{"id":25863,"date":"2017-01-16T15:22:12","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T14:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=25863"},"modified":"2018-03-23T14:25:41","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T13:25:41","slug":"5-french-idioms-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/5-french-idioms-you-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"5 French Idioms You Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Idioms (les idiotismes, m.<\/em>)\u00a0are expressions that don’t necessarily make sense literally, but have a well known meaning to native speakers. In order to be able to understand a language’s idioms, therefore, you can’t just know\u00a0the exact definition of a word but you must also understand the social and cultural meaning behind\u00a0that word. It is also nearly impossible to perfectly translate.<\/p>\n

Here are some common\u00a0idiotismes<\/em>\u00a0that you may come across in French:<\/p>\n

Appeler un chat un chat<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Literal meaning: “To call a cat a cat”<\/p>\n

Actual meaning: In English, we would use another idiomatic expression “calling a spade a spade.” This means that you call something out for what you see it as.<\/p>\n

Example: “Je l’ai vu! Il faut appeler un chat un chat.”\u00a0<\/em>(I saw it! I’m just telling it as it is.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Avoir la gueule de bois<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Literal meaning: “To have a mouth of wood”<\/p>\n

Actual meaning: This just means to have a hangover.<\/p>\n

Example:\u00a0Je suis sortie hier soir et je me suis lev\u00e9e ce matin avec\u00a0une gueule de bois grave.\u00a0<\/em>(I went out last night and I woke up this morning with a serious hangover.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00catre \u00e0 l’ouest<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Literal meaning: “To be in the west”<\/p>\n

Actual meaning: To be out of it or to be crazy\/out of touch with reality.<\/p>\n

Example:\u00a0Il est compl\u00e8tement \u00e0 l’ouest, ce mec!\u00a0<\/em>(This guy is totally out of it!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Avoir un poil dans la main<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Literal meaning: “To have a hair in the hand”<\/p>\n

Actual meaning: To be very lazy, in fact so lazy that they watched a hair grow in the palm of their hand!<\/p>\n

Example:\u00a0Il dort tous les jours jusqu’\u00e0 midi. Il a vraiment un poil dans la main.\u00a0<\/em>(He sleeps every day until noon. He’s really lazy!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Donner un coup de main<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Literal meaning: “To give a a hit of the hand”<\/p>\n

Actual meaning: To give a helping hand. This idiom can be especially confusing because, to someone who is not native, it can sound almost threatening, although all it means is to help someone out!<\/p>\n

Example:\u00a0Elle est tellement gentille. Elle me donne toujours un coup de main sans que je demande.\u00a0<\/em>(She is so nice. She always helps me out even without asking.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Idioms (les idiotismes, m.)\u00a0are expressions that don’t necessarily make sense literally, but have a well known meaning to native speakers. In order to be able to understand a language’s idioms, therefore, you can’t just know\u00a0the exact definition of a word but you must also understand the social and cultural meaning behind\u00a0that word. It is also…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[284,408535,351,432,35178],"class_list":["post-25863","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-free-french-lessons","tag-free-french-vocabulary","tag-french-idioms","tag-french-vocabulary","tag-idiomatic-expressions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25863","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=25863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29116,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25863\/revisions\/29116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}