{"id":30994,"date":"2019-01-09T19:28:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T18:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=30994"},"modified":"2019-01-10T18:58:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T17:58:29","slug":"a-game-of-cat-and-mouse-dancing-mice-expression-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/a-game-of-cat-and-mouse-dancing-mice-expression-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"A Game Of Cat And Mouse – Dancing Mice Expression In French"},"content":{"rendered":"

As 2019 begins and les vacances <\/strong>(vacation) come to an end, there’s a special kind of lethargy au bureau<\/strong><\/a> (at the office), especially when les chefs<\/strong> (the bosses) aren’t finished with their long holidays.<\/p>\n

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Image<\/a> from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s no shortage of fun expressions that throw French learners for a loop<\/a>. The balance between trying to figure out why something doesn’t make sense and knowing the limits of votre vocabulaire<\/strong><\/a> (your vocabulary) make the whole process rather long and difficult.<\/p>\n

All this overthinking is one of the hardest parts of language learning, but it can still sometimes be a little fun.<\/p>\n

With the lull of the holiday and les patrons<\/strong><\/a> (the bosses) still being absent, office rules become more relaxed. When I mentioned this to un coll\u00e8gue<\/strong> (a coworker), they responded with this:<\/p>\n

Quand le chat n’est pas l\u00e0, les souris dansent !<\/strong>
\nWhen the cat isn’t there, the mice dance!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had never heard l’expression<\/strong><\/a> before and was a bit confused when mon coll\u00e8gue<\/strong> said it. Even if it’s easy enough to understand as un anglophone<\/strong> (an English speaker), thinking about mice dancing left me somewhat lost. Seeing my confusion mon coll\u00e8gue<\/strong> explained it further:<\/p>\n

Bah c’est une expression fran\u00e7aise ! \u00c7a veut dire que les gens ne suivent pas les r\u00e8gles quand l\u2019autorit\u00e9 n’est plus l\u00e0 !<\/strong>
\nWell It’s a French expression! It means that people don’t follow the rules when the authority is no longer there!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It all instantly made sense and we both shared a laugh over the truth behind the saying. I was curious about l’origine de l’expression<\/strong> (the origin of the expression) though and decided to look it up when I had the chance.<\/p>\n

l’orgine<\/a> exacte<\/strong>, like many old proverbs and sayings, is mostly unknown, but similar versions of l’expression<\/strong><\/a> can be found around Europe as early as the 13th century. It’s not exactly the same, but easy to see the same cat and mouse story:<\/p>\n

L\u00e0 o\u00f9 le chat n’est, souris s’y r\u00e9v\u00e8le.<\/strong>
\nThere where the cat is not, mice reveal themselves.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Existing all over Europe so long ago also means that it’s easy to find a similar expression en anglais<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

When the cats away the mice will play!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Going forward in time several centuries there is another example from an 18th century book:<\/p>\n

Quand le chat est hors de la maison, les souris dansent sous la table.<\/strong>
\nWhen the cat is outside the house, the mice dance under the table<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then in the 19th Century, l’\u00e9crivain<\/strong><\/a> (the writer) Balzac<\/em> then used a rather similar expression in his novel, Eug\u00e9nie Grandet<\/em>, bringing the saying much closer to our modern ears:<\/p>\n

Quand le chat court sur les toits, les souris dansent sur les planchers.<\/strong>
\nWhen the cat runs on the roof, the mice dance on the floor.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the next time you need to explain why the rules have relaxed while work is slow and the boss is out, remember to say:<\/p>\n

Quand le chat n’est pas l\u00e0, les souris dansent !
\n<\/strong>When the cat isn’t there, the mice dance!<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

As 2019 begins and les vacances (vacation) come to an end, there’s a special kind of lethargy au bureau (at the office), especially when les chefs (the bosses) aren’t finished with their long holidays. There’s no shortage of fun expressions that throw French learners for a loop. The balance between trying to figure out why…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":30995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30994","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t