{"id":31153,"date":"2019-02-21T20:28:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T19:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=31153"},"modified":"2019-02-21T20:28:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T19:28:36","slug":"cest-du-peu-au-jus-french-expression-for-counting-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/cest-du-peu-au-jus-french-expression-for-counting-down\/","title":{"rendered":"C&#8217;est Du Peu Au Jus &#8211; French Expression For Counting Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Les <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/its-in-the-pocket-fun-french-expressions-with-la-poche\/\">expressions<\/a> fran\u00e7aises<\/strong> (French expressions) have a funny way of sneaking into conversations and making what should be a simple sentence suddenly impossible to understand. It can feel strange to have no problem recognizing every word, but struggle to find any meaning in how they are put together!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31154\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31154\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31154\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/juice-jus-french-expression.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/juice-jus-french-expression.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/juice-jus-french-expression-350x196.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-31154\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/fr\/smoothies-jus-de-fruits-fruit-m%C3%BBrs-2253430\/\">Image<\/a> from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I was surprised when <strong>mon coll\u00e8gue<\/strong> (my coworker) used an expression with the word <em><strong>jus (juice)<\/strong><\/em>, <strong>il y a quelques mois<\/strong> (a few months ago):<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"u7Ja8fTlLv\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/staying-in-the-juice-useful-french-expressions\/\">Staying In The Juice &#8211; Useful French Expressions<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Staying In The Juice &#8211; Useful French Expressions&#8221; &#8212; French Language Blog\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/staying-in-the-juice-useful-french-expressions\/embed\/#?secret=umJD1ITqWv#?secret=u7Ja8fTlLv\" data-secret=\"u7Ja8fTlLv\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After dealing with the learning about how<strong> l&#8217;expression<\/strong> is used and why <em><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/staying-in-the-juice-useful-french-expressions\/\"><strong>se tenir au jus<\/strong><\/a><\/em> came to mean <em>to keep someone in the loop<\/em>, I thought I was done with being confused by the fruity word.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cependant<\/strong> (however), I recently stumbled across another expression that uses <em><strong>le jus<\/strong><\/em>, but for something entirely different. The lesson suddenly came while talking about <strong>le travail<\/strong> (work) with <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/la-newsletter-mixing-up-les-genres-in-french\/\"><strong>mon patron<\/strong><\/a> (my boss):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Tu as termin\u00e9 le truc dont je t&#8217;ai parl\u00e9 ?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Pas encore.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Il faut pas tarder. C&#8217;est du peu au jus.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Merci ! Dis-moi s&#8217;il y a plus d&#8217;information.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Tu ne m&#8217;as pas compris&#8230; Il nous reste peu de temps.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Ah, d&#8217;accord ! Je le ferai aujourd&#8217;hui alors !<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Merci.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Have finished the thing I talked to you about?<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Not yet.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Don&#8217;t put it off. There&#8217;s not a lot of time before it ends.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Thanks! Let me know if there&#8217;s any more information.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>You didn&#8217;t understand me&#8230; We don&#8217;t have a lot of time.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Ah, alright! I&#8217;ll do it today then!<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Thanks.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It was easy to clear up, but my initial confusion came from misunderstanding <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/a-game-of-cat-and-mouse-dancing-mice-expression-in-french\/\"><strong>l&#8217;expression<\/strong><\/a>. When <strong>mon patron<\/strong> first used it, I immediately thought of <em><strong>se tenir au jus<\/strong> <\/em>and it kind of made sense in the context of our conversation. My mistake was thinking of it like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Il faut pas tarder. Je te tiens au jus.<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Don&#8217;t put it off. I&#8217;ll keep you updated.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When I realized I had <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/learning-voting-vocabulary-with-a-ballot-mistake\/\">made a mistake<\/a> and tried to figure out what <strong>mon patron<\/strong> meant, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/lost-in-the-deep-blue-french-translating-le-bleu-lumiere\/\">directly translating<\/a><strong> l&#8217;expression<\/strong> didn&#8217;t help at all either.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>C&#8217;est &#8216;du peu au jus.<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>It&#8217;s a little in juice.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Heureusement<\/strong> (luckily), it was quickly cleared up and I could understand the real meaning of<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/a-household-white-wolf-idioms-in-french\/\"><strong> l&#8217;expression<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>C&#8217;est du peu au jus.<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>There&#8217;s not a lot of time before it ends.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I wanted to <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/the-origin-of-lordinateur-computers-in-french\/\">learn more<\/a> about <strong>cette nouvelle expression<\/strong> (this new expression) and decided to find out where it comes from and why it uses <em><strong>le jus<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out, <em><strong>c&#8217;est du peu au jus<\/strong><\/em> originates in military slang. People would use it as a way to counting down until they finished their service and it was usually combined with a numbe:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Quatre au jus<\/strong> &#8211; Four days until the end of one&#8217;s military service<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The most famous of these being:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Z\u00e9ro au jus<\/strong> &#8211; The end of one&#8217;s military service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em><strong>Le jus<\/strong><\/em> in the expression refers to <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/a-cup-of-coffee-un-cafe-sil-vous-plait\/\"><strong>le caf\u00e9<\/strong><\/a> (coffee), which refers to breakfast, which refers to <strong>un jour<\/strong> (a day).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Mais le jus et le caf\u00e9 sont deux choses diff\u00e9rentes&#8230;<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>But juice and coffee two different things&#8230;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Le jus in the expression actually refers to <strong>le jus de chique<\/strong> (chewing tabacco) or <strong>le jus de chausette<\/strong> (sock juice, slang for bad coffee). The course black look of <em><strong>ces jus<\/strong> <\/em>brings up thoughts of the bad <strong>caf\u00e9<\/strong> you&#8217;re likely to find in a barracks.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, the conversation was a fun way to learn how <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-raisin-juice-dried-grapes-and-false-friends\/\"><em><strong>le jus<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>can be used to mean something entirely new. It was also an important lesson in avoiding <em>sock juice<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"196\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/juice-jus-french-expression-350x196.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/juice-jus-french-expression-350x196.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/juice-jus-french-expression.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Les expressions fran\u00e7aises (French expressions) have a funny way of sneaking into conversations and making what should be a simple sentence suddenly impossible to understand. It can feel strange to have no problem recognizing every word, but struggle to find any meaning in how they are put together! I was surprised when mon coll\u00e8gue (my&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/cest-du-peu-au-jus-french-expression-for-counting-down\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":31154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31153","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\/31153","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\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}