{"id":31258,"date":"2019-03-28T20:27:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T19:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=31258"},"modified":"2019-03-28T20:27:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T19:27:34","slug":"long-arms-to-reach-farther-powerful-and-influential-french-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/long-arms-to-reach-farther-powerful-and-influential-french-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Arms To Reach Farther &#8211; Powerful And Influential French Expression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having long arms won&#8217;t help you learn French faster, but being able to say <em><strong>avoir le bras long<\/strong> <\/em>will help you learn a new <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/a-game-of-cat-and-mouse-dancing-mice-expression-in-french\/\">expression<\/a>!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31259\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31259\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31259\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/arms-long-expression-influence-french-france.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/arms-long-expression-influence-french-france.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/arms-long-expression-influence-french-france-350x233.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-31259\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/model-arms-raised-female-girl-1208326\/\">Image<\/a> from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>La semaine derni\u00e8re<\/strong> (last week), I shared a story about learning how to use a common sarcastic expression, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/as-long-as-your-arm-exaggerating-in-french\/\"><em><strong>long comme le bras<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (as long as your arm):<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"1CLEU1GWVh\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/as-long-as-your-arm-exaggerating-in-french\/\">As Long As Your Arm &#8211; Exaggerating In French<\/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;As Long As Your Arm &#8211; Exaggerating In French&#8221; &#8212; French Language Blog\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/as-long-as-your-arm-exaggerating-in-french\/embed\/#?secret=DlbXMu4zGZ#?secret=1CLEU1GWVh\" data-secret=\"1CLEU1GWVh\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While trying to find the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/the-origin-of-lordinateur-computers-in-french\/\"><strong>l&#8217;origin<\/strong><\/a> (the origin) of the long armed saying, I found another interesting idiom that involves <em><strong>le bras<\/strong> <\/em>I had never heard before:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Avoir le bras long<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>To have the long arm<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, my first thought was that I had made <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/learning-three-new-words-from-one-mistake\/\"><strong>une faute<\/strong><\/a> (a mistake) and incorrectly learned <strong>l&#8217;expression<\/strong> (the expression)!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/the-fortunate-word-i-never-remember-how-to-spell-in-french\/\"><strong>Heureusement<\/strong><\/a> (fortunately), the truth was that it&#8217;s another new expression I needed to learn.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Avoir le bras long<\/strong> <\/em>means <em>to have influence<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/cest-du-peu-au-jus-french-expression-for-counting-down\/\"><strong>L&#8217;expression<\/strong><\/a> is used for someone who has an extensive network of good contacts, someone who knows the right people to get things moving. It&#8217;s used for someone who is <strong>influent<\/strong> (influential) and has <strong>un bon carnet d\u2019adresses<\/strong> (a good address book).<\/p>\n<p>Most origin stories I could find take the saying<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/le-second-degre-sarcasm-in-french\/\"><strong> au premier degr\u00e9<\/strong><\/a> (literally) and cite the image of two people, one with long arms the other with short. The who who has long arms is going to be able to reach more things and be able to get more done. It&#8217;s a short hop from there to the idea of being more influential and being connected.<\/p>\n<p>A very interesting note I found in a lot of definitions and explanations involving <strong>le bras long<\/strong> were how there is a difference depending on if you use the singular or plural forms. The general rule is that <strong>au singulier<\/strong> (in the singular form) <em><strong>le bras<\/strong> <\/em>signifies <em>power<\/em> and <em>force<\/em> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/finding-les-toilettes-in-french\/\"><strong>au pluriel<\/strong><\/a> (in the plural form) <em>inaction<\/em> and <em>weakness<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Other than <em><strong>avoir le bras long<\/strong><\/em>, an example that jumps out is:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Bras de fer<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Power struggle or arm wrestling (literally iron arm)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Whether it&#8217;s welcoming someone new <strong>aux bras ouverts<\/strong> (with open arms) or <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/as-long-as-your-arm-exaggerating-in-french\/\">exaggerating<\/a> just how big of a fish was on the other end of the line, be sure to make sure to use the right arm expression to not be left confused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/arms-long-expression-influence-french-france-350x233.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\/03\/arms-long-expression-influence-french-france-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/arms-long-expression-influence-french-france.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Having long arms won&#8217;t help you learn French faster, but being able to say avoir le bras long will help you learn a new expression! La semaine derni\u00e8re (last week), I shared a story about learning how to use a common sarcastic expression, long comme le bras (as long as your arm): As Long As&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/long-arms-to-reach-farther-powerful-and-influential-french-expression\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":31259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31258","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\/31258","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=31258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}