesse, un bouc voudrait Platon.\u201d <\/em>\/ If a beard where all it took to be wise, a goat would equal Plato.<\/p>\n

And finally, here\u2019s a little comptine <\/em><\/a>(nursery rhyme) that you can sing and play with little kids next time you\u2019re in France.<\/p>\n